The Songs of Freedom

Here is a link if you would like to hear the songs (Please take a listen. You won’t regret it!!)

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/african_american_history_slavery_and_civil_rights_songs.html

While reading the autobiography of Anne Moody, especially during the movement phase of her life, I constantly ran into the mentioning of freedom songs. These songs were commonly sung, as stated in her book, during protests, at the commencement of mass meetings, and at their ends. She would relate, at times, that the singing of these songs would go on for a duration of hours on end. Seeing that she took time to mention these songs, I concluded that they ran deeper in significance than just something to get the crowd pumped up or to signal the beginning and end of a meeting. They represented and spoke of a long history of struggle amongst African Americans. They also spoke of hope for a better future and were a source of strength for African-Americans and a way to lament their plight.

Freedom songs did not randomly come about during the civil rights movement. They were adaptations of the sorrowful songs sung by African-Americans during the time of slavery. These songs were used as a coping mechanism that helped slaves endure the pain and suffering of slavery. However, these songs were not always ones of sorrow; they were oftentimes, songs of strategy, with lyrics that encoded the pathway to freedom and whose decryption could only be achieved by slaves. One such song is entitled Wade in the Water. The lyrics are as follows:

           

Chorus: Wade in the Water, wade in the water children.

Wade in the Water. God's gonna trouble the water.

Who are those children all dressed in Red?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones that Moses led.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in White?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones of the Israelites.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in Blue?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones that made it through.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Harriet Tubman, a prominent figure of the Underground Railroad, would use this song to signal to runaway slaves to get off the trail and into the water so that slavecatchers’ dogs couldn’t detect their scent. This method of escape is synonymous with the Israelites’ journey to freedom through the Red Sea, which is why it is referred to in the song. Slaves identified with the Israelites of the Bible, who were a people oppressed by a corrupt and evil power just as they were themselves. The similarities between the Israelites plight and their own assured them that God was on their side and gave them hope for freedom.

The freedom songs of the Civil Rights Movement are a direct result of the sorrowful songs heard frequently from the plantations of slavery. In conclusion, freedom songs are more than a nice harmony of lyric, beat, and rhythm . as stated by Martin Luther King Jr., “the freedom songs are the soul of the movement. They are more than just incantations of clever phrases designed to invigorate a campaign; they are as old as the history of the Negro in America. They are adaptations of the songs the slaves sang — the sorrow songs, the shouts for joy, the battle hymns and the anthems of our movement. I have heard people talk of their beat and rhythm, but we in the movement are as inspired by their words. 'Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom' is a sentence that needs no music to make its point. We sing the freedom songs today for the same reason the slaves sang them, because we too are in bondage and the songs add hope to our determination that 'We shall overcome, Black and white together, We shall overcome someday.

Here are some links if you would like to hear the songs (Please take a listen. You won’t regret it!!)

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/african_american_history_slavery_and_civil_rights_songs.html

Sources:

http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/music2.cfm

http://www.crmvet.org/info/fsongs.htm

Why are the black people so mad?

Recently we have all been hearing about the controversy surrounding the Michael Brown case in the news. African-Americans have been rallying around the murder of this young man and using it as a platform to divulge frustrations that have been festering within the souls of black people for some time now. One issue that arises is that of police brutality. Was this young man, on the verge of beginning a new chapter of his life, killed only because of the color of his skin and the stereotypes that society has attached to it? The possibility of this question being answered in the affirmative is a huge reason for why the black people are so mad.

The event is too reminiscent of that time where the murder of African-American men, or rather, African-Americans in general, was carried out without the slightest fear of punishment. The murder of African-Americans was seen almost as a sport, a popular pastime, exercised by white southerners that was socially and, at times, legally sanctioned. Often times these murders were carried out by police officers, people who were sworn to protect the public, but, instead, in the black community, were the most eminent menaces. This reminiscent quality of the Micheal Brown case is a part of the reason why black people are so mad. However,  the rage runs even deeper than this.

The Grammy winning artist, Lauryn Hill, relates the extensive depth of this rage and its origins in a song that she wrote in reaction to Michael Brown. The song is entitled, “Black Rage” and is, ironically, set to the tune of The Sound of Music’s “My favorite things.

Some of the lyrics are as follows:

          Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person


Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens


Black human packages tied up in strings...


Black rage is founded on draining and draining


Threatening your freedom to stop your complaining…

Then call you mad for complaining,complaining...


Black rage is founded on blocking the truth


Murder and crime, compromise and distortion


Sacrifice, sacrifice Who makes this fortune?...


Black rage is founded on these kinds of things...


Victims of violence both pysche and body


Life out of context is living unGodly
…

Black rage is founded on denial of self


Black human packages tied in subsistence


Having to justify very existence


Try if you must but you can't have my soul


Black rage is made by unGodly control

In these lyrics, Hill alludes to slavery, an institution that drained the life out of black bodies and forever imprinted upon their psyche a feeling of inferiority. She speaks of black activism, or protest, which she alludes to as complaining and the threats used to stop it. She speaks finally of the unGodly control of rascist whites that ultimately is the foundation of black rage. The song is a panorama of the pains African Americans have had to endure throughout history and provides an extensive answer to the question  “Why the black people are so mad?”

The black people are so mad because in Michael Brown’s case they see the ghosts of a past where African-Americans were not treated like human beings, where they were denied equal protection under the law, and even unjustly murdered by the law. They see a terrible foreboding in his death, one that threatens a reversion to the past. In other words, they see history threatening to repeat itself. This, understandably, enrages black people because isn’t this supposed to be “post-racial” America?

If you would like to listen to the song (I would suggest it) here is the link:

http://ambrosiaforheads.com/2014/08/lauryn-hill-releases-a-chilling-dedication-to-michael-brown-audio/

The Modern Poll Tax

One of the most striking moments in the course was the administration of the Alabama Voter Registration test. We were told the test aimed at voter suppression rather than voter registration. I feel I can confidently assume that no one in our class of thirty some students passed the test. It went far beyond what one might characterize as an attempt to ensure informed electorate. Though we like to imagine that civil rights issues are no longer matters of legislation, that is to say the problems are now confined to private thoughts and not matters of law, there are still attempts to encroach upon and limit the rights of citizens to participate in the most basic forms of democracy. There are still those who would eliminate some members of society from roles in the political process. The new target demographic is not limited to the black community, though they do comprise a section of it. The group of "undesirables" that some seek to eliminate from the political process is now the poor. The mechanism for this suppression comes in the form of Voter ID laws. These laws, though nominally an attempt to ensure that voter fraud is not committed, suppress the votes of the poor. Minorities are often a high percentage of this group. These laws range from those that require a full photo ID, one of the harshest measures, to requesting some form of identification(ProPublica). States which require full photo IDs are considered some of the harshest because those licenses often acquire money to obtain. Things like driver's licenses, though unremarkable to some, are a chore for those without financial flexibility to obtain(ACLU: Frank v. Walker). This problem, affects more than just African Americans it affects the American poor as a whole It is interesting to note that the battleground of civil rights has perhaps shifted from race to poverty. That is not to say that race is no longer a significant factor or that the issues are not intertwined, simply that race may no longer be the dominant factor. The use of voter ID laws is a cure that is worse than the disease. A nominal attempt to ensure voting security has far greater repercussions for voter repression. Eric Holder has argued that these measures can be compared to the poll taxes of the Jim Crow south (ProPublica). The recent voter ID legislation reveals that our position of civil rights can indeed be regressive. Our society must maintain a perpetual Civil Rights Movement, in which the populous is on guard against encroachments upon the rights of all citizens. 

Sources: 

1)ProPublica: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws 

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-about-voter-id-laws

2)ACLU: Frank v. Walker 

https://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/frank-v-walker-fighting-voter-suppression-wisconsin

3)NCLS: Voter Identification Requirements 

http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx

The Things Lost to People Who Passed

     The passing of black Americans as white is a significant, yet often understudied, part of American history. Many African Americans during the Civil Rights Era escaped the effects of segregation by using their light skin colors to define themselves. Allyson Hobbs, a history professor at Stanford, conducted research on this "passing" for ten years. She wrote a book (published last week) entitled A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, which contains personal stories of people who escaped their black identities. Instead of focusing on the positive impacts of African Americans who chose to pass as white, she examined the difficulties which these people experienced. She sums up her book by stating, "To write a history of passing is to write a history of loss."
     Professor Hobbs addresses the most intense difficulties faced by these "passing people," such as the loss of family, personal identity, and community. Once a decision was made to live the life of a white person, returning back to one's African American family brought the challenge of returning to a former life. One of the stories which Hobbs relays in her book is about light-skinned Elsie Roxborough, who moved to New York City to live as a white woman. In the end, Elsie committed suicide because her father was angry about her decision.
     As evidenced by Elsie, psychological difficulties could be extremely intense. When I try to imagine living my life with a false identity, I am overtaken with immediate internal conflict. The idea of giving up my past for the sake of societal inequalities initiates stressful contemplation. In addition, Hobbs addresses the importance of trusting the people who know the real you. These people must keep your secret. It pains me to think that after some people officially "passed," there was little chance of turning back. How does one begin a totally knew life, and grapple with the fact that he/she may never see loved ones again?
     Before hearing a brief segment on A Chosen Exile on NPR yesterday, I always considered light-skinned African Americans who used to pass as white as being fortunate. It was comforting to know that some of these mistreated people were able to escape the hardships that black Americans faced. While I realize that many of these people did have more successful lives after their choice to alter their identities, I was struck by the overwhelming hardships which I neglected to consider. I am glad to live in a society today where people are able to take more pride in their heritages and identities. Luckily America today is more accepting and proud of its' diversity, and racial passing is now history.
    

http://www.npr.org/codeswitch/2014/10/07/354310370/a-chosen-exile-black-people-passing-in-white-America

Thoughts on the Constitutionality of the Southern Manifesto

I was intrigued by some of the arguments made in the Southern Manifesto, the document that  Professor Huebner lectured about last week. I was primarily interested in the argument that segregation was simply the regulation of eduction and therefore left to the states by the 10th amendment. I have often heard the argument that civil rights legislation and federal integration was an overreach of national authority. However, it would appear to me that federal overreach into education would be constitutional if it were created to uphold ciivl rights. Regardless of how southern elites might try to frame the debate, it would appear that federal oversight is permissible. In his dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, Justice Harlan argued that segregation was a "badge of slavery" and as such could be abolished by the 13th Amendment. Additionally, the 14th Amendment which was created to protect the "privileges and immunities" of citizens of the United States and ensures "equal protection" under the law, contains a clause which says that "Congress shall have the power to enforce this amendment through appropriate legislation". Thus, it would appear at least to me, even if one does see integration as the regulation of education, a matter normally left to the states, the presence of segregation constitutes a badge of slavery that Congress is allowed to regulate and exterminate. It is especially interesting to me to note how many senators and congressman from the south signed this manifesto. Following the rise of the New Deal most of the south was part of FDR's New Deal coalition. The New Deal greatly expanded the role of the federal government in the lives ordinary citizens and undercut state authority. This expanded legislation was often welcomed by southern states who were anxious to receive funds and support during the great depression. I believe at the time this manifesto was issued most of the south was still part of the Democratic Party. Thus, though many supporters of the manifesto had argued that government expansion was proper and necessary during the New Deal, they recoiled from it when confronted with integration. This appears to be another instance of when limited government is espoused by individuals who in reality are opposed to government contrary to their beliefs. These senators and congressmen likely would have happily accepted the New Deal funding regardless of their thoughts on federalism but integration to them was an abomination that they resisted on the spurious grounds that it was a federal overreach.

How Far Have We Come?

The March on Washington and the “I Have A Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most (if not the most) famous event concerning civil rights. That is what our history books tell us, anyway. “And then they all lived happily every after.” Was that the end?

Civil rights are the freedoms and rights that a person has as a member of a community, state, or nation. In the U.S., these rights are guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution and acts of Congress.

Since the 1960’s, there have been many laws passed to guarantee civil rights to all Americans, but the battle continues. In modern day America, not only blacks, but many other groups - Hispanics, Asian-Americans, the disabled, women, homosexuals, homeless and other minorities – are also fighting the civil rights battle.

While many of these groups, especially blacks, have made many great strides forward, there is still much work to be done. There are three problem areas that a Scholastic article discusses, which I will briefly mention on this blog - housing, education, and the political ground – where African-Americans are still not treated as equally as other Americans.

1)    Housing

Millions of Americans today live in insufficient, substandard homes or have no housing at all. This is because they either cannot afford decent housing, or they are kept out because of prejudice/discrimination. Many African-Americans fit into one or both of these categories.

The housing that poor people can afford is more often than not in awful condition. The property has been neglected, repairs have not been made, and sometimes other basic things/needs are not provided or met; and often times fighting the landlord or whoever owns the building is pointless, or leads to even more issues.

A decent population of African-Americans can afford better accommodation, but are alienated from such places because of the color of their skin – which by the way is against the law if you haven’t heard! Yet people have found ways to bend the law, like realtors “forgetting” to show blacks houses in white neighborhoods, or “just happening” to pick the white applicant instead because of their own personal bigotry. 

What is the solution?

2) Education

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional. It is against the law to reject a student to a school because of his/her race; however, in some parts of the United States, schools are still segregated, by circumstance. Generally speaking, most children go to school that is near to where they live. Blacks and whites still tend to live apart even today, thus they learn apart in different schools as well. The same issues I discussed above that blacks face with housing, they face in education as well. Usually if it is a poor neighborhood, the public school nearby will also be poor. The children who go to private, or well-funded schools have access to the latest technology, textbooks, and nice facilities for learning and physical education/fitness. Yet kids in inner city schools have smaller budgets and help thus they have to make things work with outdated books, old equipment, and few nice programs, technology, and facilities.

Even in schools in which both blacks and whites attend, there is still segregation. (I would personally argue some of the reason is self-segregation). White kids tend to hang out with white kids and black kids tend to hang out with black kids.

Do you see this playing out at Rhodes? Your high school? If not, why do you think that did not happen- how can it be fixed?

3) Government

After more than 200 years of hard work and struggle, African-Americans are getting closer to having large, true representation in the House of Representatives. (African-Americans are 9 percent of the House). Increasing numbers of blacks are governors, mayors, and local officials. Blacks are making their presence known and felt through the voting booths. Politicians (as we somewhat discussed in class) try to acquire their support when election time comes around.

There is no qualm that blacks have made significant progress since the year 1963; however, black leaders tell us that issues still persist.

I love what Scholastic writes,

“ So what comes next? Should we be satisfied with the progress already made? Or should AMERICANS — black and white together — work harder to achieve the 1963 march's goals of jobs, justice, and peace?”

Also this is just my own personal thing – I don’t like it how people refer to people as white, black, “nigga”, Asian, whatever – we are all Americans. We see things in the news like “Black teen shoots teacher.” Is that necessary? And of course this is on all sides, but we are ALL Americans, regardless of the color of our skin and we need to start acting like it and treating everyone as such.

Inclusion in the American "Melting Pot"

I am currently taking Dr. Perry’s Race and Ethnicity in American Society course, and we have recently begun discussing the idea of America being a “melting pot”. This concept has always been idealized for as long as I have been exposed to it, presented as something our nation should strive for.The “melting pot” is a glorified assimilation, with all different groups being thrown in, melted down into a uniform blob of culture and identity. This homogeneous culture sounds like it could be positive in terms of a united nation, but does everyone get invited into this pot?

In Steven Steinberg’s article “The Melting Pot and the Color Line” he discusses how more and more groups of people are being allowed to identify themselves as “white”, the group that is at the top of society’s racial hierarchy. People of European, Latin American, and even Asian descent are being more widely accepted as being superior status, yet the African American community is continued to be excluded from this “pot”. The people that built our country by force, who have roots deeper than any of these other groups, are continuing to be denied acceptance, while brand new immigrants who quickly begin to assimilate are welcomed with open arms.

Why is it that they are still treated this way? The Civil Rights Movement and the progress made during this era was supposed to mend race relations, however this struggle continues. There is still a large disparity between opportunities for white and black people, yet this difference is much smaller between whites and other races. While the times are much better in comparison than they were during the days of Jim Crow, we do a disservice to the oppressed groups by making this comparison because there is still so much room for improvement.

So how might we reframe this idea of the American “melting pot” that doesn’t rid people of their cultural individuality but instead welcomes these differences from all different races, including African Americans? As cheesy as it sounds, I like to think of it less as a uniform, melted blob and more of a gumbo, with each ingredient as a distinct part but all are needed to make it taste good.We need to find a way to make the melting pot less of losing different cultural identity to make way for the ones have been socially approved and instead find a way to celebrate the many different places we have come from in order to become the nation we are.We cannot forget that the African American community are the ones who have been there during it all, and they deserve a place in the pot along with everyone else.

The High Costs of Being Poor in America

In the United States, it's a contradictory fact of life: the poorer you are, the more likely it is that you'll actually have to pay more for an assortment of services than better-off Americans.

Although poverty is not solely a problem for African Americans, it affects a far larger percentage than other races; while 13% of white Americans are impoverished, 35% of blacks are. Although the cause of this impoverishment is widely debated, it's hard to argue that it's not caused largely by the aftereffects of our nation treating an entire race first as property, and then as second-class citizens for the large majority of our history.

Whatever the cause, it's easy to assume that someone in poverty is there only by personal choice; there are plenty of opportunities and programs to help poor people get back on their feet in the United States, right? Even if so, it's hard to ignore the high costs that come along with poverty: costs that undeniably do make it more difficult for a poor person to get out of poverty.

Take, for example, the mere ability to access your own money. While most Americans have bank accounts and can direct deposit their paychecks, many who are poor do not have this opportunity. Whether they do not live near a bank, or they were denied an account by the bank because of a poor credit history, poor people must instead pay to cash their checks at a variety of for-profit businesses. Even if a person in poverty has a bank account, they may have to pay monthly fees if they don't keep enough money in their account.

Another example relates to those who are arrested. If they are taken to jail, in most cases, they must meet bail in order to be released before trial. This bail amount ensures that they will show up for trial. While those with well-off families can typically easily meet the bail amount, impoverished people must rely on bail bonding companies. For a fee, the company will help the person in custody get released. If the person shows up for their trial, the fee is returned. Richer people who use their own money to post bail end up paying nothing. Those who use bail bonding companies, however, never get their upfront fees returned to them. Even if they are innocent, poor people must pay a bail company only for being accused of committing a crime.

The list continues: food tends to cost more in lower-income neighborhoods. The cost of paying to do laundry quickly adds up, as does the cost of depending upon public transportation. Emergency loans cost more for those with poor credit. Although in the long term it could save them money, insurance is seen as a luxury to many poor Americans, who choose instead to use their income to put food on the table every week.

Whatever the cause of this systematic poverty, the fact remains: the mere cost of existing is larger for poor Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are African Americans.


Sources:

• Kaiser Family Foundation: Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity
• Philip Bump: The Source of Black Poverty Isn't Black Culture, It's American Culture
• DeNeen L. Brown: The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More
• Adam Liptak: Illegal Globally, Bail for Profit Remains in U.S.

Importance of Student-Led Activism

This summer I attended the maymester in St. Augustine, Florida, where we focused on the Civil Rights Movements in the context of this often forgotten city during the movement. Through my studies of the events of the area, it was clear that the student population of the city, whether high school or college students, were on the frontlines of the battlefield, starting sit-ins, marches, anything that could bring attention to their cause.At the beginning of the movement in St. Augustine, many of the local college students from Florida Memorial College and even some surrounding high schools in the area were the spark to the movement, with a mass quantity of them raising their voices for equality. However, they saw their student population drastically cut when the historically black school of Florida Memorial College felt the pressure from the white supremacist leaders of the community and decided to relocate to Miami. Many others had also joined the Black Panthers and the black power movement, making them outsiders to the nonviolent methods being taught by Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers. Our class concluded that the racial injustice toward the African American community continued even after they saw legislative equality due to the passionate activism that left the area, being replaced with confusion and complacency by the older members. This civil rights movement is just now being integrated into the history of this city 50 years later, with the youth being highlighted as the real change-starters.

The importance of student-led activism is clearly still evident today in regards to the protests in Ferguson, MO following the death of Michael Brown. This month is the start of what they are calling “Ferguson October”, a time dedicated to activism and movements in this city. On Sunday night there was a meeting held at a local church, with Dr. Cornel West as the keynote speaker along with other religious and civil leaders speaking. Many people present at this massive meeting felt like the speakers chosen were not doing justice to the movement as they had not been in Ferguson the whole time. People began to demand that the young people who had been there through it all stand up and speak, as claiming that the older people cannot connect with the gravity of their young reality. Without the voices of the young people in this city, there would be no justice for the death of Michael Brown and the other acts of police brutality that is plaguing the nation. This is a new fight for civil rights, and the youth are leading the way.

St. Augustine Movement : civilrightslibrary.com

Ferguson article: http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/13/ferguson-october-young-protesters-reject-message-delivered-older-religious-leaders.html

12 Years A Slave To Be Taught In Schools

12 Years A Slave, a movie based on the life of Solomon Northup who was a free man from the North that was sold into slavery, is one of the most powerful films I have seen in my life. Although I don’t want this to be a movie review, if you have not watched this movie you should stop reading this blog post and go watch the movie or read Solomon Northup’s autobiography. As soon as I walked out of the movie and was able to get my bearings after being so emotionally shaken, I concluded that this film should be added to the history curriculum of all public schools in the United States.

The film was released in November of 2013 and 2 months later, much to my surprise and satisfaction, the National School Board Association announced that the film, along with the original 1853 memoir that inspired the movie and a study guide, would become part of all public high school’s curriculum on slavery. Television personality Montel Williams is funding the distribution of the film and Steve McQueen, the director of the film said that it was always his dream that the story would be taught in schools.

On September 25 of this year at Howard University, there was a launch honoring the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and the addition of the film in the collection of films used to educate high school students. The teacher and the school district will have the opportunity to choose whether or not to show the film and will have free access to the film and all other resources if they choose to do so. This follows on the heels of last year’s educational campaign that put copies of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” into classrooms for educational purposes.

I believe that this film is very important in portraying the brutality and injustice that Solomon Northup and many other slaves endured during this time in history. I believe that the master narrative in public schools was that slavery was bad because African-Americans were here working against their will, but I don’t believe this begins to even touch on the horrific incidents that happened and leaves out many other narratives and complexities within the narrative of slavery. Just as every student learns about Anne Frank during the Holocaust, Steven McQueen believed that Solomon Northup was a figure that every student should know about. This is not just African-American history, but this is United States history that continues to have major implications in society today. Steve McQueen also wants his film to spread awareness of modern day slavery and doesn’t want students in 200 years to be reading a story about the Solomon Northup of our time.

Issues Still Looming Today

One thing that I think people do not necessarily realize is how alive and active the Civil Rights Movement is today.  There are still aspects of this movement that are still being fought to improve to this very day.  It may not be as obvious to the American public as it was sixty year ago, but there is no doubt it is still alive in the society we live in today.  An article written by Richard Wolf in April of this year hit on all of the progress that can still be made in regards to the Civil Rights movement. 

This article is very interesting to me because Wolf touches on many aspects of everyday life that have improved drastically due to the Civil Rights movement, but he shows that there is still so much left to be done.  Wolf shows how African Americans have made huge strides in high school education, but graduation rates for African Americans in college lag significantly.  High unemployment rates still plague the African American community, but the incomes in the workplace have gone up for blacks.  Voter turnout for blacks was larger than that of whites in the 2012 presidential election.  School segregation and workplace discrimination have declines dramatically, but too many African Americans go home to “ segregated, often impoverish neighborhoods.” 

The issues are all very interesting to me.  These issues that are still being wrestled with today are the issues that were being wrestled with in 1950’s America.  Progress over the past fifty years has been unbelievable, but that doesn’t exactly mean that all these issues have gone away.  Even the electing of a black president doesn’t make all of these issues go away.  Wolf is using this article to specifically show that African American leaders are remaining loyal to this cause.  They are fully aware of the problems that are hindering the black community to this day, and they want to be able to bring about change in the United States. 

Reading this article was very interesting.  I believe that so many of us today just go about our normal lives and we don’t necessarily realize the problems in our own backyard.  These issues are happening all around us, and many of us, myself included, have no idea.  These are issues that demand our attention as American citizens.  Many of us look back on segregation, and think about how awful it is and say to ourselves that we would have never ben a part of something so atrocious.  I believe that these issues deserve our attention, because this is our community and our country, and we want to make a lasting impact on this nation. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/19/civil-rights-act-progress/4641967/

The Fight for Women in the Workplace

In an article published by CNN earlier this year, Maya L. Harris addresses the issue of economic justice for women in the United States today.  She starts the article by quoting Martin Luther King Jr., “What good does it do to be able to eat at a lunch counter if you can’t buy a hamburger?”  She then starts to talk about how one of the major points of King’s Civil Rights Movement was the struggle many African Americans had with economic security.  This article is a very shocking realization for many Americans that the Civil Rights Movement is still active today, especially with women’s struggles. 

      Harris presents some humbling statistics in this article that cannot go unnoticed.  In America today, one out of three Americans are at or below the poverty line, and that seventy percent of this one third are women and children.  The majority of the women at or below the poverty line are either African American or Latina.  Women make up the majority of the minimum wage workforce, and are usually concentrated in jobs that require a large amount of labor.  Women are also earning less than male workers.  Finally, Harris states that almost half of the nation’s households with children are dependent on women as the main source of income. 

      Harris shows that we as a nation must be able to push past the way society has viewed women in the workplace in the past and we must realize that women have much larger roles in the home than they did sixty years ago.  Harris proposes that minimum wage be raised, and that affordable childcare be made more available to working mothers. 

      This issue can relate exactly to what we have discussed so far in class.  This article is highlighting a problem today, and suggesting ways to resolve or help the issue.  Women are demanding equal rights when it comes to the workplace.  Just as the quote from MLK said at the beginning of the article, this is exactly what African Americans were concerned with during this movement.  They wanted equality in all aspects of life, especially in the workplace.

      I believe that we as a nation need to all work together to be able to eradicate issues like this one in today’s society.  There is no excuse for there to still be discrimination in the workplace towards anyone.  As Harris stated, we as a nation need to accept the fact that the world around us is evolving, and it is up to us as a society to change the way people think, especially when it comes to this issue of civil rights. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/harris-women-jobs-shriver-report/

Mobilizations and Organization in Ferguson, MO

Recently in class we’ve been discussing the differences between organization and mobilization during the Civil Rights movement, specifically the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. We’ve discussed the how mobilization and organization differ in success during the Civil Rights Movement. Mobilization resulted in getting bodies involved in the movement, but did little to actually make any changes while organization took a little more effort, but resulted in the most change.  Taking these ideas into context now, they remain relevant and movements that are occurring all over the United States and all over the world.

The protests in Ferguson, MO are a good example of differences in success for the community. Initially most of the protests were marches and gatherings with no real organization or guidance. Small discussion groups formed but did not form into much more than that. Notable members of the NAACP such as Al Sharpton came to give speeches, but those also did not result in much change within the community. For the longer weeks of the protest there were only marches and sidewalk protests that did not go any further than where the march ended. While it is honorable that the community has remained together for so long, there was not much accomplished during these times.

However, not too long after the protest began, the protesters began meeting at the Quick-Trip, which was burned down by looters during the first night of protests. Various groups began forming at the Quick Trip. Many groups handed out voter registration forms for those who wanted to make a difference by policy change.  According to USAToday 4,839 people have registered to vote and 3,287 of those registered voters are residents of Ferguson. This signifies a slight change from mobilization to organization in Ferguson. More significant changes involve the various community panels with the St. Louis Police Department and with St. Louis’s own elected officials.

Even more recently, the protestors in Ferguson have started a movement titled Ferguson October which includes marches, sit ins, community discussions, petition signing, and legislation discussions. There is even a website titled fergusonoctober.com which has information about groups that have formed in Ferson along with details of events and legislation that are being discussed in the community.

Ferguson still, however, relies heavily on mobilization tactics such as marches and boycotts, but there are elements of organization, but they are not as strongly represented or nurtured as the mobilization in the movement. This is somewhat similar to the Civil Rights Movement, in that the narrative is skewed so that the focus is on more on the mobilization movements rather than the organization with was the key  to achieving success.