Category: Civil rights

In ‘I am not your Negro’ James Baldwin stated: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it won’t destroy you”. From the very beginning of the documentary Baldwin’s views on race do not question what happens to black people but what happens to the country.

Baldwin intended to pay his respect to the lives and legacies of the leading black figures who were protesting for black equality – Medgar Evans, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, all of whom were Baldwin’s friends and courageous figures, famously murdered for their roles in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Thus, the film scrutinizes the underlying truths about racism in America. Peck supports Baldwin’s claims with film and media clips of the time and conveys how the conflicts of the past are still tied to discrimination and the inferiority of the black race that still exists today.

Baldwin’s status as a Civil Rights Movement insider provided him with personal experiences that permit the audience to grasp a better understanding of these three men as well as other significant individuals, such as Lorraine Hansberry. Like many of his novels, Baldwin via this documentary articulates his need to spread widely the traumatic experience of being black in America, which he considered his duty as a Civil Rights activist and writer. The film substantiates Baldwin’s claims illustrating the continuance of white America’s dominant narrative, in which the white man is the hero and the blacks are savages as seen in all media. Baldwin exposes the extreme suffering of black people in the United States, revealing to the audience how much work there is yet to be done for racial equality to be infused in the United States.

The film begins with Baldwin’s return to the U.S. in 1957 after living in France for almost a decade—a return stimulated by seeing a photograph of 15-year-old Dorothy Counts and the violent white mob that crowded her as she entered and desegregated Harding High School in North Carolina. This sparked an outrage for the Civil rights movement and Baldwin needed to return home “Everybody was paying their dues, and it was time I went home and paid mine”. Baldwin claimed that after leaving America, he never felt homesick nor any longing to return back to the place where he was born and raised, in other words, his home. He moved to France, a place where racism did exist, yet a place he felt he could escape the reality of his identity as a black man. Furthermore, the idea that Baldwin was able to feel at ease in France, despite still facing racism reaffirms his argument that the problem was always in the soil of this place and not its people. Repeatedly, the documentary reinforced Baldwin’s unique ability to uncover the ways anti-black sentiment constituted not only American social and political life but also its cultural imagination. The documentary uses many scenes from various films—Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Imitation of Life (1934), among others to display how Hollywood operates in stereotypes of black threat and subservience as foils for white innocence.

However, as much a documentary about American life in the 1960s it also uses Baldwin’s views to illuminate the link to the contemporary reality of today. The movie’s most integral scenes include footage of police brutality directed against black people in the ’60s and shots of similar violence that takes place today, using Baldwin’s words to depict the distance between the two eras. The juxtaposition highlights the uncanny similarity between the series of black deaths that were perpetrated throughout Baldwin’s life during the civil-rights era, and the series of deaths—of Aiyana Jones, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, to name a few —that mark our own calendar.

Furthermore, a crucial aspect of Baldwin’s life is avoided in this film: his sexuality. There is a mention of an FBI file stating that he’s possibly a homosexual, but there is no mention of his queerness. Baldwin’s sexuality was as much a part of his canniness as his blackness; so, while the film remains a powerful statement about race, a key element of his life that may have contributed to his alienation from society is missed. To conclude, the film conveys how deeply Baldwin’s words resonate today reinforcing, as the film argues, how this nation fails to heed at its continued peril.

According to Kevin Kruse, (www.forbes.com), a leader has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. It has nothing to do with titles. Just because someone has a lower title, does not mean they are anything lower than everyone else. Anyone can be a leader, whether they are a child, adult, or elderly person. They could be in your place of worship, your neighborhood, your family, or even in your local grocery store. The point is that anyone in the whole wide world can be a leader.

On February 4, 1913, another great leader was born. Her name was Rosa Louise McCauley Parks. She was an American activist in the civil rights movement. She was best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. According to www.nps.gov, because of her great acts, the United States National Congress honored her as “the First Lady of Civil Rights” and “the Mother of the Freedom Movement”. Parks started the freedom movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. Little did she know, her actions would play an important role in American history.

On the day of February 4, 1913, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born. Parks was the first of two children born to her parents, James and Leona McCauley. Her parents were farmers, along with other jobs that they worked as well. She moved with her parents to the town of Pine Level, Alabama when she was only two years old. Shortly after her brother Sylvester was born, her parents separated. After her move to Pine Level, she began living with her grandmother, her brother, and her mother. Then, when she was eleven years old, she moved from Pine Level to Montgomery. She attended high school in Montgomery, Alabama at the State Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left high school at the age of 16 because she had to take on the role of caring for her dying grandmother. Not long after this event occurred, her mother became chronically ill and Rosa had to take care of her too. At the age of 19, in the year of 1932, she married a man named Raymond Parks. Raymond Parks was a self-educated and supportive man. The following year, when Rosa was trying to get her high school diploma, he was there by her side the entire time.

Later in life, both Raymond and Rosa became members of Montgomery’s African American community, which was quite large. The Jim Crow laws were constantly promoting segregation throughout the town. The school system was separated for black and white people. Every single store, school, building, and even church was segregated. There were certain churches for black people and white people. Because white people were seen as dominant or higher in the social class compared to black people, the “white” buildings were in much nicer condition compared to the “black” buildings. Most people would agree that one of the worst things to ever be segregated was the water fountains. If you were seen drinking from the wrong fountain, you would be put in prison. Rosa and her family had to deal with this every day.

In December of 1943, even though Raymond discouraged her from doing this out of fear for her safety, she joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). After she joined, she became the chapter secretary. When she worked she was very close with President Edgar Daniel Nixon. President Nixon worked for a railroad company in the city. He also worked as an advocate for black people. “Nixon also served as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union,” (www.history.com).

One typical Thursday after Rosa got done with work, on December 1, 1955, she took a bus home. There was a certain segregation system that the people followed: white people will always get the privilege of sitting in the front of the bus and black people have to sit in the back. There were also buses for only a certain race, some for blacks and some for whites. The black people of this particular town usually tried to avoid riding in joined buses in the first place to avoid arguing and other things related to that matter. On this day, Rosa happened to be part of the 70% of black people riding the joined bus. Although, it was the bus driver’s option to decide whether he or she should make a black citizen give up their seat for a white citizen. There were some very contradictory laws that were made in Montgomery. One of them stated that segregation must be enforced, but another, though largely ignored, stated that no individual person, white or black, could be asked to give up their bus seat even if there wasn’t any other seat on the bus that was open. At one of the stops on the way home from work, a white man got onto the bus, and coincidentally, there were no seats left for him to sit. The driver of the bus made the decision to tell the first row of the section labeled “colored” to stand and add another row to the “whites” section. There were four people total sitting in the row that was told to move. Three out of the four people stood up and moved. The one that did not move was Rosa Parks. She stood her ground and refused to stand for the rest of the ride instead of giving up her seat just because of her skin color. This was not the first time that Parks had encountered the bus driver. Everyone thinks that this famous event was the first encounter with the bus driver, James Blake, and Rosa Parks, but it was not. Twelve years ago, Rosa walked on the exact same bus. After she stepped onto it, she paid her fee at the front of the bus, like any normal person would do. But, however, there was a rule in place that stated that all back people had to enter and exit the bus through the rear door. She was notified of this rule after paying her fee. She refused to exit the bus and re-enter a second time, so she stood her ground. Blake was furious. Blake took her by the sleeve of her coat and dragged her out of the bus to the rear door. He demanded that she cooperate with him or he would have to call the authorities. Instead of showing weakness to a white man, Parks left the bus.

Www.loc.gov states that “on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and imprisoned in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct when she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail. Rosa did not win her case. She was fined $14.00, including court costs.” When she arrived at the jail, she asked the guard politely for a drink of water but they immediately declined. She was not even allowed to make a call home to let her family know what happened. When her mother found out that she was put into jail, she became terrified. She was very worried for Rosa’s safety. She thought that the guards had beaten Rosa. Once Rosa’s mother found out about her imprisonment, she immediately notified Raymond. During her time in prison, Rosa was very chatty with her cellmate. She had learned that her cellmate had been in jail for a few months before Rosa showed up. Her cellmate went to jail because “she had picked up a hatchet against a boyfriend who has struck her but had been unable to let her family know where she was.” www.rosaparksbiography.org states. Rosa promised her cellmate that she would try to get in touch with her family. After a few weeks, she finally got in contact with the woman’s brother. A few days later, Rosa saw the woman on the street, looking much better than she did behind bars. After President Nixon bailed her out o jail, he realized the amount of racial discrimination and segregation in the town of Montgomery.

Rosa Parks accomplished many amazing things throughout her lifetime. According to www.topinspired.com, she was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. She received over five different awards for her outstanding actions. The Spingarn Medal, the Martin Luther King Jr. award, was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, She was made a member of the welcoming party for Nelson Mandela after he was put into prison, and lastly, she was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award. These are only some of the many awards she was chosen for. a recipient for. She earned all of these awards out of the way she stood up for herself and all of the black people in America. She was one of the many reasons that slavery and racial discrimination were demolished in the United States.

In conclusion, Rosa Parks was a very strong woman. She had persistence, courage, and kindness. She was determined in everything that she put her mind to. She never gave up on what she believed in, no matter what or who the situation involved. She helped shape the world in regard to segregation and racial equality. Rosa Parks perfectly demonstrated how to deal with segregation and racism. Throughout her lifetime, Parks was given more than two dozen doctorates from universities all over the globe that noticed her outstanding work. Her role in the civil rights movement helped our society into the way that it is today. Her outstanding bravery and leadership skills helped efforts all around the world to end racial segregation.

“The price of progress is indeed high, but the price of holding back is much higher” – James Meredith

This is a quote that a man named James Meredith wrote in 1962 when the Supreme Court upheld his right to attend the University of Mississippi, which at the time was an all-white school. Meredith was therefore the first african american student at this university for which, pursuant to the ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA’s article James Meredith, he gained national renown, especially because it took place at a key juncture in the civil rights movement in 1962.

So, who is this man? James Meredith is an American civil rights activist born on June 25, 1933, in rural Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S. On Stanford The Martin Luther King, Jr.

Research and Education Institute’s website, in the article Meredith, James Howard, you can read that Meredith was the 7th of 13 children and had a difficult time growing up in Mississippi. Therefore he later on moved to live with his aunt in St. Petersburg, Florida. There he could attend state schools that were preeminent compared to those in Kosciusko. In 1951 he graduated from high school and went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force for nine years. After finalizing his service Meredith returned to Mississippi, enrolling in Jackson State University, an all-black school.

If we now come back to where we started, the following events got underway when Meredith, in January 1961, made the decision to submit his initial application to the University of Mississippi, where African American students were not permitted to attend. According to the website Black History in America’s article James Meredith his motivation for doing this was to make a move for the sake of his “country, race, family and himself” (Black History in America. 200120.). He stated, ‘Nobody handpicked me…I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility. I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi.’ (James Meredith. Black History in America. 200120.).

James Meredith applied a total of two times, both of which were rejected, even though being fully qualified. This resulted in Meredith, with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), filing a suit on May 31, 1961, claiming the reason for his being denied was solely based on his skin color and through this also challenging the university’s segregation policy. After over a year of the case going through multiple hearings and protracted court battles the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Meredith’s favor, establishing his right to be admitted.

Still, state officials tried to hinder the admission, one of them being Ross Barnett, the Governor of Mississippi. BRITANNICA writes that the day Meredith was to be registered at The University of Mississippi he was accompanied by federal marshals to protect him from a massive campus riot that left two bystanders dead. At last James Meredith could attend the school he had been in a legal battle with over the last year. He graduated in 1963 and later on wrote a memoir, yclept “Three Years in Mississippi”, regarding the experience.

James Meredith has throughout his life continued to speak up about civil rights. He is today 86 years old, happily married, and has four children. One of whom, Joseph Meredith, graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2002 as the most exceptional doctoral student in the School of Business Administration. At the occasion Meredith said this; ‘I think there’s no better proof that White supremacy was wrong than not only to have my son graduate, but to graduate as the most outstanding graduate of the school…That, I think, vindicates my whole life.’

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson had been interested in athletics ever since he was a little kid, his brother had inspired Jackie with his athletic achievements. When America entered World War Two, Jackie served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Although Jackie had a successful baseball career, he also was a striving vocal Civil Rights activist. Jackie Robinson broke the Civil Rights barrier and he inspired many more African Americans that they can too.

As a kid, Jackie was a striving athlete like his older brother Matthew Robinson, who won a silver medal at the Olympics in Berlin. Jackie as an African American athlete faced hardship and prejudice while playing four sports in high school, but that did not stop him because he continued his athletic career at the University of California Los Angeles. While in college he became the first student to win four varsity letters. Right before he was starting his season with the Honolulu Bears, a semi-pro football team, his season got cut short because he went to go server in World War two. During boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, Jackie was arrested in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of a segregated bus. That incident sparked his Civil Rights career, which would be inspiring to many others.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson walked out to first base for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, this would be the first time an African American played in an official Major League Baseball game. At the end of Jackie’s first season, he had played very well, out-competing all of the other white rookies, allowing him to receive the Rookie of the Year award. Most people only know about his baseball career, but little do most people know that Jackie Robinson was a striving and successful Civil Rights activist along with his wife Rachel Robinson. After Jackie retired from baseball, he joined the NAACP as a chair of its million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive. Soon after he joined he was elected to the board of directors for the NAACP.

Jackie thought having an executive position was not enough, so he decided to join Martin Luther King Jr to march for integration in schools. Jackie also became a political supporter, supporting Richard Nixson in the 1960 presidential election. He also founded the Freedom National Bank, which gave loans and different types of services to minorities, especially African Americans who were struggling with their low-paying jobs. Jackie slowly faded out of the Civil Rights movement mainly because young leaders, like Malcolm X, were utilizing a more extreme approach to the movement. Jackie ultimately stopped conversing with MLK because their political views did not agree, causing Jackie to become a Democrat. Even though Jackie had left the NAACP he still continued to help the African American community by being a solo activist. One thing he did was start the Jackie Robinson Construction Company to build low-cost houses for minorities.

“Education is the passport to the future, for the tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”-Malcolm X. With that being said Malcolm X meant that you have to educate yourself in order to have a greater and better future. Malcolm X was an important and influential figure in history that had a positive impact because he was an activist and outspoken public voice of the Black Muslim faith, challenged the mainstream civil rights movement.

Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Ne his parents are Louise Norton Little (his mother) Earl Little (his father).His mother worked as a homemaker, and his father worked as a minister and a Black nationalist leader. When Malcolm was younger he attended school till he was in middle school he stopped going and dropped out. His discouragement came from one of his teachers he was the only black kid in his predominantly white school. He was adopted into a new family that was not with his mom or father his father died from a fatal killing that is known to have a racial impact but there is no real story on what happened. After, his father’s passing his mother turned mentally ill. Then was no longer able to care for her 10 children.The racial comment coming from his middle school teacher made him angry and then hate the white race.When Malcolm X is in 8th grade, his English teacher, Mr. Ostrowski, asks what career Malcolm is thinking of pursuing. Malcolm is a very bright student who is at the top of his class. Malcolm tells his teacher that he wants to be a lawyer, but Mr. Ostrowski, who has been encouraging up until that point, tells the young Malcolm that the legal profession isn’t realistic for a black person. Instead, the teacher urges Malcolm that was not the place for him.He knew he wanted to change that.

Later in Malcolm X’s life, he fell into the bad habits of petty theft, drugs, violence. One day the things Malcolm did had caught up to him and his partner in crime Malcolm “Shorty” Jarvis and were sentenced to prison for 10 years but was let out three years before. In prison, Malcolm had joined the Black Muslims, known as a new branch in Islam. By the time he was paroled in 1952, he was perfect for the Black Muslims. While the Civil Rights movement was going on he fought against racial segregation. He urged followers to defend themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary”.In 1964 Malcolm took The Pilgrimage to Mecca and claims new insights on racial relations as a result Malcolm X’s pilgrimage to mecca opened his eyes that not all whites or none blacks were okay. People who were not black were his “brothers” too.

Malcolm X became a very famous influential person by becoming a minister, human rights activist, and prominent black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the nation of Islam during the 1950s 1960s. Malcolm X was a much more radical speaker than others, such as Martin Luther King Jr., but they both worked for gaining the rights of African-Americans. Malcolm believed actions spoke louder than words, but King felt the opposite. King wanted a more peaceful movement. He also set an example of courage and standing up for oneself. He set an example of turning one’s life around and becoming a moral role model. He helped save many African Americans from a degenerate form of Islam. His speeches and writings inspired many people. When he had confrontations with police officers, they were clearly corrupt as individuals. Not merely members of departments with a history of corruption and racism. That has made it much harder to try to discredit him. Unlike other advocates of the right of African Americans to armed self-defense, including many members of the Black Panthers.

Malcolm X was an aggressive civil rights leader back in the early 1950s, who many African American people looked up to. Malcolm X was well known for his aggressive approach and harsh criticism of “White America”. Although he didn’t become known until he joined NOI and became an outspoken advocate for them, which led him to quickly rise and grow into who he is today.

Malcolm X or Malcolm Little (as he was first known as), was born in 1925 in Omana, Nebraska. He was the son of a Baptist preacher named James Earl Little. James advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey, which led him to be a huge target to the Ku Klux Klan or also known as the KKK. After receiving multiple threats from the KKK, they moved to Lansing, Michigan, where James continued to preach to African Americans about taking back their lives. When the white supremacist heard about it, they sent more threats to them, before finally having enough of his preaching and beating James to death and telling people that he committed suicide. James’s death took a huge toll on his wife, and she got taken away and sent to a mental health facility, which led to James and his siblings being taken away and put in a foster home.

When Malcolm Little was younger, he went to Pleasant Grove Elementary before moving on to William Mason and finally going to West Junior High School, where he dropped out at age 15 in 8th grade for a life of crime. After dropping out of high school, he moved in with his sister Ella to Boston where he learned how to resist white power by getting involved with Boston’s black criminals. While doing crime in the streets of black mecca, Harlem he became known as Detroit Red. He continued to do crime for 5 years with the underground criminals until he got caught doing multiple burglaries in Boston and was convicted and sentenced up to ten years in prison. While he was doing jail time he quickly gained the nickname “Satan” because of his fiery personality, but he had one person who could see through the act. One of the older prisoners, John Elton Bembry, convinced Malcolm to start reading more and taught him about the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the group Nation of Islam.

After getting out of jail he and his siblings joined the Nation of Islam, where he spent his time working his way up to becoming a strong critic of America. At the age of 27, Malcolm X became the Chief Minister of the nation’s largest Harlem temple called, No. 7. He preached about racism and self-defense aggressively while encouraging violent protests against White America. His preaching gained him a lot of admiration, but it also made people fear him in the black and white community because his preaching not only went against Martin Luther King’s but it could also cause a lot of unwanted deaths. Malcolm being the prominent apostle to Elijah Muhammad not only taught but was taught Elijah’s teachings. Muhammad taught people that black people were the original race while white people were little devil’s. He promised a future where blacks were no longer oppressed and had financial independence for blacks. He even taught racial separation rather than integration and a strict code of moral behavior. When Malcolm X started getting more recognition than Muhammad, he started to get jealous.

Malcolm X soon realized that Muhammad was lacking in sincerity when he failed to join the civil rights struggle and Muhammad started to feel threatened. Malcolm decided to comment on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and by saying “the chickens coming home to roost”, Elijah suspended him from the group. After leaving the group Malcolm decided to travel to Mecca where he learned new teachings that made him rethink everything he learned from Muhammad. He had discovered that orthodox Muslims preach equality of all races, they had shown him a completely new way of thinking about things and it made him change his mindset. When he got back to America, he changed his name to El-Shabazz and went back to preaching in a whole new way. After Mecca, Malcolm started his organization called the Afro-American Unity or OAAU. He offered programs like the “Basic Unity Program” that taught restoration, reorientation, education, economics, security, and self-defense as a means of promoting Pan-African unity and interests. He built the group in the hope to help end discrimination against African Americans. He wanted people to ditch words like “negro,” “integration,” or “emancipation”.

The group focused more on education to try and fix the damages of slavery, economic discrimination, and physical violence directed towards African Americans. Which gained the group a lot of attention from people who wanted self-empowerment or just supported what he was doing. During a Rally in New York for the Afro-American Unity, a group of black Muslims from the Nation of Island was sent to kill him. While he was in the middle of giving a speech, a member named Thomas Hagan shot and killed Malcolm who died at the age of 39. Malcolm’s sister Ella ended up taking over the OAAU, but without his leadership, members started leaving and the group later on ended disbanding. Even tho the OAAU is gone people still continue to appreciate the things Malcolm has done for the community.

Citations

1. History.com Editors. “Malcolm X.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009,https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/malcolm-x.
2. Malcolm X Assassinated.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009,https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/malcolm-x-assassinated.’
3. Malcolm X.’ Gale In Context Online Collection, Gale, 2017. Gale In Context: HighSchool,https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/HDAQVG663899021/SUIC?u=sacr86436&sid=SUIC&xid=885cd9ea. Accessed 12 Sept. 2019.
4. Murphy, Jessica. “50th Anniversary of Malcolm X’s Assassination: His Legacy Lives On.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 24 June 2019, https://www.biography.com/news/assassination-of-malcolm-x.
5. Shmoop Editorial Team. “Malcolm X, A.k.a. Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, El Hajji Malik El-Shabazz in The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, https://www.shmoop.com/the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x/malcolm-x.html.
6. New York Public Library. NYPL, Malcolm X: A Search for Truth, http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/malcolmx/growing.html.

Charlie Perkins made the link between racism in the USA and racism in Australia and was at the forefront of efforts to stop racism in Australia. The freedom riders were established and captained in Australia by Carlie Perkins. Charlie was inspired to introduce the freedom riders by what he had heard from both Martin Luther King Jnr and the freedom riders in America. Perkins incorporated the freedom riders of America by encouraging Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to use facilities that were marked for whites only, similar to what the American riders did. Drawing on from both King and the Freedom Rides of America, Perkins attempted to carry his message across Australia without resorting to violence, his actions and ideas would ultimately help to turn the tide and abolish racism in Australia. The freedom riders in Australia encouraged people to realise that there was an issue of racism and segregation within our country and this called for change. In 1967 a referendum was called that allowed Aboriginals to be included in the count as part of the national population and that they would be considered as Australians and that by doing so, the government would create special laws for them. (‘A Comparison of the Similarities Between the United States and Australian Civil Rights Movements | Kibin’, 2019)

By Charlie Perkins and his group of friends going on a freedom ride inspired by Martin Luther through the most racists parts of NSW, made sure that they were getting the message across about aboriginal rights and made sure the media were following so it brought attention for the rest of the general public, this is why it was so successful.

What were the freedom riders

The freedom riders were a group university students from the University of Sydney, who started to protest for the rights of certain individuals and groups to freedom, the Freedom riders took it upon themselves to protest against what they saw as racism against non whites and to see if what they witnessed was isolated to certain sections of the community and see whether or not the racism and segregation was really true, and if so, what could be done about it; The freedom riders went on a fact-finding mission across New South Wales, documenting the treatment of Aboriginal people in several cities both in writing, in images, and on video. This ultimately became the freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides raised an enormous amount of awareness of discrimination and segregation against Aborigines and by doing so helped expand a brand new civil rights movement in Australia, this was modelled explicitly on the civil rights movement within the USA. (‘Impact of Civil Rights Movement on Australia (Overall)’, 2019)

Significance and success of the freedom riders

The freedom riders first took place in America in the 1960s. The freedom rides were made up of people travelling around the country to educate citizens of the issues going on in their country and what was important. In 1966 a group of Sydney University students decided to get a bus and travel around NSW to bring attention to the misuse of Australian laws to the Aboriginals people, the Freedom riders saw similar issues arising out of America that was also how the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people were being treated and they felt that the civil rights movement headed by Martin Luther King was making many important inroads into the rights of the black Americans and other minority groups.

Group movements In America Groups and Movements had evolved. The Black panther groups were one of the most popular groups in one of the biggest movements for America which helped and aimed for social change and improvement of treatment of blacks in America. The black panthers were founded on October 15, 1966, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. They were created to protect African Americans from police and their targeted brutality as well as protecting their neighbourhoods. The programs had 10 main focus areas, including Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. This group inspired the Tent embassy for Australia which was originally a group of aboriginal men who set up a beach umbrella in front of the lawn on the Parliament House where they held up a sign saying Aboriginal Embassy. (‘US and Australian Civil Rights Movement’, 2019)

The American Civil Rights movement had an extremely big influence on the freedom Rides program in Australia, and because of the Civil Rights movement and the success they seemed to have, the Freedom Rides wouldn’t have existed, because this is what inspired the Freedom riders to protest.

A protest against racial discrimination at the University in Sydney in 1964 was held in solidarity with similar protests happening in the US. From this protest, it was believed that Australian too had their own issues with racism. This protest encouraged the belief that our own society had enormous problems with our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that our own human rights and discrimination mirrored that of the US Civil rights actions against what was a long-held belief that laws needed to change to reflect everyone in the community and that white supremacy was no longer tolerated amongst some elements of society.

As already discovered, The Freedom Rides borne from the original protests in 1964, did raise a huge amount of awareness of discrimination against Aboriginals and this created a brand new civil rights movement in Australia, which was modelled on the civil rights movement of the USA

The major difference between the two movements was that in America, the issue of treatment of black people had been simmering for some time, way back to the Civil War and slavery, in Australia it was not considered that we as a society mistreated its people but more about ignorance. Which is why it took Australia over a decade from initial protests to pass laws against discrimination. Whereas the Civil Rights Act was passed in the USA in 1964 only a few years after protesting.

References

1. Australia, E. (2019). Search – Scootle. Retrieved 20 October 2019, from http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/search?accContentId=ACDSEH105
2. Education resources for schools teachers and students – ABC Education. (2019). Retrieved 20 October 2019, from http://education.abc.net.au/home#!/media/172899/us-civil-rights-movement
3. A Comparison of the Similarities Between the United States and Australian Civil Rights Movements | Kibin. (2019). Retrieved 20 October 2019, from https://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/a-comparison-of-the-similarities-between-the-united-states-and-australian-civil-rights-movements-juHEAbH2
4. US and Australian Civil Rights Movement. (2019). Retrieved 20 October 2019, from https://prezi.com/ih-fnqdu4zls/us-and-australian-civil-rights-movement/
5. Impact of Civil Rights Movement on Australia (Overall). (2019). Retrieved 20 October 2019, from https://martinlutherkingjrivanhu.weebly.com/impact-of-civil-rights-movement-on-australia-overall.html

To achieve social change, non-violent direct action must be undertaken to establish creative tension, in which a community may be forced to help negotiate or confront the issue. Creative tension is always created by non-violent resistors such as Martin Luther King. It is also a norm that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King 2). Thus, Dr. King called for constructive non-violent tension through the Letter from Birmingham Jail.

He also asks the church to help address issues of social change and bring equality to the country by stating that “the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century” (King 5).

Furthermore, Dr. King’s letter shows his frustration and impatience of waiting for freedom and justice. He also expresses the poor response of the oppressors to give up the privileges and rights of the people. His timely desire to execute his strategy led to non-violent tension. Thus, to achieve social change, people must act and create tension as advocated by Dr. King. b. How does Dr. King’s letter address the concepts of i. Rights To respond to issues of rights, Dr. King does not respond by first attacking, the political institutions. Instead, he understands segregation as both a political and a moral problem. Through the foundation of love, Dr. King creates concerns about human rights.

His main motivation to address human rights was through the creation of a beloved community. He does not seem to correct the evil segregation or wrongs in society but attacks the causes of racial segregation. He believes that the change in human consciousness would help achieve critical changes in the political order. King was using spiritual enlightenment instead of political strategies. He states “We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands” (King 5). For Dr. King people’s conceptions of self and a change of heart can lead to true relationships including human and constitutional rights. ii. Duty The Letter from Birmingham City Jail mostly focuses on the duty to fight for justice. His philosophy is mainly aligned with Gandhi’s and Thoreau’s. Dr. King believes that people have the responsibility to challenge laws that are unjust. He describes unjust laws as ‘An unjust law is no law at all’ (King 3). He also insists that the people have the role and responsibility to break unjust laws either lovingly or non-violently because “any law that uplifts human personality is just, and any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (King 3). However, the people also have a duty to obey and respect just laws overall or receive a penalty for their disobedience.

Thus, Dr. King’s civil disobedience against unjust laws inspired the fight against inequality action and provided hope for social change. iii. Justice Dr. King directly addresses issues of justice throughout the Letter from Birmingham Jail. He describes that justices fight against human segregation while injustices fight against it. He further maintains that people who see injustices and do not act in a way to stop them are unjust because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King 1). This means that morality and laws cannot be separated. Therefore, by advocating for good justice, he led non-violent protests and was jailed in an unjust way. The country needed to improve on ways that they handle justice.

The Civil Rights Movement started in the 1950s and took off in the 60s. Although events such as the Virginia High School Walkout where Barbara Johns demanded equal treatment as white students, the Brown v. Board of Education decision where the Supreme Court declared that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, and the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat all happened in the 1950s, these were events that sparked the initial Civil Rights movement. Most of the key events in the Civil Rights Movement occurred in the 1960s. It was in the sixties that actual legislative change happened. The fact that President John F. Kennedy made open his support for the civil rights movement contributed largely to the impact of the movement. JFK noted in 1963, “The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities; whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.” Nonetheless, even though JFK proposed the Civil Rights Act in 1963, it was highly controversial and he did not live to see the Act be approved by Congress.

Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. also wrote his famous open letter“Letter from Birmingham Jail” in 1963. J.H. Patton writes, “King’s ‘Letter’ was an essential response for civil rights to continue as a mass movement in Birmingham and beyond. The ‘Letter transformed the idea of reasonableness from the province of moderation alone and united it with justifications for direct civil disobedience. Consequently, the ‘Letter’ as a rhetorical response opened a new public frame for pragmatic, value-based identification with civil rights for historical and contemporary audiences. (Patton 1)” By creative use of kairos and pathos, the letter rebutted the claims of the moderate white clergy in Birmingham and changed King’s rhetorical persona and presence.

The letter seemed like a symbolic and spontaneous enactment of King’s determination and drive to promote civil rights. However, in reality, writing a letter to speak to the people from jail had been on the agenda as a strategy. The strategy worked; the letter greatly encouraged and strengthened people in a period of hopelessness and pessimism. Dr. King’s passion can be felt throughout the entire letter. He ends the letter with a call for ‘creative extremists’:

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill, three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. (Letter From Birmingham Jail)

King explains the reason behind the Civil Rights Movement’s direct action in a portion of his letter as well. For Americans who may not understand why there has to be a mass movement for equal rights in the first place, rather than a negotiation to achieve those rights, King notes,

You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. (Letter From Birmingham Jail, emphasis added)

The strong verbs, words, and phrases he chooses to use are charged with passion.

King further explains that this passionate and unique call stems from African-American experiences that are difficult to even imagine as he also illustrates in his letter as well. He notes “vicious mobs” that “lynch mothers and fathers” that “drown [siblings] on a whim.” He mentions “hate-filled policemen” who “curse, kick and even kill” your black friends and family, and “the vast majority” of twenty million African-Americans living “in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” He outlines an emotional and moving scene between African children and parents in conversation as well:

… when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?” (Letter From Birmingham Jail)

Indeed, the publication of King’s letter in 1963, quoted in large portions in this paper, fanned the fire for the Civil Rights Movement even throughout the nation mourning JFK’s assassination in November of the same year.

In 1964, the following year the Civil Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after the House approved the bill. The Act was a historic turning point since it was the first government interference on a legal level in the face of segregation. The Civil Rights Act was designed to end segregation in public spaces and concerning employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Thus, the Civil Rights Act is deemed one of the “crowning legislative achievements” of the civil rights movement (“The Civil Rights Act of 1964”).

The law prohibited the enactment and enforcement, of segregation. However, the passing of the Civil Rights Act did not change long-established societal norms at the snap of a finger. There was still a stigma around treating African-Americans the same as whites although the law prohibited discrimination.

Aside from the Civil Rights Movement, throughout the sixties, another major issue that united and ignited Americans across the country was the Cold War. The Cold War was a passionate clash of ideologies on a global scale between the United States and the Soviet Union. A direct physical confrontation between the two superpowers never occurred, but wars such as the Vietnam War and the Korean War were a result of these ideological clashes. Moreover, the threat of another great world war accompanying nuclear annihilation loomed at this time.

Malcolm Little, Aka Malcolm X, was a famous civil rights movement activist. He had a hard childhood. He was picked on due to the light color of his skin by peers and family members. His family lived in poverty and as a result Malcolm Little spent several years of his life committing crimes and ended up in prison. Malcolm X found Islam in prison and developed different philosophies which were influenced by his childhood experiences. Malcolm X eventually found peace, but unfortunately was killed after he began to make a positive difference.

“Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska” (Perry Page 2). Everyone was excited to have a baby boy born into the family, except Malcolm’s father, Earl Little, because he was ashamed that Malcolm had light skin, blue-green eyes and ash-blonde hair. Malcolm’s mother, Louisa was the same complexion as Malcolm, which is where he got his looks from. Louisa’s father was Scottish, and this made her complexion so light that she passed as white. Earl took pride in the color of his own skin. He was a strong believer of being proud to be black. “Earl was a disciple of Marcus Garvey and was elected president of the Omaha branch of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. Louisa also joined the UNIA, which emphasized that blacks should be proud of their blackness and their African heritage. It urged them to free themselves from their dependence on whites, economically and otherwise. Garvey taught that instead of integrating whites, blacks should establish their own sovereign nation” (Perry Page 3). Garvey’s philosophy influenced Malcolm’s beliefs.

“Malcolm’s father reportedly decided to leave Omaha after Ku Klux Klan horsemen waved firearms and blazing torches at the Littles’ home, shattering the window panes with their gun butts” (Perry Page 3). Louisa did not believe Earl because her sister-in-law was told by her husband that Earl impersonated the Ku Klux Klan. No one knows the real reason why Earl wanted to leave. Earl moved his family to Milwaukee as he continued to be a part of UNIA. He traveled through different cities and taught Garvey’s teachings. “The Littles trekked from Milwaukee to Albion, Michigan…then to the northwestern outskirts of Lansing” (Perry Page 4). “Despite the way Louisa extolled the ideal of black pride, she favored her lighter-skinned relatives and proudly insisted she was West Indian, not African American…Sometimes she scrubbed Malcolm’s face and neck violently exclaiming she could make him look white” (Perry Page 5). Louisa used her light skin to have the best of both worlds. She considered herself black around other blacks, but as West Indian around “important” people. Malcolm’s parents were very violent with their children. His mother viewed Malcolm as her favorite because she identified with his light skin color. “Malcolm was spared the brunt of his father’s brutality. Years later, he attributed the favoritism to his light skin color” (Perry Page 6). Malcolm’s father was a cruel man, and he made irrational decisions. He believed that white people had it better than blacks, and was a firm believer of fighting for what he believed in. His father burned down his white neighbor’s home because he felt as though he was not treated fairly. One day Louisa had a bad feeling when Earl left the house, and she tried to chase after him. “Earl was later discovered lying beside the tracks. His left arm crushed and blood gushed from his partly severed left leg, which looked as if it had been hacked open by a meat cleaver. The state police were summoned and found him still conscious. He told Trooper Laurence Baril that he had returned to the car stop just as the trolley was passing by and had tried to board the moving vehicle. But he has missed the step and had fallen under the rear wheels” (Perry Page 12). Louisa told Malcolm that white people had done this to his father, which may have directly affected the way Malcolm saw white people. “Years after the streetcar ran over Earl, Malcolm would argue that his father had been killed by the hooded, black-robed members of a white hate-group called the Black Legion” (Perry Page 12). Malcolm was not a confrontational person. Every chance he got he would avoid fighting. “Even his mother, whose beatings may have contributed to his fear of physical injury, sensed his fear of combat, which caused other youngsters to claim that he was a coward” (Perry Page 15). When fights did occur, Malcolm defended himself the best way he could, but he defended the “weaker” kids better. “Some whites ribbed Malcolm about his skin color, calling him Chinaman, Snowflake, or Eskimo…Not all racial confrontations were initiated by whites.” (Perry Page 16). These and many other fights made Malcolm very self-conscious about his color but did nothing about it because his mother wanted him to stay out of the sun.

Louisa also had a very hard time keeping a job because when white people realized she was black, they would fire her. She had seven children, and she did the best she could to feed and clothe them. “In the winter, Malcolm wore nothing more than a loosely knit sweater or an insubstantial jacket that always looked hand-me-down. In the summertime, Malcolm went barefoot” (Perry Page 18-19). Louisa struggled all of her life but was determined to make sure that her kids would go to school and get an education. She forced school on her kids and told them that there was no room for error. Malcolm was very intelligent, but he did not have good grades. He would read books instead of doing his classwork or homework. Malcolm was always respectful to women to the point that his male classmates would refer to him as a “sissy”.

Malcolm ended up getting in a lot of trouble which caused him to go to a detention center and he did not complete the eighth grade. He began doing drugs and dating white women. “In 1945, three weeks before Christmas, Malcolm embarked on a stealing binge.” (Perry Page 94). Malcolm would commit house burglaries with a group of friends. The group of friends feared him which prevented them from telling on him if they were caught. As Malcolm’s confidence in burglaries grew he became careless and left fingerprints on window seals while stealing. One day after the group had committed a house ransack, a police officer began following them. Malcolm pretended that he was lost which distracted the officers and allowed them to escape. However, Malcolm ended up getting caught, and he told on his whole group in order to receive a plea bargain. There were two white women in his group and after they were caught, they ended up accusing Malcolm and his black friend of forcing them into burglary. The case went from house burglaries to “You had no business with white girls! (Perry Page 100). The girls were let off, and Malcolm and his friend were charged with eight to ten years in prison.

While in Prison, Malcolm tried to act mean and cruel, but did not have it in his heart. Malcolm developed hostile feelings toward religion which resulted in people calling him Satan. Malcolm’s brother Reginald came to visit Malcolm in jail, and discussed the religion Islam with him. “He described the Nation of Islam and some of its teachings; including the doctrine that white people are “devils” (Perry Page 115). Elijah Muhammad had the philosophy that white people are the devil. “Elijah Muhammad taught that black people were stolen from Africa, sold into bondage, and finally brainwashed. White people forced them to adopt the names, customs, myths, and god of their masters. Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammad every day and began to pray” (Spark Notes). After many extensive conversations with his brother and personal research. Malcolm committed to following the teachings Islam. He became extremely religious after his conversion. Malcolm also started to tan his skin to lose the appearance of his light skin. He met Omar Khalil and it was ironic because they resembled. Elijah Muhammad and Omar Khalil influenced Malcolm, which made him even more serious about Islam.

Malcolm finally got on parole and moved to Detroit. Malcolm changed his name to Malcolm X because he felt like the white man took away African Americans’ original last names. Malcolm moved to Boston and New York, where he opened up mosques and joined the Nation of Islam. He ended up finding the love of his life, Betty Shabazz. The Nation of Islam won a lawsuit and offered money to Malcolm X, but he would not accept. At this time, Malcolm X’s philosophy was “I am a Muslim because it’s a religion that teaches you an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It teaches you to respect everybody and treat everybody right. But it also teaches you if someone steps on your toe, chop off their foot. And I carry my religious axe with me all the time” (Kershaw). Elijah became jealous of Malcom X, and did not want him to speak on his own views. Malcolm X criticized other black civil rights leaders because they wanted blacks and whites to be together. Malcolm X wanted blacks to get back to their roots in Africa, and to also build their own community aside from the whites. “Malcolm heard rumors of a warrant out for his death, and one of his assistants at the New York temple confessed that the Nation has ordered him to kill Malcolm” (Spark Notes). Malcolm X eventually left his position in the Nation of Islam because of these threats. Malcolm X went to Africa and found his sense of wonder at Mecca. He stated that “Islam is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam” (Kershaw). Malcolm X discovered that Islam is the religion of peace. After traveling to Africa and doing some soul searching, Malcolm X found his organization, Muslim Mosque, Inc. He had a new peaceful outlook and would say things like, “I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color” (Kershaw). Unfortunately Malcolm X was killed about a year after finding his organization.