I would love to think that had I been alive during the civil rights movement I would have been among the committed minority that helped create change. But maybe the social norms of the time would have won me over. If you were alive during the civil rights movement, do you think of the movement the same today as you did back then? What can we learn from MLK and the civil rights movement and apply to today?
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE: Adam Taylor recently completed a yearlong fellowship at the White House and is the author of the book Mobilizing Hope.
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I was in Memphis in December and made time to go the the Civil Rights Memorial there at the old Lorraine Hotel where MLK was shot. I am so glad I did. I learned so much tha I never knew and it made the struggle real and painful. He came to Memphis for GARBAGE MEN that wanted 10 cents more an hour and some safely protections. I wnat to talk the time at some point soon to read “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.” In his 39 years he did change the world.
Craig, I’m puzzled at your reference to the civil rights movement as though it were a thing of the past – as though it were a thing that was completed or even just ended. I imagine that you’re referring to the 50′s and 60′s, which I might call “the height of the civil rights movement.”
I was just going into 4th grade and remember being shocked and confused when the “Little Rock Nine” needed the National Guard to assist their attempt to attend a formerly all-white high school. In Illinois & Michigan, there had always been kids of all colors in my classes. No problem. My 5th grade teacher, Mrs Branch, was Black. I remember her as being a beautiful, smart, compassionate and wise woman.
I was just entering high school myself in 1963 when the March on Washington happened. I wished that I could go. In 1965, when people were marching in Selma, I & a group of my friends fasted for 2 days, wearing 3×5 cards pinned to our shirts that said “I’m fasting for peace in Selma & Viet Nam.”
In 1968, a few weeks after MLK was shot, a group of my friends & I had been planning to attend a weekend seminar at the Ecumenical Institute on the west side of Chicago. We went ahead with the trip, with some trepidation, but the campus was basically on lock-down. It was not deemed safe for us (as white college students) to go out in the primarily Black neighborhood without a local escort. It was pretty scary. The Institute was located in the middle of the Black west side specifically to help create change in that community and was, indeed, seen by the people in the neighborhood as a trusted colleague in that effort.
Today, I would say that the civil rights movement is NOT over and will not be completed until people of all colors & nationalities, all faiths, all sexual orientations and all socio-economic stripes – in short, ALL PEOPLE – are treated equally under the laws of all nations and are honored by the general public as the holy incarnations of God that (I believe) we each are. In short, until the kin-dom of God is alive & well here on earth, the civil rights movement must and will continue.
Laurie- sorry for the slow response. By no means did I intend to communicate that I think the work for creating equality is complete. I was just referring to the period of time commonly referred to as The Civil Rights Movement. I was not alive during this period in history, and was just curious as to how it was similar and different than what we face today. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I wonder how your family and friends have responded to your involvement?
Thanks, Craig. I know that YOU know that the work is not done. Somehow, when I read your questions, referring to the Civil Rights Movement in the past tense just struck me as odd. I know people do it, and perhaps what I was really challenging was not so much the phrasing of your particular questions, as the general sense in our society that it is over and done.
I believe that it is on-going. The focus has changed and the means and venues and personalities. In some ways it is perhaps more subtle now, because the character of discrimination has changed. The laws have changed, giving many minorities protections in many parts of their lives. However, the the hearts of so many people have NOT changed and they still treat our sisters & brothers as second-class citizens. For instance, Blacks have the RIGHT to vote, but as we’ve seen time & time again, there are many places where it is very difficult for them to do so.
So I guess what I’m saying is that one difference between then & now is that discrimination has gone underground. Landlords are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of race, so instead of saying, “You can’t live here because you’re Black,” they just say, “I’m sorry, but that apartment was just rented this morning.” The effect is the same. The strategies for bringing about change in people’s attitudes must be entirely different than those for bringing about change in the laws of the land.
I guess I am also a bit sensitive about the whole subject, because so many people don’t see the efforts of LGBT people (for instance) to attain equal rights for ourselves as being a civil rights issue, comparable in scope and importance to the efforts of our African-American sisters and brothers to attain equal rights for themselves. They are the same in my mind.
Or people tend to think that the women’s rights movement is no longer necessary, because it isn’t legal to discriminate on the basis of gender. But women STILL get paid significantly less for doing the same work that men do. And MOTHERS (if you can believe it) are discriminated against because they have children! Hello?!? Unfortunately, misogyny is alive & well in our fair land. And insidious, because it hides under so many different guises.
As for my family & friends, in many ways they are as active or more active than I, so that’s totally not a problem. However, some members of my family are still not comfortable with the LGBT thing. They love me and support me in every other way, but they just prefer that we don’t talk about that part. We’re all on a journey and I have to accept that they’re at just the right place on their journey, as I am on mine.
So I hope that helps to clarify where I’m coming from. Please LMK if you have any other questions. I think it’s marvelous that you’re sticking your neck out and putting forth all these wonderful questions for us to think & talk about. Thank you.
Faithfully yours,
~Laurie~