"Mayor For Life" by Marion Barry (2014)

Marion Barry will forever be remembered as the disgraced Mayor of Washington, D.C. The images of him taken during an FBI sting will long outlive anything else about the man. And that’s a shame, because before the fall came Marion Barry was one of the people manning the front lines in the battle for Civil Right.

Born in Itta Bena, Mississippi he was one of 10 kids. His father died when he was 4 years old and his Mom moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee looking for work.  It was as a paperboy that he first encountered racial prejudice, and the incident became a defining point in his life. As a young man he picked cotton, bagged groceries, and worked as a waiter. He was also a Boy Scout, earning the ultimate rank of Eagle Scout.

It was while working as a paperboy that he first became involved in a Civil Rights issue. He had entered the contest to win a trip New Orleans for getting a certain number of new customers on a route. He won, but was denied the prize on the grounds that New Orleans was segregated and it would necessitate the rental of a separate bus to transport the African-American paperboys who had won. The young Marion Barry boycotted his route in the black neighborhood, and convinced the other African-American carriers to do the same. The result was that the paper hired a bus and took them to St. Louis, which was integrated. Barry resumed his route. Remember that this was before Rosa Parks and the bus boycott.

BY the late 1950’s he was a graduate of LeMoyne College. While there he and his friends wanted to go to the fair in Memphis; which was segregated. They were denied admission to the Science exhibit. Though they left without incident this is what prompted Barry to join the NAACP and begin his long road as an activist for Civil Rights and the Right to Vote.

He also attained a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from Fisk in 1960. During this time he was arrested several times for his involvement in sit-ins and other demonstrations. He was soon involved in the Freedom Riders campaign to desegregate the bus stations in Interstate travel. After a long and protracted battle they were successful. Their accomplishment in getting the Voting Rights Act passed is something which is currently under fire as some folks advocate its repeal.

He went on to become the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and organized the voting registration drive in McComb, Mississippi. He lived with the local residents so he would have a better feel for what their lives were like.

In 1965 he came to Washington, D.C. to open a local chapter for SNCC. The bus fare increase was his first political action in D.C. He wouldn’t call it a “boycott” - he termed it a “mancott” instead.  This was really the first step in his journey to becoming the second Mayor in the city’s history. He quit SNCC when H. Rapp Brown became chairman in 1967.

I could go on and on in summarizing the accomplishments and career of this ultimately flawed politician. But I would be remiss if I were to only concentrate on the failures of his later life. His work in the aftermath of the shooting of Martin Luther King, when D.C. was literally in flames, helped to set up food banks and early education programs for the poor. His positive impacts cannot be overlooked when assessing the man as a whole.

His slide down the slippery slope of drug addiction; and recovery; as well as his re-emergence as a politician again after the fall; will ultimately be what this man is remembered for. And that’s a shame. For the legacy he amassed prior to that is far more important.

"Down to the Crossroads" by Aram Goudsouzian (2014)

Author Aram Goudsouzian explores the march which changed the direction of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Up until the “March Against Fear” in Mississippi in 1966, African-Americans were patiently protesting, in a non-violent fashion, the injustices of the past 100 years since the end of the Civil War and slavery.

But when a lone white man shot and wounded James Meredith; the first African-American to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962, he set off a chain reaction which brought everyone under the umbrella of the Civil Rights Movement to descend on Mississippi in a show of unity. At the time some whites even accused the “movement” of having orchestrated the shooting to drum up national support. I’m not kidding. They actually said that; even as far away as New York.

James Meredith had begun what was essentially a one man march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi when he was shot on the 2^nd day, just after entering Mississippi. The assailant merely stood in the road waiting for him and announced that he was looking for James Meredith and didn't want any trouble with anyone else. When Meredith stepped forward and identified himself, he was shot.

The whole spectacle was bizarre. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the iconic photograph of Mr. Meredith being shot does not do justice to what had just happened. Meredith, being trailed by the media and the State Police, was walking along in broad daylight when he was shot by a man who did not even try to get away after the shooting. His only concern was to ask if Meredith was dead. He was visibly disappointed when he was informed that Meredith was still alive. I have never seen such hatred, either before this incident, or since.

In the town of Greenwood the police station boasted a plague dedicated to “Tiger” the police dog who had taken a bite out of several demonstrators in 1963. The animal was a local celebrity.

The main point of this book is to chronicle the change that the attempted assassin’s bullet had upon the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. Within hours of the shooting, members from every sect of the Movement came forward to lend a hand in completing the March which Mr. Meredith had begun. This was also the march which brought the Vietnam War to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. With African-Americans dying in disproportionate numbers in that conflict, they had a big stake. As remarked by Vincent Young, a bus driver from Brooklyn, “No Viet Cong ever called me a nigger.”

Joined by Martin Luther King and his troupe, the march also attracted Stokely Carmichael and his group, SNCC. This was the birth of the Black Power movement; within just a few days that slogan would become a household word. And, who you were and where you lived would come to inform the meaning of those words.

To the marchers in Mississippi it meant getting the vote and respect; to the people living in the ghettos it meant exactly what it said; Black Power. They would begin to exert economic power in their neighborhoods, buying from African-American merchants only. This kind of puzzled white people because to them it represented nothing short of the discrimination which African-Americans were fighting against themselves.

Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael were not the bitter rivals that history would have us believe. The older man saw in Carmichael something of himself 10 years earlier during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. His only real concern was that the rhetoric of Black Power would do harm to everything which had been accomplished up until that point. For Carmichael’s part, he didn’t want to distance himself too far from King, since doing so would mean losing the support of the press, which was solidly behind the older man.

Local Mississippians lamented the march as the work of outsiders coming to foment trouble. This ignores the fact that people had to come from all over the country precisely because the locals were afraid to march. They stood to lose their jobs, their homes, and even their lives. The African-American was so cowed by fear that in the town of Grenada the local blacks turned in anyone who even spoke of civil rights, ensuring their own continued inequality. Can you even imagine being that “beat down” in spirit? I can’t. Can you imagine doing that to someone else? (Fill in your own response here.)

During the march a local man named Ben Chester White was shot and killed by 3 local men whom he knew well. They called themselves the Cottonmouth Gang, and simply went by his house and asked him to help them look for their dog. He came willingly, as he had always obeyed white men without question. They drove him to a nearby bridge and shot him with 2 shotguns multiple times, disposing of his tattered corpse in the river.

Mr. Goudsouzian has left no stone unturned in this riveting portrait of the march itself, as well as the movement as a whole. He carefully chronicles the changes which were taking place in the movement at the time, as African-Americans began to act on their unwillingness to wait patiently any longer for something that was theirs to begin with.

The March against Fear was a pivotal moment in a time filled with moments which would all add up to a big change in America as regards Civil Rights. Although almost 50 years have gone by since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the job is not done. Even as I write this; in a country with an African-American President; there are still people who want to roll back that historic law, along with all of the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement in all of its diverse forms.

From the NAACP to SNCC and even the Black Panthers Party, all of these groups have contributed to change. Without any one of them in the mix it is doubtful that the Movement would have remained cohesive after 1968, when Martin Luther King was murdered. It’s important to remember that. Diversity within the Movement is precisely what saved it in the long run.

One of the most ironic moments in the book occurs when Mississippi Highway Patrolman Fred Ogg remarks; at the end of a long day; “I’m just about overcome.” 

Rolling Back Voting Rights - Why?

Have you been wondering about the recent push in several states to roll back the Voting Rights Act of 1965? If not, you should be. Why on earth would anyone support taking away a right under the guise of its not being needed anymore? You have to wonder. Of course, there is an answer, and it’s not Voter Fraud. Let’s examine the history of why the Voting Rights Act was necessary in the first place.

On the surface it would seem to be all about the Right to Vote; and there is some merit in that thought. But the purpose; the need; for the Voting Rights Act went much deeper and exposed the more sinister forces against which African-Americans of the 1960’s were up against.

Racial Injustice was endemic in the South of 50 years ago. The worst place was in Mississippi, with the other Southern “Jim Crow” states coming in at a close second. The courts were manned by white judges and the jury pools were all lily white. No blacks need apply. As a matter of fact, since they could not vote, they weren’t even on the list for selection to serve on a jury. This meant that an African-American of the time would never face a jury of his peers, and therefore never receive equal justice under the law.

And that, in a nutshell, is what the current hullabaloo is really all about. Not the vote, but the administration of equal Justice in America. If allowed, the Conservative forces would have the Voting Rights Act repealed under the fiction that it is no longer necessary. But, don’t buy into it.

The truth is easy to see, and just as easy to manipulate. But, ask yourself these questions. If, as the Conservatives wish, the Act is repealed, what will be the effect upon the composition of jury pools in America in a few short years, as people find themselves falling off of the Voter Registration Rolls? What type of jury will you be standing before? Will they all look and think as you do? Or, will they be composed of people who are all different than you? And finally, would you be happy with that situation for yourself?

A lot of people gave a lot of time, pain and suffering to secure the right to vote for everyone. The photo above is evidence of that struggle. Those are Alabama State Troopers in action on Bloody Sunday; March 7, 1965 during the march from Selma to Montgomery. All of the people arrested that day stood before white judges and juries. How do you think that worked out for them?

So, don’t let the knee jerk slogans of Conservative politicos and the hidden agendas of bigots fool you with this one. It’s not just about the Vote; it’s about the fair Administration of Justice in the Courts. The new restrictions will affect the elderly and the working poor in a disproportionate manner. If you are an hourly worker you will be less likely to vote on Voting Day, and they will have cut back on early voting, making it even harder to do so.

The struggle to achieve these rights is not about race anymore; it's about the war between the rich and poor in America today. And that war parallels the fight of the Civil Rights Era. In the end, remember, the next ethnic group in that photo above could be yours.

Meet The Press - MLK - 1965

When I was a kid I hated Sunday morning television. It was all politics on every station. At the age of 11, although I knew that I was living through some historical times, I was more interested in old movies than the political debates on the important issues of the day. Don’t take me wrong, even at that tender age I had definite points of view on everything from school integration to the War in Vietnam, I just wanted Sundays to be carefree and didn’t see the purpose of these shows.

Well, I’m older now, and perhaps a bit wiser; it’s hard to say. But I have a love of history, and You Tube is a veritable mother lode of information on just about any subject you can imagine, so I have been scrolling through some of the old Sunday morning shows which I didn’t appreciate at the time. It is amazing at what I am finding in my search.

Take this episode of Meet the Press from March 28, 1965, with Martin Luther King, Jr. appearing within a week of the infamous Selma March and the bloodbath on the bridge during the march to the State Capitol in Montgomery. It is of particular interest because of the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. That law was passed in response to all of the abuses taking place in the South; and elsewhere; when it came to the Right to Vote.

Listen carefully to the words and apply them to the situation as it stands today. Although we have an African-American President, racism is not dead in America. Far from it; it’s on the upswing. The Supreme Courts recent decision concerning the Voting Rights Act only makes it clearer.

"This Day In Civil Rights History" by Horace Randall Williams and Ben Beard

This book is a real treasure. Composed of 365 pages, each one chronicles a significant event in the history of African-Americans and the country in which they live. Turn to any page and you learn someting new. Even if you know the story being told on any particular day, this book serves as a reinforcement of the lessons learned through several centuries of racial strife and adjustment.

This is one of those perfect books for the times when you don't have the time, or inclination, to read something longer. Filled with facts and insights, this book will lead you to dig more deeply into some of the events recounted here. This is also an excellent resource book for teachers, as well as anyone who deals with kids. The day by day accounts give the subject a relevance which is sometimes lacking in todays teaching of the Civil Rights Movement. So much is now taken for granted, it's almost as if the door has been closed on the subject. This book is the key to re-open that door.