As is often the case, my eyes are on Mississippi this week. Past and present are even more obviously intertwined than usual this year in the haunted state of Mississippi. In February, as the state legislature was ignoring multiple bills that called for removing the Confederate saltire from the state flag, Governor Phil Bryant issued … [Read more…]
I think for many people, when Martin Luther King, Jr. Day became a holiday thirty years ago, it was an opportunity to celebrate the commitment and sacrifices of all of the activists who fostered substantive change against brutal odds. I mean, clearly, King didn’t do it alone. He was gifted, generous, and brave, but he … [Read more…]
There’s always a good reason to celebrate the courage and determination of Rosa Parks, but sixty years ago today, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Everyone knows that, though. They know that her protest led to a massive yearlong (and successful) boycott of the … [Read more…]
On this day in 1960 “The Godmother of SNCC” brought together college students who had participated in that year’s sit-ins that swept the South. Ella Baker had managed to convince SCLC, a fairly new organization created on the heels of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, to hold a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. … [Read more…]