Room 210 Civil Rights

Thousands of Martin Luther King documents online for first time

2012-01-16T05:22:00.000-06:00

The King Center, established by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, is adding thousands of documents online for the first time today:

There is the handwritten draft, complete with cross-outs, of Martin Luther King's acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. There are notes about the ending of King's iconic I Have a Dream speech. And there are charming letters he received from children.

These and other King papers — 200,000 documents in all — will be available online for the first time today, as the nation marks Martin Luther King Day.

The King Center Imaging Project, financed and overseen by JPMorgan Chase, offers free public access to the papers at www.TheKingCenter.org.

The link to the King Center can be found in the links section on the right hand side of this page.

John F. Kennedy speech on civil rights

2012-01-13T14:34:00.001-06:00

Video: Medgar Evers: Civil Rights Hero

2012-01-13T14:31:00.000-06:00

Civil Rights Movement: Selma to Montgomery march

2012-01-13T14:25:00.000-06:00

Bloody Sunday: The Edmund Pettis Bridge

2012-01-13T14:19:00.000-06:00

Billie Holiday's anti-racism anthem "Strange Fruit"

2012-01-13T14:16:00.002-06:00

Promotional trailer for Little Rock Nine book- "Elizabeth and Hazel"

2012-01-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

Text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech

2012-01-13T14:05:00.002-06:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Movie: Black Panthers

2012-01-13T13:58:00.000-06:00

Bob Dylan: The Death of Emmett Till

2012-01-13T13:40:00.003-06:00

Martin Luther King: What murdered these four little girls?

2012-01-13T13:37:00.002-06:00

The accompanying video is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's speech after the murder of four little girls during the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing.

Documentary: The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

2012-01-13T13:35:00.000-06:00

Martin Luther King Jr's final speech, plus transcript

2012-01-13T13:26:00.003-06:00

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there.

I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but "fear itself." But I wouldn't stop there.

Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy."

Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.

Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.

And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember -- I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.

And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: We know how it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do. I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around."

Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldn't stop us.

And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take 'em off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. Now we've got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday.

Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, "When God speaks who can but prophesy?" Again with Amos, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me," and he's anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he's been to jail for struggling; he's been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggle, but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'm always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base....

Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother.

Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem -- or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect.

But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?" And I was looking down writing, and I said, "Yes." And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, your drowned in your own blood -- that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply,

Dear Dr. King,

I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School."

And she said,

While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze.

And I want to say tonight -- I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed -- If I had sneezed I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great Movement there.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.

I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't matter, now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

White man who beat Freedom Rider John Lewis apologizes

2012-01-13T13:07:00.000-06:00

(My apologies for the lateness of getting some of these stories posted.)

A white man who wanted to make amends for the racially-motivated beating of Freedom Rider John Lewis on May 9, 1961, made the apology on the Oprah show in December.

From the Rock Hill Herald:

The show has invited Rock Hill's Elwin Wilson to Chicago to talk about his apology for beating the living daylights out of a skinny, short black civil rights protester in the Rock Hill Greyhound bus station almost 50 years ago.

That black guy, just 21 on May 9, 1961, is a man who became a civil rights icon and, eventually, a congressman, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the Democrat from Georgia.

Yet in 1961, Lewis was just another black man among countless numbers across the South, beaten up by angry whites hell-bent on keeping blacks in their place.

Lewis, by telephone Tuesday, also confirmed that he will be taping the show Thursday in Chicago. Other Freedom Riders from 1961 are also scheduled to be there, Lewis said.

A spokesperson for the show said late Tuesday the episode is scheduled to air May 4.

"And I will be proud, to have my friend, Mr. Elwin Wilson, there by my side with me," Lewis said Tuesday. "He remains, to my knowledge, the only person who beat me, or any of us on the Freedom Rides, to apologize.

"He is a special man."

Wilson, right there in his recliner a couple of hours later Tuesday, put it this way:

"No finer honor than to be on TV with my friend John Lewis. We sure have become close after what I did to him all those years ago, when I hated black people for no good reason at all.

"He is all that is good about America. He forgave me for all that wrong I did. And I sure did wrong to him."

Yet for 48 years, until January 2009, nobody ever admitted to being the guy who beat Lewis into a bloody pulp.

After President Barack Obama was inaugurated as the nation's first black president, former Ku Klux Klansman Wilson called me here at The Herald.

Wilson told me that he wanted to apologize for a lifetime of hating blacks. Wilson then apologized to local civil rights protesters and admitted he was the one man who beat up Lewis that day in 1961.

Former governor, prosecutor in Medgar Evers murder case dies

2012-01-13T12:47:00.000-06:00

Former Mississippi Gov. William Waller Sr, who unsuccessfully prosecuted Medgar Evers' murderer, Byron de la Beckwith twice (both cases ended with hung juries) died in December at age 85.

The following is taken from Mississippi Link:

Waller began his public service career in 1960 as District Attorney for the Seventh Judicial District, which then included Hinds, Madison, and Yazoo counties. As District Attorney, he is best remembered for his prosecution of Byron de la Beckwith for the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers.

This was the first civil rights murder prosecution in the state of Mississippi.

Though the prosecution by Waller ended in two mistrials, the trial testimony of almost 60 witnesses and the introduction of more than 50 pieces of evidence were preserved. The trial transcript was crucial in 1994 when prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter, using the same physical evidence Waller used, was able to secure a guilty verdict when blacks were able to serve on the jury.

Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison and died on Jan. 21, 2001 at the age of 80.

Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice William "Bill" Waller Jr. said his father's prosecution of Beckwith inspired him to pursue a legal career. The prosecution of Beckwith "was a watershed event that moved Mississippi toward equal treatment of all people," Chief Justice Waller said.

A Democrat, the elder Waller served as governor from 1972-76 - a time when Mississippi governors were limited to one term.

Civil rights pioneer Piccolo Pierce dead at 80

2012-01-13T12:35:00.000-06:00

Savannah civil rights pioneer Piccolo Pierce died December 15 at age 80:

From the December 16 Savannah Morning News:

Pierce marched with civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson and W.W. Law. He survived the brutal Bloody Sunday March of 1965 in Selma, Ala., braved the rains to march on Washington and hear King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and spent months in local jails for trying to integrate downtown churches.

But the humble man with limited education and a severe spinal deformity never made it into the spotlight with the movement’s religious and political leaders. He did his part on the frontlines, facing tear gas, beatings and high-powered hoses.

“John came out of the war on racism with the kind of wounds that never heal,” said John Finney, director of Savannah’s Economic Opportunity Office. “Some of us went on to prestigious positions. He made contributions in whatever way he could.”

In the years after the movement, Pierce worked to make sure Savannah politicians took steps to improve conditions for the black community. He passed out fliers to generate community support for empathetic politicians, and any time there was a government meeting or political event he made sure his presence was known.

New links added

2012-01-13T09:02:00.000-06:00

The PBS series, American Experience, has three civil rights links that have been added to the Room 210 Civil Rights research links:

We now have American Experience links for Freedom Riders, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and The Murder of Emmett Till.

Google News added to research links

2012-01-10T09:46:00.004-06:00

Google News, which offers free access to many newspaper and magazine articles written during the Civil Rights era, has been added to Room 210 Civil RIghts' research links on the side of this page.

When you reach Google News, scroll down to "Archives" on the left side of the page. That will give you access to older stories from the civil rights era.

Robert Carter, architect of Brown v. Board of Education decision, dead at 94

2012-01-09T05:09:00.000-06:00

Judge Robert Carter, one of the NAACP lawyers responsible for winning the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954, has died at age 94:

The spotlight that favored Thurgood Marshall was often not expansive enough to include the contributions of Carter, who was seemingly without complaint as he labored so diligently and successfully in the shadows. It was his genius that figured so prominently in the victorious Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court in 1954.

When Carter utilized the findings of the "Doll Test," developed by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, it was a daring and controversial strategy that proved pivotal in overturning the age-old Plessy v. Ferguson law. It ended the notion of "separate but equal"-which was never in any way equal, Carter contended.

"Some of the lawyers," Kenneth Clark said in a later interview, referring to Carter's colleagues, "felt the case should not be ‘contaminated' by psychological evidence. Other lawyers, particularly Robert Carter, argued that you couldn't overthrow [Plessy v. Ferguson] by just sticking to the law...you had to show that being segregated actually damaged children."

According to Clark, Carter felt that the test results were evidence of the damaging effect of segregation on children. Almost without exception, the Black children in the test selected white dolls as exemplifying goodness and Black dolls as bad.

In the end, Marshall agreed with Carter and they leaned on this evidence as a critical part of their argument before the Supreme Court.

Deadlines for the third quarter research project

2012-01-03T14:37:00.000-06:00

Deadlines for the third quarter civil rights research project in Mr. Randy Turner's communication arts classroom at East Middle School:

Friday, January 20- Thesis statement

Monday, February 6- First draft

Friday, February 17- Multi-media, oral presentation

Wednesday, February 29- Final draft

Schedule for the third quarter research project

2012-01-03T14:28:00.001-06:00

The tentative schedule for the third quarter Civil Rights Research Project in Mr. Randy Turner's eighth grade communication arts class at East Middle School is as follows:

Thursday, January 5, Friday, January 6- Preparation

Monday, January 9-Friday, Jan. 13- Internet research

Monday, January 16- No school. Martin Luther King's Birthday

Tuesday, January 17-Wednesday, January 18- Library Research

Thursday, January 19- Friday, January 20- Organize research, write thesis statement

Friday, January 20- Deadline for thesis statement

Monday, January 23-Sunday, January 29- Students work on their own

Monday, January 30- Friday, February 3- Type or write research papers in class

Monday, February 6- Deadline for first draft

Monday, February 6- Friday, February 10- Oral presentations/multi-media presentations

Monday, February 13-Friday, February 17- Complete oral presentations and multi-media presentations

Monday, February 20-Friday, February 24- Type final drafts, extra credit work

Wednesday, February 29- Deadline for final draft

Topics for the third quarter research project

2012-01-03T14:19:00.000-06:00

Students may research any of the following topics during the third quarter Civil Rights research project in Mr. Randy Turner's eighth grade communication arts class at East Middle School:

-Freedom Riders

-Montgomery Bus Boycott

-Little Rock Nine

-Jackie Robinson's First Year in the Major Leagues

-Mississippi Murders/Freedom Summer

-Murder of Emmett Till

-Birmingham Church Bombing

-Assassination of Martin Luther King

-Assassination of Malcolm X

-Assassination of Medgar Evers

-Bloody Sunday/Selma March

-March on Washington/I Have a Dream

-Brown v. Board of Education

-Negro Leagues Baseball

-President Kennedy and the Civil Rights Movement

-President Johnson and the Civil Rights Movement

-Black Panther Party

Students may research another topic, but it must be related to the American Civil Rights Movement and must be approved by Mr. Turner.

Breakdown of third quarter research project provided

2012-01-03T13:42:00.000-06:00

Following is the breakdown of the third quarter civil rights research project in Mr. Randy Turner's eighth grade communication arts class at East Middle School:

Thesis Statement- Students will explain their research project in three-quarters of a page. 100 points

First Draft- The first draft of the research paper must be at least 1,000 words. It is worth 200 points.

Final Draft- The final draft is worth 300 points

100 points for research
100 points for writing
100 points for proper preparation of the paper

Bibliography- Bibliography is worth 100 points

Multi-Media Project- worth 100 points. A poster, collage, power point or movie about the topic

Oral Presentation- Students will give an oral presentation, worth 100 points, on their topics.

Completing Assignments on Time- Students will receive an extra 10 points for each of the parts of the project they accomplish on time. Possibility of receiving 60 points.

Stutents begin project with 40 of the 1,000 points

VIdeo: Thousands gather for MLK Memorial Dedication

2011-10-16T17:47:00.001-05:00

Video: President Obama's speech at Martin Luther King Memorial Dedication

2011-10-16T17:44:00.001-05:00

James Ford Seale, murderer of two black teenagers in '64, dies in prison

2011-08-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

James Ford Seale, who was convicted of murdering two black teenagers in 1964, has died in prison:

James Ford Seale, convicted in 2007 in connection with the 1964 killings of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi, died Tuesday in federal prison.

Seale, 76, had been serving three life sentences at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of his conviction in connection with the abduction, beatings and killings of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The bodies of the 19-year-olds were found on the Louisiana side of the old Mississippi River.

Monday would have been Emmett Till's 70th birthday

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

Monday, July 25, would have been Emmett Till's 70th birthday. Till, of course, was only 14 when he was murdered in 1955 in Money, Mississippi.

Freedom Riders honored in return to Mississippi

2011-07-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

Freedom Riders were honored this week in their return to Mississippi, a half-century after their initial arrival in Jackson:

By 1961, Mary Jean Smith had been a part of sit-ins and received training for nonviolent protest, but she wasn't ready to challenge segregated travel in the Deep South until she sat behind two white passengers on a city bus in Tennessee.

"They had a transistor radio and were listening to reports about the Freedom Riders. One of them said, 'I hope all those niggers die.' It did something to me. I went into another world," she said Tuesday.

Smith, a Tennessee State University student, volunteered to be part of the next group of riders who would head south through civil rights battlegrounds in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Along the route, they were beaten and their buses were burned. Eventually, they were arrested and thrown into the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

On Tuesday — 50 years to the day after the first wave of riders arrived at the Jackson terminal — a celebration was held for them in Mississippi's capital. They were welcomed by Gov. Haley Barbour, Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and hundreds of high school and college students, who called them heroes.

John Lewis offers thoughts on 49th anniversary of March on Washington

2011-07-28T10:02:00.002-05:00

Students trace civil rights trail

2011-07-23T08:38:00.002-05:00

Freedom Riders defied injustice

2011-07-23T08:31:00.004-05:00

Freedom Riders defied injustice, changed history: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Ruby Bridges views her portrait at the White House

2011-07-15T19:27:00.003-05:00

Waring dissent paved way for Brown v. Board of Education

2011-07-09T12:00:00.002-05:00

An article in the latest issue of the National Law Journal explains how a dissent from Judge J. Waites Waring in the Briggs v. Elliott case paved the way for the U. S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education:

On the morning of the federal court trial, a large group of the plaintiffs and their supporters traveled by caravan from Summerton to Charleston to witness what would be one of the most important legal proceedings in American history. Hundreds lined up in the courthouse, on the stairs leading to the courtroom and onto the street for a chance to see and hear the legal attack on their second-class status. They were not disappointed. They observed the testimony of witnesses describing the profound disparities in the educational facilities and resources provided the black and white children of their community. They heard what would become the historic expert testimony of psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark as he described his "doll studies" and opined that segregation stigmatized and injured their children. But what thrilled the plaintiffs the most was the searing cross-examination by their lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, as he questioned the defendants' star witness, ultimately forcing him to admit that, at least in part, his testimony was based on a lifelong belief in racial segregation.

But this was South Carolina, the year was 1951 and the doctrine of Plessy was deeply ingrained in the region's culture. Several weeks after the completion of the Briggs trial, in June 1951, the three-judge panel issued a predictable decision, holding that racial segregation of the schools was a matter of state legislative policy in which the federal courts were "powerless to interfere." What was not predictable was the stirring 20-page dissent by Waring, who concluded that "segregation in education can never produce equality.…Segregation is per se inequality." Waring described segregation as an "evil" that "must go and go now."

Waring's improbable journey on race began after his appointment to the federal bench in 1942. Civil rights cases on his docket slowly opened him to a view of his native city and state that he had never considered as a prosperous attorney and member of elite social societies in Charleston. He started modestly, ending segregation in his courtroom. Beginning in the mid-1940s, Waring issued a series of opinions equalizing the pay of black teachers and requiring the state to admit black students to the University of South Carolina School of Law or to open an equal law school for African-Americans. Waring crossed the racial Rubicon in 1948, when he ordered the state Democratic Party to end its "white primary" and to allow black South Carolinians to vote in the only election that then mattered in the state. Waring soon found himself a social pariah in his native state. Politicians called for his impeachment, death threats were constant and crosses were burned in his yard.

Shortly after issuing his historic dissent in Briggs, Waring turned 70 and became eligible for judicial retirement. He quietly submitted his notice of retirement to the president, and he and his wife moved to New York City. There, he watched as Briggs and other school-segregation cases wound their way onto the Supreme Court's docket. In all of these cases, from Kansas, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and South Carolina, only Waring concluded that segregation in public education, even if equalized, was incompatible with the 14th Amendment. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court, echoing the words and reasoning of Waring's dissent, concluded in Brown that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." On the night of the Brown decision, Walter White, the president of the NAACP, and other civil rights leaders journeyed to Waring's small Upper East Side apartment to thank him personally for the courage and vision of his dissent.

Several years after the Brown decision, Waring and Chief Justice Earl Warren, who authored the Supreme Court's unanimous order, had a chance encounter. Waring told the chief justice, "I was greatly relieved when you decided that Clarendon school case. I'd been very lonely up to that time." Warren responded to the retired Southern jurist, essentially living in exile, "Well, you had to do it the hard way."

60 Minutes examines unsolved 1964 civil rights murder of Louis Allen

2011-07-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

Mitchell blog: Records show Klan leader, 77, involved in abduction of murdered civil rights workers

2011-06-29T01:01:00.000-05:00

Jackson Clarion-Ledget reporter Jerry Mitchell. in his latest blog entry, writes about a former KKK leader, still alive, who was involved in plotting the kidnapping of murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, in 1964:

My story in today’s Clarion-Ledger details the case against reputed Klan leader Pete Harris, now 77. Let’s look at them in order:

1) In spring 1964, he and Klansman James Jordan visited Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who was quoted by Jordan as remarking that civil rights worker Mickey Schwerner was “a thorn in the side of everyone living, especially the white people, and that he should be taken care of.”

2) In spring 1964, Harris attended key Klan meetings where Klansmen discussed “eliminating” civil rights worker Mickey Schwerner.

3) On June 16, 1964, Harris was present at a Neshoba County meeting, where Klansmen left and beat members of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church and then burned their church.

4) On the evening of the killings, June 21, 1964, Killen gathered Klansmen, including Harris, at Akin mobile homes sales lot in Meridian, according to testimony. Earlier that day, Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price had arrested three civil rights workers, including Schwerner, James Chaney and Andy Goodman. Killen told Klansmen that the civil rights workers were being held in jail and “needed their rear ends torn up,” according to testimony.

Jordan testified Harris made telephone calls, gathering more Klansmen for the job. When the Klansmen gathered to leave, Jordan said Harris told them he had to stay behind because he was a leader in the Klan.

That night, Klansmen intercepted the trio, killing them and burying their bodies 15 feet down in an earthen dam. But all the world knew on June 22, 1964, was that they were missing.

5) Jordan testified that a month after the killings he and Harris met with Bowers, who praised their work in eliminating the three civil rights workers.

Jordan testified Bowers urged them to get rid of their weapons and to stay quiet.

Don Cochran, a former prosecutor, said he believes there is almost enough evidence in the transcript alone to bring a case against Harris.

Identity of informant in murder of three civil rights workers still in question

2011-06-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

In an article published today in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jerry Mitchell explores the continuing mystery of the identity of the informant who told police how to find three civil rights workers in 1964, leading to their murders:

FBI records obtained by The Clarion-Ledger show three separate Klansmen-turned-informants for the FBI told agents that Price or the Neshoba County Sheriff's Department were tipped off by someone here in Longdale, an African-American community off Mississippi 19 nine miles east of Philadelphia.

Around lunchtime June 21, 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner arrived at the ashes of what once had been the Mount Zion Methodist Church, investigating what had happened. They spoke with church members, including Ernest Kirkland and Cornelius Steele, and interviewed Bud Cole, who had been severely beaten by Klansmen.

Minutes after they turned onto Mississippi 19, Deputy Cecil Price arrested them. That night, he released them into the hands of waiting Klansmen, who killed and buried the trio.

"You can conclude without a doubt there was an informant in the Longdale community," Ratliff said.

Back in 1964, the FBI investigated the informant question. One Longdale resident told the FBI that Clarence Hill was an informant for Sheriff Lawrence Rainey.

Hill, now 86, told The Clarion-Ledger that accusation is a lie.

Original Freedom Rider Ben Cox laid to rest

2011-06-20T07:03:00.000-05:00

Funeral services for Rev. Ben Cox, one of the original Freedom Riders, were held Saturday:

The Rev. Dennis Blalock called Cox a "good soldier" in his eulogy, saying Cox had suffered and endured.
"True bravery is a spirit," Blalock said.
Cox rode buses in 1961 into segregated Southern states to protest transportation systems that, according to a PBS website about the civil rights movement, kept white and black patrons from sitting together on buses, trains and trolley cars.

Ben Cox, one of 13 original Freedom Riders, dies

2011-06-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Former Freedom Rider remembers Medgar Evers

2011-06-13T03:18:00.000-05:00

How Hattiesburg, Mississippi, kept from having trouble with Freedom Riders

2011-06-01T04:40:00.000-05:00

Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, who continues to offer one remarkable story after another about the American civil rights movement, has another one in today's edition.

In it, Mitchell reveals the previously untold story of how Hattiesburg,Mississippi kept from having trouble with the Freedom Riders, with an interview of longtime Hattiesburg civil leader Bobby Chain:

Chain said the idea was simple: Let the Freedom Riders hold protests and provocations in peace. There would be no angry mob scenes, no retaliation.

"We met every morning at 7 o'clock to plan for the day's events," Chain said. "The places where we knew these people would go, we visited privately with (the owners/managers/proprietors), whichever one of us could best talk with them. We said, 'Now look, if (Freedom Riders) come talk to you, you be nice to them and no problems.'
"We got the bus stations to take down the 'white only' signs. We got the right people to see to that, too. This group we had, these were powerful men."

A search of issues of the Hattiesburg American from May though August 1961 had front-page news of the Riders - "mixers" as they also were referred to in the headlines - and their arrests in Jackson and other Southern cities.

But there were no stories of arrests or incidents involving the Riders during that summer in Hattiesburg.

Chain said the group stayed mostly behind the scenes. Had word gotten out, "(t)his probably wouldn't have been popular with some segment of our population, had they known what we were doing, but it never got out, and we kept this group together for two or three years because we didn't know how long (the Riders) would keep coming, and we had a few stragglers in the years after that."

Ex-FBI agent recalls Mississippi murders

2011-05-29T06:28:00.000-05:00

Former FBI Special Agent Floyd Thomas told a group of Massachusetts High School students this week about the investigation into the disappearance of three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner,James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman in 1964, and the subsequent discovery of their bodies and investigation into the murders:

The students sat quietly, listening to Thomas as he recounted the facts, the investigation and the outcome of one of the South's most publicized murder cases.

"I was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations 1951 to 1973," he said, beginning his tale.

The Freedom Summer Murders were attributed to Ku Klux Klan members in Philadelphia, Miss. Thomas spent three months away from his family in Arkansas investigating the case.

"I received a phone call from headquarters advising me to leave immediately and go to Meridian, Miss.," he said.

He continued, "Down in the area of Philadelphia, there had been three people reported missing down there, plus a rented station wagon."

A bystander's tip led Thomas and his partner to look through the woods nearby, where they located a station wagon matching the description of the missing vehicle.

"You could just barely see it in the weeds out there — the top of a vehicle. The doors were partially open...and everything that was flammable was burned."

"The outside of the car wasn't burned or anything, and the weeds weren't burned, so they had it towed in," he continued, "So now we had found our vehicle, but still had three missing persons."

Thomas let the group in on the methods he used when working a case, saying, "Working a crime investigation is just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

"You've got all these pieces and you've got to get the pieces all together to get the picture," he said.

Thomas and his partner then learned that the three missing individuals had been arrested some time previously and detained at the Philadelphia jail after a traffic stop.

It's believed that during their detainment, the sheriff conspired with local KKK members to release the three men in time for them to be intercepted on the highway by men with bad intentions.

Thomas and his partner worked with a local naval base to use ultraviolet photos viewing recently disturbed plots of land.

"So we dug all that. We had 30 sailors from over at the base there helping us drag ponds," he said, adding a brief anecdote about other pastimes the sailors found to entertain themselves.

"I don't know how much money the government spent on chickens," he said with a chuckle.

He explained, "Those sailors figured out they could throw a fire cracker into the chicken houses and when it went off all the chickens around would suffocate. They had dead chickens scattered around all over there."

Thomas spent his time checking for decomposition in the soil and looking for new construction sites.

It was in one such location, a dam still under construction, where Thomas and the other investigators found the bodies of the missing men 44 days after they vanished.

Thomas continued, "I heard on the radio just before I got there — 'I think we found them. We found a shoe heel.'"

"The shoe heel turned out to be the shoe heel of one of the boys that was buried in the dam."

He described how the men were laying, the intricate procedure of trying to excavate the bodies without destroying the evidence and a joke Thomas attempted that "went over like a lead balloon" with the man he told it to.

"We got to this one kid, and he had a little place under his arm here," Thomas said as he pointed to his left side.

"You've got to have a little humor to go along, or else you'll go nuts," he said.

"I said to the kid in the hole with me, 'This guy's been hurt! Go get us a doctor!'"

The man climbed out of the hole, now at 25 feet deep, and reported to those around, "This guy's crazy. Obviously (the victim)'s dead, he's been down there for three months."

Freedom Riders reunite after 50 years

2011-05-26T03:53:00.000-05:00

The BBC has an article on the reuniting of the original Freedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi, last week:

Back in 1961, Jim Crow customs ruled the Deep South. Despite a Supreme Court ruling making segregation on interstate buses illegal, black passengers were still expected to sit at the back.

The Freedom Riders refused to abide by convention, infuriating the white supremacists of the Ku Klux Klan.

On 14 May, a white mob attacked a Greyhound bus carrying Hank Thomas and six other activists as well as regular passengers, near Anniston, Alabama.

Hezekiah Watkins was one of the Freedom Riders Its tyres were slashed, and the bus hissed to a halt. A firebomb was lobbed through the back window, filling the air with poisonous smoke.

"I knew I was going to die," recalls Thomas, aged 19 at the time. "It was a question of the best way to do it: leave the bus and be beaten to death, or stay and burn?"

An exploding fuel tank saved his life. The crowd retreated, allowing the suffocating passengers to clamber free.

Jerry Mitchell speaks on the murder of Medgar Evers

2011-05-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

John Lewis asks graduates to build a better society

2011-05-08T08:27:00.000-05:00

During a graduation speech at University of Mary Washington Saturday, Congressman John Lewis, D-Ga. one of the original Freedom Riders and a civil rights pioneer, urged the graduates to "build a better society."

The school issued the following news release:

Civil rights icon John Lewis called on the University of Mary Washington class of 2011 to build a better society, urging the graduates to challenge injustices as he delivered the undergraduate commencement address on Saturday, May 7.

“You must stand up. You must speak up. You must speak out,” said Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia. “You must create a world community at peace with itself.”

Lewis, a 1961 Freedom Rider, praised the university for its three-month tribute to the Freedom Rides and to their architect, the late civil rights leader James Farmer who taught at Mary Washington. The Freedom Rides successfully defied segregated interstate bus travel and facilities in the South.

“No other college in America is pausing like you have to celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides,” he said. “I come here to say thank you, thank you.”

“The University of Mary Washington is a bright light in the education of all of our citizens about the issues of civil rights, human rights and social justice,” he said. “You have discovered that the cause of civil rights is not just the legacy of…one people, but all Americans. We all must play a role in helping to build a just and open society.”

Lewis spoke to about 5.000 people, including graduates, family members, friends and faculty, gathered in Ball Circle for the 100th annual commencement. The university awarded a total of 1,295 degrees in the May 7 undergraduate ceremony and the May 6 graduate ceremony, including 450 bachelor of arts degrees, 42 bachelor of liberal studies degrees, 92 bachelor of professional studies degrees and 459 bachelor of science degrees, as well as 252 master’s degrees.

In his remarks, Lewis recalled his upbringing in Alabama. Born to sharecroppers in 1940, he attended segregated public schools. “Whites only” signs were commonplace. “As a young child, I tasted the bitter fruits of segregation and racial discrimination,” Lewis said. When he questioned his parents about segregation, they said “that’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way. Don’t get in trouble.”

But as a teenager, Lewis was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. aired on radio broadcasts “as if he were speaking to me…to get involved.” In those pivotal moments, Lewis made a decision to become a part of the Civil Rights movement.

“I got in trouble,” he said. “It was good trouble. Necessary trouble. James (Farmer) and the Freedom Riders 50 years ago got in trouble. Necessary trouble. Good trouble to bring down those signs that said ‘white men, colored men, white women, colored women.’ Those signs are gone and they will not return.”

“Your children, the only place they’ll see those signs is in a book, in a museum, on a video. We live in a better country. We’re on our way to the creation of a beloved community where we can lay down the burden of race and create a society where we can forget about race.”

Lewis was a student at Fisk University when he organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn. At 21, he “had all my hair and was a few pounds lighter” when he joined the Freedom Rides, he recalled. Lewis endured vicious beatings at the hands of angry mobs and, in all, more than 40 arrests for challenging segregation. Yet he remained a devoted advocate of nonviolence.

“You must never ever give up. You must never ever give in,” he said. “Get out there and push and pull, and do your part to create a loving community in redeeming the soul of America. You can do it. You must do it.”

During the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lewis helped organize and chair the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that was responsible for coordinating student activism. He was a young man when he was deemed one of the “Big Six” leaders of the movement along with King and Farmer.

Farmer, who taught history at Mary Washington for about a dozen years, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1998. This year, Lewis himself received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, who as Lewis noted was born the year of the 1961 Rides.

In concluding his remarks, Lewis urged the graduates to make a commitment to justice, no matter how difficult the path.

“My friends, the storms may come. The winds may blow. The thunder may roll. The lightning may flash. And the rain may be beat down on our old house. Call it the house of UMW,” Lewis said. “Call it the house of Virginia. Call it the house of Georgia or California or New York. Call it the house of Alabama. Call it the American house. We all live in the same house.”

“I say to you as you leave this university, as you leave this little piece of real estate, you still have the power to change the social, economic and political structures around you. You still have the power to lead a nonviolent revolution of values and ideas in your community and around the world. If you use that power, if you use your education, use your talent, use your skills, use that power, then a new and better world is yours to build.”

“So I say to you today, walk with the wind. Let the spirit of history, the spirit of UMW, and the spirit of the Freedom Rides be your guide.”

Following the address, Daniel K. Steen, rector of the university’s Board of Visitors, conferred an honorary doctor of humane letters degree on Lewis.

He has been awarded over 50 honorary degrees from universities throughout the United State. He also holds a B.A. in religion and philosophy from Fisk University, and he is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Nashville, Tennessee.

Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 and has served as U.S. representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since then. He is Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in leadership in the House and is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight.

Two years ago, Lewis was visited in his office by a man who had encountered Lewis on May 9, 1961 in Rock Hill, S.C. The man, who was a Klansman in 1961, had beaten Lewis that day in South Carolina. Nearly 48 years later, the man came to apologize to Lewis and to ask for forgiveness.

“He started crying. He gave me a hug. I started crying and I hugged him back,” Lewis said. “That is what the movement was all about – to build a sense of community. We all live in the same house because we are one people.”

Freedom Riders say today's youth disconnected from battle against racism

2011-05-08T08:15:00.000-05:00

In an article in today's Washington Post, the legacy of the Freedom Rides, which took place 50 years ago, is combined with a look at today's young people:

One of the youngest of the riders, Hezekiah Watkins, is now 63 years old and lives across town from Lovelady in Jackson. He has found himself thinking the same thing when he looks at his 21-year-old daughter, Kristie. In recent weeks, as he has given interviews and speeches about his experience during the rides, he has juxtaposed his teenage years with hers.

“A lot of times, she feels as though somebody owes her. I’m always asking, ‘What are you owed and by whom?’ ” Watkins said. “I talked to all of my kids about the ’60s and what we went through. They’ll just look at me like, ‘It’s not relevant.’ My thing has always been this: You’re standing on a banana peel, and any given day you could slip.”

For Hank Thomas, who was 19 when he joined the Freedom Riders, the contrast between his experiences and those of young people today could not be more stark.

Fifty years ago, the sacrifice was unambiguous. Forcing integration on the South meant putting your body on the line. It meant buying a bus ticket down to Jackson after hearing about the bus firebombed in Anniston and the men and women beaten in Birmingham and Montgomery.

“You never knew what was going to happen,” Thomas said, remembering the anxiety of the times.

Thomas, a black businessman, lives outside Atlanta. He owns three McDonald’s franchises and three Marriott hotels. When he was in the first group of 13 riders, launched with little fanfare by the Congress of Racial Equity, they called themselves the “young eagles.” Thomas jokes now that they are the “bald eagles.”

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. considered that first ride a fool’s errand, and at one point he declined an invitation to board the bus with the students. The young felt haughty about going where the leader of the civil rights movement would not dare. Their protest, in retrospect, is credited with giving the nonviolent movement a template for future campaigns.

John Lewis to be honored at NAACP dinner

2011-05-02T05:14:00.000-05:00

Congressman John Lewis a civil rights pioneer, will be honored at a NAACP dinner today in Detroit:

Civil Rights pioneer and U.S. Rep. John Lewis and musician Kid Rock will share the spotlight today at the Detroit NAACP branch’s annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner at Cobo Center.

Lewis, who grew up in racially segregated Pike County, Ala., just miles from where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a movement to end segregation on Montgomery’s buses, is the keynote speaker.

Inspired by King, Lewis organized marches, led lunch-counter sit-ins, helped integrate interstate bus systems and organized voter education and registration drives.

Lewis became a symbol of the movement when he and other protesters were attacked by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they tried to march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. So horrifying was the attack that it became known as Bloody Sunday.

Freedom Riders to appear on Oprah

2011-04-26T05:21:00.000-05:00

As part of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, some of those who participated in the historic civil rights actions will appear on the Oprah show:

This week Oprah Winfrey will tape a TV show in Chicago with some of the Freedom Riders who long ago trekked courageously to the South to press for civil rights.

Imagine, two of those surviving activists from the front lines in the fight against segregation are Santa Rosans.

Retired pastor Francis Geddes, 87, is one. Geddes, now a member of Church of the Incarnation, was locked up in 1961 as part of an interracial group that agitated to integrate the coffee shop at Mississippi's Jackson Airport.

“What I learned from being jailed in Jackson,” he said as he prepared to fly to meet Oprah and his fellow Freedom Riders, “is that I didn't have to be afraid of anything else in my life.”

CHICAGO BECKONS also to Santa Rosa's George Houser, who first opposed Jim Crow in the South not with the Freedom Rides that began on May 4 of 1961 but with the 1947 anti-segregation campaign that inspired the Rides.

Houser, who's 94, was a leader of the ‘47 Journey of Reconciliation. He and late African-American civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and others boarded Trailways and Greyhound coaches in Southern states to test the Supreme Court's 1946 landmark decision barring segregation on interstate buses.

$550,000 grant to be used to preserve "Eyes on the Prize" footage

2011-04-20T20:41:00.000-05:00

Unedited interviews of footage from the groundbreaking civil rights documentary "Eyes on the Prize" will be preserved, thanks to a $550,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to Washington University:

The original documentary film and interview footage were donated to the University Libraries in 2001 as part of the Henry Hampton Collection. The collection is one of the largest archives of civil rights media in the United States and contains materials on other topics as well.

“Hampton’s Eyes on the Prize remains the definitive work on the American civil rights movement, even more than 20 years after its release,” says Shirley K. Baker, vice chancellor for scholarly resources and dean of University Libraries. “With the generous assistance of the Mellon Foundation, Washington University can continue to protect and preserve these priceless archives for students, scholars and the general public for generations to come.”

Among those interviewed for the documentary were Curtis Jones, cousin of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955; Coretta Scott King, wife of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and Burke Marshall, head of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Kennedy administration. The footage from all these interviews and many more is held at the Film & Media Archive, a unit of the University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections.

“These records are a crucial part of Americans’ cultural history and heritage,” says James E. McLeod, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and vice chancellor for students. “This partnership between Washington University and the Mellon Foundation ensures that both the documentary itself, along with the interviews that gave life to its stories, will always be available as a source of information and inspiration.”

Preview of PBS "Freedom Riders" documentary

2011-04-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

Robert Redford to play Branch Rickey in new Jackie Robinson film

2011-04-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

Robert Redford, star of one of the all-time great baseball movies, The Natural, will return to the diamond as star of a new biography of Jackie Robinson:

The focus of the story is about the relationship between Robinson and Rickey, who is responsible for integrating the sport in America, as well as other innovations including the use of batting helmets. Author Jimmy Breslin's new biography of Rickey was released March 17.

"No one really knows the Rickey part, the political maneuvers and the partnership they had to share," Redford told the Los Angeles Times, which reported the announcement. "It's the story underneath the story you thought you knew."

Freedom Rider Joan Mulholland speaks at Central Virginia Community College

2011-04-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

As the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Freedom Rides, continues, Freedom Rider Joan Mulholland shared her experiences with an audience at Central Virginia Community College this week:

“I was a white Southerner and I felt we had a responsible to live out the best of our culture, to do unto others that which is done unto you,” said Mulholland during the panel discussion. “I just felt that things were terribly wrong, we were not practicing what we preached.”

Comprised mostly of black and white college students, the Freedom Riders travelled on trains and buses across the South in 1961, determined to break down the barriers of segregation. They journeyed through Virginia on their way to the deep South, including one stop in Lynchburg.

Wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “ERACISM,” Mulholland gave a first-hand account of her role in the Freedom Rides, which got her arrested and jailed at Mississippi’s notorious Parchman State Prison Farm.

“Fear is counterproductive and it slows you down from doing what needs doing,” Mulholland said.

Half a century later, Mulholland is a mother of five sons and has taught for 30 years in Arlington County public schools. She calls her decision to join the Freedom Rides one of the most important in her life.

“The ’50s had been really boring, but suddenly it was like wildfire and who knows what will start a wildfire,” she said, urging the younger generation to continue the fight against prejudice. “Something will happen. Be ready for it and look out for it,"

David French, surgeon for the civil rights movement, dies

2011-04-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

David French, a surgeon who helped victims of racial violence during civil rights demonstrations of the '60s, died March 31 at age 86:

The health care provider and public servant organized first-aid efforts during major civil rights marches, including the historic –and bloody--voting rights march from Selma, Ala. to that state’s capitol in Montgomery in 1965 that was led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

During one Mississippi protest in 1966, French and his wife Carolyn Howard used their family van as an ambulance to provide first aid for casualties when the non-violent demonstrators were attacked by locals, including police, opposed to the civil rights march on the state capitol, according to a Washington Post obituary.

60 Minutes plans stories on unsolved 1964 murder of Louis Alen

2011-04-08T05:22:00.000-05:00

On his blog, Jackson Clarion-Ledger reporter Jerry Mitchell, who has been instrumental in bringing attention to unsolved murders of the civil rights era, notes that CBS' 60 Minutes is doing a piece on the unsolved 1964 murder of Louis Allen:

Hank Allen, the son of Louis Allen, believes retired sheriff Daniel Jones had something to do with his father’s 1964 ambush killing.

60 Minutes is airing a story on the cold case at 6 p.m. CDT Sunday, April 10, on CBS.

FBI records from 1964 name Jones as a suspected member of the Ku Klux Klan — an allegation Jones later admitted to the FBI.

In an interview with Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes, Jones was asked if he could say he had nothing to do with the murder.

“No sir, I wasn’t involved in it,” he responded.

Told he could clear the whole thing up by taking a lie detector test, Jones replied to Kroft, “Well, then it ain’t getting cleared up.”

A preview of the program can be found at this link.

New book names trigger man in Malcolm X assassination

2011-04-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

A new book published today offers startling revelations about the assassination of Malcolm X:

After Malcolm X was gunned down in 1965 at Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom, three men — who viewed him as an enemy and hypocrite for renouncing the Nation of Islam — were quickly arrested and prosecuted. The case was closed for law enforcement, but many have doubted that police captured the right men.

Marable, who began studying Malcolm X in 1969 and founded the African American studies program at Columbia University, uses the biography, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” to search for answers and name five alleged conspirators. Only one has served time for the crime.

While the 592-page book also examines Malcolm X’s life, it is the research into his death, which publisher Viking Press describes as “the never-before-told true story of his assassination,” that could prove most controversial. Marable goes further than any other mainstream scholar in pointing to specific individuals who he alleges plotted to kill the minister. The man who fired the first and deadliest shot, Marable alleges, is still alive, while another conspirator has died. The book does not include definitive information about the fate or whereabouts of the other two.

Myrlie Evers speaks at Jackson State University

2011-03-31T05:22:00.000-05:00

Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King contributions honored in Missouri ceremony

2011-03-21T09:35:00.000-05:00

The contributions of two women of the civil rights era, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, were recognized during a program in Cape Girardeau Sunday:

Several speakers, singers and dancers were part of the sixth annual Memorial Tribute, which committee director Debra Mitchell-Braxton said is to recognize Women's History Month and to bring Parks' and King's legacy to life.

"Rosa Parks was the 'mother' of the civil rights movement and Coretta King was the 'first lady,'" Mitchell-Braxton said. "What we're trying to do is keep the dreams of these two women alive. You have to have leaders; we need more leaders in our community."

The congregation's singers performed a gospel song, "I'm Still Holding On," about keeping God close in order to deal with struggles.

"When I first heard it I was going through a lot," choir member Gwen McGee said. "But, these last 20 years have been good."

Speakers highlighted the women's accomplishments, among them fighting for peace and resisting racial segregation, and youth from House of Prayer performed a play focusing on the history of the African-American culture and the importance of God in its history.

Geneva Allen, a member of St. James, called the women "she-roes" who fought for the rights black Americans and women have today. Both women were Christians and both fought for equality, she said.

"Thanks to God that they were both trailblazers," she said.

King biographer Taylor Branch laments downfall of non-violence

2011-03-21T05:12:00.000-05:00

During a speech in a Baltimore church, historian Taylor Branch, author of an acclaimed three-part biography of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, lamented the disappearance of the non-violence philosphy that King used during the civil rights movement:

"We don't really understand the dividends that nonviolence has paid," he said of the strategy for social change.

"Nonviolence set off a broad and wonderful expanse of freedom. It was not just the gains made for black people," he said. "Later, women's rights advanced out of this movement. So did the rights of gays and the disabled people who had been shunted aside."

He said that King and other civil rights leaders used nonviolence as a valuable and "potent tool" in the 1960s, particularly in Mississippi, during the era of the Freedom Riders and the peaceful protests. "For Martin Luther King, nonviolence was a leadership doctrine," he said.

But by the time of King's death in 1968, it was being discredited by others in the movement as being "old-fashioned" and "pious." He cited Stokely Carmichael and others as deflecting attention away from the nonviolent philosophy as they advanced their own, more strident approaches.

"Stokely Carmichael became more fashionable," said Branch. "Nonviolence became nonrespectable in the New York Review of Books."

Hank Thomas, original Freedom Rider, honored by Mississippi Senate

2011-03-21T05:02:00.000-05:00

Hank Thomas, one of the original Freedom Riders, was honored by the Mississippi Senate last week:

Thomas says when he rode to Jackson he was not even allowed in the Capitol building because of his race.

"This is my first time ever in this capitol. So you can imagine as I am thinking "50 years ago...". No, as the Senator said I wouldn't even be allowed in here. And to get this kind of honor, it gave me chills," Thomas said.

New book profiles Branch Rickey, the man who signed Jackie Robinson

2011-03-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Albany Times Union has the lowdown today on a new biography of the legendary baseball genius Branch Rickey, written by Jimmy Breslin.

Rickey was the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed Jackie Robinson to break the major league color barrier:

Breslin's new book, "Branch Rickey: An American Life," tells a classic American bootstrap story. With belief in hard work and faith in God and in the equality of all men, Branch Rickey climbed from poverty to success in the quintessential American industry: baseball. Breslin shows us that when we talk about Jackie's courage, we have to acknowledge Rickey's courage, too.

Robinson is, of course, a role model, for anyone who has to face being a "first." Branch Rickey is also a model, showing us that making a profit doesn't have to be separate from making social change.

Few of us will have the opportunity to enact history in the dramatic way that Jackie Robinson did. But we all have opportunities to be like Branch Rickey, who ensured the moment could happen.

March 15 anniversary of President Johnson's call for Voting Rights Act

2011-03-16T05:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, March 15, was the 46th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for a National Voting Rights Act in the wake of Bloody Sunday in Selma:

“I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy,” Johnson began. “I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.”

“Their cause must be our cause, too,” Johnson said. All Americans “must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”

The White House drafted legislation, which arrived on Capitol Hill on March 17, that banned literacy tests, named federal vote registrars and imposed federal penalties on anyone who interfered with voting in local, state or federal elections.

Today would have been Ralph Abernathy's 85th birthday

2011-03-12T11:13:00.000-06:00

Civil rights pioneer Ralph Abernathy, known as Martin Luther King's right hand man, was born 85 years ago today:

At age 26, Abernathy became full-time minister at the First Baptist Church, Montgomery’s largest black congregation. Three years later, a man he’d met while at school in Atlanta became minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The two soon became good friends. That man’s name was Martin Luther King Jr.

The turning point in Abernathy’s life – and indeed, a turning point for life in America – came on December 1, 1955 when a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus to make way for white riders. She was a coworker of Abernathy’s at the NAACP, and her arrest led King and Abernathy to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) in order to organize a boycott protesting Montgomery’s policy of segregated busing.

Three quarters of the city’s bus patrons were black, and the well-organized boycott had an immediate impact. When King was arrested and given a sentence of 386 days in jail, it brought national attention to the protest. The boycott would last over a year, until December 1956, when a federal ruling found bus segregation to be unconstitutional. Angry whites responded by firebombing Abernathy’s home and church, as well as those of King.

The boycott made Martin Luther King Jr. a nationally known figure, his impassioned speeches turning him into the face of the Civil Rights Movement while Abernathy remained largely in the background. The two men formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, with the aim of taking what they had learned in Montgomery and spreading organized, nonviolent civil rights protests throughout the South.

During the next thirteen years, King's and Abernathy’s tireless leadership brought the struggle for civil rights to Albany, Birmingham, Mississippi, Washington, Selma, St. Augustine, Chicago and Memphis as they helped spearhead marches, sit-ins, and other non-violent actions aimed at winning equal rights for African Americans. Abernathy was with King when he delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the August 28, 1963 March on Washington that helped gain passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

FBI reopening investigation into 1965 murder of minister in Selma

2011-03-12T11:00:00.000-06:00

The FBI is reopening the investigation into the 1965 beating death of Unitarian minister James Reeb in Selma, Ala.:

In 1965, three men — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O’Neal Hoggle — were tried for murder, but the all-white jury acquitted the trio, despite testimony identifying the attackers.

A fourth man indicted, R.B. Kelley, was never prosecuted. He gave authorities the names of those he said attacked the ministers.

He denied playing a role himself, but police found a club in his car, according to FBI records.

At least one of those men, Namon O’Neal ‘Duck’ Hoggle, is alive.

Decades later, questions remain about the fairness of the trial. One juror, Harry Vardaman, was the brother of a key defense witness, Ben Vardaman. During jury selection, the judge refused to dismiss two white potential jurors who admitted they despised white civil rights workers for sharing meals with black Southerners.

All 13 black potential jurors were struck from the panel, causing the jury to be all white.

During the trial, defense lawyer Joe Pilcher suggested to jurors that “certain civil rights groups have to have a martyr, and they were willing to let Reeb die.”

In March 1965, Reeb, 38, traveled to Alabama in response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s invitation to ministers to join the Selma to Montgomery March. So did his friends and fellow Unitarian ministers, Clark Olsen and Orloff Miller.

On the night of March 9, the three white ministers had just finished dinner in downtown Selma at Walker’s Cafe, a historically black restaurant that had also opened its doors to white patrons.

Did James Earl Ray assassinate Martin Luther King for KKK reward?

2011-03-10T05:15:00.000-06:00

Forty-three years have passed since the assassination of Martin Luther King, but investigators are still seeking information about the crime.

In his blog, investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger points to circumstantial evidence reported in a new book that James Earl Ray may have killed King for the $100,000 reward offered by the KKK:

Stuart Wexler and Larry Hancock, co-authors of the upcoming book, Seeking Armageddon: The Effort to Kill Martin Luther King Jr, are investigating that possibility.

Before escaping from prison in 1967, James Earl Ray reportedly learned of a $100,000 bounty that the White Knights were purportedly offering for King’s assassination.

On March 29, 1968, Ray (using the alias Harvey Lowmeyer) entered the Aeromarine Supply Co. in Birmingham and purchased a .243-caliber rifle.

The next day, Ray came back to the store and returned the rifle, exchanging it for a .30-06 rifle Remington Gamemaster. The owner told FBI agents that Ray had said his brother had told him it was the wrong kind of gun.

After King was assassinated, the FBI examined a series of telephone calls that Sam Bowers, imperial wizard for the White Knights, made in 1967 and 1968.

Bowers called Birmingham the same day that Ray bought the rifle.

“This could be very important, even if all it shows is that Bowers — or someone in Bowers’ amusement company — called a pay phone in Birmingham,” Wexler said.

Myrlie Evers talks about Medgar Evers' legacy

2011-03-07T06:48:00.002-06:00

In this video, Myrlie Evers, wife of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and a civil rights pioneer in her own right, talks about his work and his legacy:

Video: Recreation of Bloody Sunday crossing of Edmund Pettis Bridge held Sunday

2011-03-07T06:45:00.002-06:00

Marchers mark 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday

2011-03-07T05:30:00.001-06:00

Activists staged a recreation of the march across Edmund Pettus Bridge on the 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday:

Participants included U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was injured in the melee in 1965, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Law enforcement officers attacked civil rights demonstrators marching toward Montgomery across the bridge on March 7, 1965. The movement only grew, and the Selma-to-Montgomery march was held later in response.

The march is credited with helping build momentum for passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Civil rights pioneer shows no signs of slowing down

2011-03-07T05:27:00.000-06:00

The Montgomery Advertiser profiles civil rights pioneer F. D. Reese:

Reese would become president of the Dallas County Voters League and leader of the Selma public school teachers organization.
When his students left their classrooms to join demonstrations against racist voter registration practices, he joined them and was fired for it.
All that's ancient history now and Reese is one of the few leaders of the protests still around to talk about it. He'll do it again this morning when he preaches at a Selma church during the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee.
He has been pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church for the past 46 years and he and his wife, Alline, are proud great-grandparents.

At the age of 81 he has no plans to slow down and has even begun thinking about writing his autobiography. It's been the thing to do these days for old civil rights warriors.

Reese, who taught for several years and served 12 years on the Selma City Council before losing a mayoral bid, once was reluctant to write it, but he knows that his tomorrows are growing shorter.

"Freedom Summer" author to speak at Pittsburg State University

2011-03-07T05:19:00.000-06:00

Bruce Watson, author of the book Freedom Summer will speak at Pittsburg State University 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at room 109 at Grubbs Hall. The program is free:

“Civil rights is a huge topic in schools now, but what’s taught often begins with Rosa Parks and ends with Martin Luther King,” Watson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home in western Massachusetts. “I wanted to pay tribute to this turning point.”

More formally known as the Mississippi Summer Project, Freedom Summer was a campaign launched in June 1964 to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which at that time almost totally denied black persons the right to vote by charging them expensive poll taxes, forcing them to take especially difficult literacy tests and harassing would-be voters economically. Those who persisted in their efforts to exercise their right to vote often had their homes or farms burned, were beaten or lynched.

Volunteers were recruited on college campuses across the nation to go to Mississippi to work alongside the black Mississippians to help secure their rights. Over 1,000 out-of-state volunteers participated in Freedom Summer.

Report outlines the impact of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

2011-03-04T10:01:00.000-06:00

(The following research paper was written by Tess Harmon, an eighth grader in Mr. Randy Turner's communication arts class at Joplin East Middle School.)

In the mid-1950’s, segregation flourished. It seemed like African Americans couldn’t go anywhere without being mistreated. One of the most conspicuous places of segregation was the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system.

The Montgomery city code mandated that “all public transportation be segregated” and that bus drivers had the same privilege as a police officer when it came to enforcing the city code. Drivers had to provide “separate but equal” treatment. To do so, buses place colored people in the back, and whites in the front. If needed, a bus driver could ask a colored passenger to move. (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1)

Pre-Boycott Rebellion

Several of the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, grew tired of this treatment and decided to act.

One of these people was Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old girl. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/bio_colvin.htm)

On March 2, as more and more white passengers boarded the bus, Colvin thought back to what she had learned in school that day. They were studying black history, such as Harriet Tubman, an Underground Railroad worker, and Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and former slave. They were also discussing the unfair consequences of the Jim Crow laws, such as not being able to try on shoes. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101719889)

When the bus driver asked her to move, Colvin refused because she had paid the bus fee and it was her “constitutional right.” The driver then called the police, who arrested Colvin and took her to jail. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101719889)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) thought about initiating a test trial for the unfair treatment on Montgomery buses, but as Colvin was only a teen at the time and later became pregnant, the NAACP did not feel that she was a good candidate. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_colvin.htm)

Another key person in the rebellion against the buses was Lillie Mae Bradford. In May of 1951, Bradford had boarded the bus, paid her fare, and received her transfer slip. When she sat down in her seat, she realized that her slip had been incorrectly marked. This had happened many times in the past, not only to her, but many other colored people at that time. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_bradford.htm)

Bradford decided that she was not going to quietly sit down without pointing the error out to the driver. The bus driver simply ignored her and told her to go sit down. Not letting the matter drop, Bradford sat down in the seat behind the driver and continued to ask him to correct the transfer slip. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_bradford.htm)

The bus driver proceeded to call the police and have her arrested for disorderly conduct. Bradford was soon released on bail. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_bradford.htm)

Mary Louise Smith also helped in the revolt. On October 21, 1965, Mary was on the Montgomery bus, when she was asked to move for a white passenger. Smith blatantly refused. She was soon arrested and charged with failure to obey segregation orders. (http://www.riversofchange.org/women_smith.html)

Like Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith was being considered for a test trial. While Smith herself was a good candidate, she was not chosen because her father was a supposed drunk. (http://www.riversofchange.org/women_smith.html)

The Rosa Parks Incident

December 1, 1955, was a day that changed history forever. A woman named Rosa Parks, an NAACP member, sat in her seat on that Montgomery bus. She did not know of the events that would permanently alter the way whites looked at colored people. (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1)

When a white person boarded the bus, four blacks were asked to move. One of them was forty-two year old Rosa Parks. (Stein) The three stood up, but Parks remained seated, claiming, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” (http://www.biography.com/articles/Rosa-Parks-9433715)

The bus driver was quick to arrest her, and she was charged with violating a city ordinance. She was fined $10, along with a $4 court fee. ((http://www.biography.com/articles/Rosa-Parks-9433715)

The Boycott

When news of Rosa Parks’ arrest broke, the black community was shocked. It was decided that there would be a one-day boycott led by a new priest, Martin Luther King Jr. About ninety percent of the black community participated (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm), though King only expected about sixty percent. (King)

King decided to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The night of their first meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church, the community suggested extending the boycott. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm) King believed that it was a good idea, and told the community, “We are here this evening to say to those who have mistreated us for so long that we are tired—tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression… For many years we have shown amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”(King)

The boycott continued for a few days. On December 8, MIA leaders and officials of the city met to discuss a proposal for buses that was fairer to blacks. However, no agreement could be reached. ( http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm)

This posed a problem for the colored community. Very few blacks had cars, and the buses were their only way to get to work and school. In order to overcome this problem, the MIA formed a car pool for those whose workplace was too far away to walk. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm) People fixed up old buggies and used horses to pull them. Those who had cars gave rides to those who did not. (King) Eventually, the car pool had more than two hundred private cars, most of which were operated by churches. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm) One man saw an elderly woman walking down the sidewalk and offered her a ride. When he asked her if she was tired, she turned to him and replied, “My feet are tired, but my soul is at rest.” (Stein)

Meanwhile, meetings with city officials continued, but like before, no agreement was made. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm)

As the boycott continued, it began to hurt the bus companies. They were forced to raise prices from ten cents to fifteen cents. (Stein) The city penalized taxis for charging blacks ten cents, the original fee for buses. (King)

The city wanted to make it known that they would not stand for this kind of revolt. Whites began to get more and more aggressive. Martin Luther King Jr. began to get anonymous, threatening phone calls. On January 30, 1956, King’s house, with his wife and daughter inside, was bombed, as was several others of the MIA’s leaders. In mid-March, King was convicted of violating the anti-boycott law. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm)

Though many of the leaders seriously considered abandoning the boycott, it lasted throughout the end of 1955 and 1956, a total of thirteen months. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm)

Victory

Throughout the boycott, the entire black community had tried to have the bus segregation laws declared unconstitutional. When a law similar to the Montgomery bus segregation policy was declared as such, the leaders of the MIA decided to take their case to court. (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm) On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court was ruled as unconstitutional, ending the Montgomery bus boycott. (Stein)

Ramsey Clark said, “If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might have never heard of Dr. Martin Luther King. (http://historyday13.tripod.com/id6.html)

The Montgomery Bus boycott was said to be the first “mass attack on segregation.” Others say that it was what started the Civil Rights Movement. While all of these are respectable speculations, one thing is for sure. History was changed forever.

Bibliography

King, Martin Luther Jr. Stride Toward Freedom. New York: Harper & Row, 1958, Print.

Stein, R. Conrad. The Montgomery Bus Boycott. Canada: Children’s Press, 1993, Print.

“Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin.” NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101719889. Adler, Margaret. March 17, 2009.

“Claudette Colvin.” The Montgomery Advertiser. http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/bio_colvin.htm. June 7, 2005.

“Claudette Colvin.” The Montgomery Advertiser. http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_colvin.htm. Kitchen, Sebastian. June 7, 2005.

“Effects of the Incident.” Tripod. http://historyday13.tripod.com/id6.html. April 6, 2006.

“Lillie Mae Bradford.” The Montgomery Advertiser. http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/profile_bradford.htm. Greene, Terri. June 7, 2005.

“Mary Louise Smith.” Rivers of Change. http://www.riversofchange.org/women_smith.html. February 20, 2011.

“The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Timeline.” The Montgomery Advertiser. http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/timeline.htm. June 7, 2005.

“Rosa Parks Biography.” Academy of Achievement. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1. October 14, 2010.

“Rosa Parks Biography.” Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/articles/Rosa-Parks-9433715. February 20, 2011.

Selma to mark anniversary of march with bridge crossing

2011-03-04T07:36:00.000-06:00

A bridge crossing will be held this weekend in Selma to commemorate the 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday:

Selma will mark the anniversary of a watershed moment of the civil rights movement this weekend with an annual commemoration that will end with activists young and old walking across a historic bridge.

The 18th annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee began Thursday in the west Alabama city with a reception and a mass meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church, which briefly served as headquarters for the voting rights movement in Selma.

The weekend marks the 46th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday, when authorities beat back civil rights demonstrators marching toward Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.

The Selma-to-Montgomery march was held later in response, helping build momentum for passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants will walk across the bridge on Sunday to cap the annual commemoration.

During the weekend, organizers will honor members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which lasted for only six years in the 1960s but helped work for equal rights in everything from voting to housing to bus transportation.

SNCC's leaders included John Lewis, who is now a congressman from Georgia and is expected to attend the commemoration events.

Birmingham Church bombing survivor brings message of courage

2011-03-03T07:05:00.000-06:00

During a speech in Eureka, Calif., Carolyn McKinstry talked about her experiences growing up in Birmingham in the 1960s, including surviving the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963:

The church was also the place that McKinstry's life would be forever changed on Sept. 15, 1963.

While volunteering as a secretary, a 14-year-old McKinstry was walking upstairs in the church to take roll that morning. She walked past the girl's bathroom, where her four friends were busy combing their hair and chatting. When McKinstry got to the top of the stairs, a phone was ringing. She said she answered it, and the caller only said, “three minutes.”

Moments later a blast shook the church's foundation, and McKinstry's four friends were dead.

”I still get real sad when I think about my friends in that their deaths were the blood price we had to pay for our freedom in Birmingham,” McKinstry said.

Montreal honeymoon home of Jackie and Rachel Robinson recognized for historical significance

2011-02-28T05:20:00.000-06:00

A ceremony is planned today in Montreal to commemorate the small apartment where Jackie Robinson and his wife, Rachel, spent their honeymoon in 1946:

A commemorative plaque will be unveiled Monday at the lower-level duplex apartment that was home to the couple in the summer of 1946 when Mr. Robinson played for the minor-league Montreal Royals, less than a year before he broke the race barrier in what later became known as “baseball’s great experiment.”

Ms. Robinson, now 88, remembers their time in that apartment, just months after she and Jackie were married, as a honeymoon. They were welcomed by the predominantly white neighbourhood, which became a refuge from the racially charged taunts Mr. Robinson endured on the road.

“You can't make [enough] of the house because it's where the experiment started and the experiment went on to be a national success, so it led to something,” Ms. Robinson said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Myrlie Evers-Williams elected to NAACP Board

2011-02-27T10:07:00.000-06:00

Civil rights activist Myrlie-Evers Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, has been elected to the Oregon NAACP Board of Directors. From the Portland Oregonian:

Evers-Williams moved with her children to California and emerged as a civil rights activist in her own right. She made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1970.

In 1976, Evers-Williams married Walter Williams, a labor and civil rights activist. The couple moved to Bend in 1989. She joined the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and was elected chairwoman in 1995, but did not run for re-election in 1998.

She established the Medgar Evers Institute in Jackson, Miss.

From PBS' "Supreme Court: Brown v. Board of Education

2011-02-27T09:58:00.002-06:00

"Freedom Riders" to debut on PBS American Experience this week

2011-02-27T09:36:00.000-06:00

Movie company hopes to use Lorraine Motel location shoot for film on Martin Luther King's final days

2011-02-26T00:10:00.000-06:00

The Nashville Business Journal reports Universal Pictures is attempting to do part of the filming for its new movie on the final days of Martin Luther King at the remnants of the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1068:

The balcony where King was shot has been preserved and is part of the National Civil Rights Museum, which walks visitors through the struggle for civil rights before showing them the room where King stayed at the Lorraine Motel and the spot where he was assassinated.

Universal is scouting other locations in Memphis, as well.

Tapes reveals President Johnson's plans for Thurgood Marshall

2011-02-26T00:02:00.000-06:00

President Lyndon B. Johnson's plan to make Thurgood Marshall the first African American on the U. S. Supreme Court is revealed in once secret tapes revealed by CNN:

Johnson’s plan was to appoint Marshall as solicitor general, where he would get the experience that would make him one of the best-qualified candidates ever to the U.S. Supreme Court, CNN reports. The tapes were released by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, which is analyzing and transcribing secret White House tapes of several presidents.

Johnson talked about the plan with his former attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach. "I want to build [Marshall] up where he's impenetrable when he becomes a Supreme Court justice,” Johnson said. The president said he wasn’t sure if he would appoint Marshall, “but he's damn sure going to be qualified." Johnson appeared more sure of the future appointment in a conversation with John Kenneth Galbraith, however. The plan, the president said, was to nominate Marshall after he was solicitor general for a year or two and a vacancy opened up.

White House screens Thurgood Marshall film

2011-02-25T22:46:00.002-06:00

Assassination of Medgar Evers prompted Bill Russell to help in Mississippi

2011-02-21T05:38:00.000-06:00

Today's Seattle Times features a story on how former Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom last week, was prompted by the assassination of Medgar Evers to do civil rights work in Mississippi:

And far away from the madness of Jackson, Boston center Bill Russell, who recently had led the Celtics to their fifth straight NBA championship and had won his third-consecutive MVP award, heard the news, felt the rising bile of pain, and the anger, and knew he had to go to Jackson, knew he had to do something, anything, to keep alive Evers' fight for freedom.

"He called me up and asked me what he could do to help," recalled Charles Evers, Medgar's older brother, speaking by telephone from Jackson last week.

"Get down here," Evers told Russell, "and we'll open one of the playgrounds and we'll have the first integrated basketball camp in Mississippi."

Evers knew he was asking a lot. He was asking Russell, one of the country's most prominent African-Americans, to risk his life, to teach basketball to kids — black and white — in the racial tinder box that was Jackson.

"It was totally segregated down here then," Evers said. "We couldn't drink out of the water fountains because we were Negroes. We couldn't use the restroom facilities because we were Negroes. We couldn't even register to vote.

"But because people like Bill were willing to come here and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us, we knew we could change all of those silly laws. Standing side-by-side he helped make all of the changes that have happened. If Bill would come back down here now, he wouldn't believe it was the same Mississippi."

Joan Browning recalls Freedom Rides

2011-02-18T05:19:00.000-06:00

During an appearance at Marshall University this week, former Freedom Rider Joan Browning recalled her experiences:

Joan C. Browning rode public transportation in 1961 to ensure the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in public facilities was being enforced. Her last trip was on Nov. 1 aboard a train headed for Albany, Ga.

"Nine of us got on a train in Atlanta heading for Albany," Browning said. "I was the last person chosen for that ride, so I call myself the last Freedom Rider."

Browning said she was the only white female imprisoned for 10 days following the last ride and had a cell all to herself while all of the African-American females were packed into one cell.

"We had agreed to all stay in jail until freedom came," Browning said. "But we decided I should be bailed out because some of the white men in the community had made some threatening remarks."

Browning said the group was first charged with conspiracy to overthrow Georgia's state government, but it was reduced to disturbing the peace six months later.

"You have to find something to stand up for in order to put joy in your life," Browning said

BIll Russell, first African American NBA coach receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

2011-02-17T20:01:00.002-06:00

John Lewis: To be honored by first African American president is unbelievable

2011-02-17T19:59:00.003-06:00

New collection of writings by Thurgood Marshall published

2011-02-17T19:09:00.000-06:00

A new book, Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall, by Michael G. Long is reviewed on the Voice of America website:

"Martin Luther King Jr. emerges as the most important civil rights leader in the latter half of the 20th century exactly because of Thurgood Marshall’s work in the 20 years that led up to 1957," says Michael Long, author of "Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall." "It’s unfair to believe that King had just emerged from nowhere. He emerged out of a culture and society that had already begun to break down racial discrimination. In fact, Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP."

The letters Marshall wrote between 1936 and 1957 reveal the depth and breadth of his civil rights work.

"The basic idea behind the letters is this, let’s get rid of segregation," says Long. "He played a role of African-American male in the south at the time. He ate in segregated restaurants. He drove in segregated taxis. He played the role of the segregated black man in order to further the cause. He never wanted to draw attention to himself as he put it. He wanted to fight for the cause."

President Clinton, Little Rock Nine to be at Clinton Center Saturday

2011-02-17T18:59:00.000-06:00

Former President Bill Clinton and the Little Rock Nine will be at the Clinton Center in Little Rock Saturday for the opening of a display on the Congressional Medal of Honors received by the first nine African American students to attend Central High School.

Admission is free. Reservations are required; call (501) 748-0425.

St. Louis nun recalls Selma march

2011-02-17T05:28:00.001-06:00

The Webster University Journal includes an article featuring Sister Antona Ebo of the St. Mary Franciscan order and her role in the Selma March of 1965:

She said the reason she went to Selma was because she truly believed that every person of any race was her equal. She also felt that if she truly was going to make a difference to the people she slept next to every night, she needed to physically be there.

"Our bodies were on the line, not just our voices," Christopher said. "We didn't just 'talk-the-talk.' "

Growing up, her father was a butcher who had black co-workers. Her mother, a factory worker, had a black boss. Christopher said there were no cruel words said about other races in her house while she was a child. One evening, her mother's boss invited the family over for dinner.

She remembers the night being very fun and that everyone had a peaceful time together enjoying good food and conversation like "normal" people do. This night, along with the beliefs she was raised with, founded her view of other races.

Christopher received permission from Father Shocklee, who asked permission from Cardinal Joseph E. Ritter for Christopher to march. She would not be going alone. Along with fellow Loretto sister, Sister Christine Mary, four nuns from different orders would join her. According to PBS' "Sisters of Selma" documentary, these six women were the first nuns to be involved in these marches.

Hundreds of people marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. State troopers met them and demanded they turn around go home. When the leaders of Bloody Sunday's march respectfully rejected their demand, the troopers began to beat the marchers and fire tear gas. Dozens were hospitalized and the media covered it for the nation to see.

"Sure, you have a little bit of fear, because you don't know what's going to happen," Christopher said. "It's the fear of the unknown."

Bloody Sunday's events put fear in the hearts of all the sisters.

Sister Antona Ebo's fear was more intense than it was for the other sisters.

"I knew that if we were arrested, I would get separated from the other sisters, in a different jail since I'm black," Ebo said. "Who knows what else would have happened to me."

With people still injured from Bloody Sunday, the sisters marched with the crowd alongside Martin Luther King Jr. on March 9 and were again faced with state troopers. The protesters tried to attain a court order that would allow them to march without interference. However, Federal District Court Judge Frank Johnson issued a restraining order saying the protesters, now numbering in the thousands, could only march to the bridge where Bloody Sunday took place until he could have additional hearings.

While marching, only two days after the horrific events of March 9, the people kept strong, Christopher said.

"There wasn't any fear among the people," Christopher said. "We stood in front of troopers with gas masks, but no one seemed afraid. We wanted to do whatever we could to make this right. If they wanted to throw tear gas in the crowd, so be it."

The violence was avoided as the crowd turned back at the bridge. The Loretto sisters left after the second march and wearily returned to St. Louis.

"Some people ask why I left after only one march," Christopher said. "But I felt that my march was a gateway for other marches to come."

Lewis: I wish Dr. King was here

2011-02-16T05:24:00.001-06:00

From Fox News blog post on Rep. John Lewis receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

"I wish Dr. King was here."

That was the thought going through the mind of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., while waiting to receive his Medal of Freedom from President Obama in the East Room of the White House.

Lewis, spoke to reporters in the White House Briefing Room still wearing his medal with a cobalt blue ribbon. He humbly described the day.

"It's a special honor," Lewis said. "I feel more than lucky; very blessed to receive this medal this honor from the first African American president."

Ohio minister talks about role in Freedom Summer

2011-02-16T05:18:00.003-06:00

John Lewis and the Freedom Rides

2011-02-15T18:06:00.002-06:00

John Lewis receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

2011-02-15T18:01:00.000-06:00

Using Google News to help your research project

2011-01-25T10:18:00.000-06:00

Some of the most fascinating information you can unearth during any historical research project can be found through Google News.

Over the past several months, Google News has added several links to historical newspapers. Type in your search terms, then look to the left side of the page. Usually, you will be able to find a list of years. If you are researching Emmett Till, for instance, you will be able to click on 1955 and find newspaper articles written at the time of the murder of Emmett Till and the trial of Roy Bryant and E. W. Milam.

Proper use of Wikipedia during third quarter research project

2011-01-21T09:19:00.000-06:00

Students during our annual third quarter research project should not use Wikipedia as a source, but it does not mean they should avoid Wikipedia.

In fact, Wikipedia is an important internet destination.

The links at the bottom of Wikipedia pages provide leads to solid resources for your paper. Make sure that you not only check the outside links that are listed, but also the links provided in the footnotes section.

In addition to checking out the Wikipedia page for whatever your subject may be, you should also look at Wikipedia pages for people you come across during your research.

For instance, those researching the Little Rock Nine should also examine the Wikipedia pages for Ernest Green, Daisy Bates, Minnijean Brown, and Orval Faubus, among others.

Those researching the Montgomery Bus Boycott should look at Wikipedia pages for Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin, E. W. Nixon, and Martin Luther King.

Wikipedia is one of the best friends a serious researcher can have.

Changes in schedule for third quarter research project

2011-01-21T09:06:00.000-06:00

Because of weather conditions that have caused us to miss three days over the past two weeks, the schedule for the third quarter research project has been changed.

We will be in the computer lab, Room 300, for the next three days (Friday, Monday, and Tuesday). The thesis statement, which was originally due today, will be due at the end of the day Tuesday.

Otherwise, the project deadlines remain the same.

Greeley, Colorado school board member broadcasting daily attacks against Martin Luther King

2011-01-08T00:53:00.000-06:00

As the annual observation of Martin Luther King's birthday nears, a Greeley, Colorado, school board member is causing problems by broadcasting daily attacks against Dr. King:

A member of the Greeley-Evans School District 6 board of education is using his radio station twice daily to broadcast an attack on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., calling the slain civil rights leader a sexual degenerate, plagiarist and “modern-day plastic god.”

In the broadcast, Brett Reese, owner of 104.7 FM Pirate Radio, reads a letter that he said came from a listener three years ago. He said it does not necessarily reflect his own thoughts or ideas — although he did not disavow the message, either, in an e-mail exchange with the Tribune on Friday — but he said he believes in the open discussion of history. He also said he does not know who actually wrote the letter.

Reese said he will continue to broadcast the recording twice a day until Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17. The city of Greeley and the University of Northern Colorado are sponsoring the 15th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. March and Celebration on that day.

“He's not a legitimate reverend, he's not a bona fide Ph.D. and his name really isn't Martin Luther King Jr.,” Reese says in the broadcast. “What's left? Just a sexual degenerate, an America-hating communist and a criminal betrayer of even the interests of his own people.”

Fellow school board member Bob Stack said it was inappropriate for Reese, as a board member, to continually broadcast such a message.

Fiftieth anniversary of Freedom Rides celebrated

2011-01-08T00:47:00.000-06:00

Three of the fabled Freedom Riders recalled those days during one of several observations of the 50th anniversary of the rides. This one was held in Winchester, Va.

They were bright, ambitious college students willing to risk their future.

Dion Diamond, Reginald Green, and Joan Mulholland stepped onto a bus in the summer of 1961 not for the purpose of getting from one place to another, but for the hope of change.

The three were some of the first men and women who volunteered to take part in the Congress of Racial Equality's effort to desegregate public transportation throughout the South.

The first Freedom Ride took place May 4, 1961, when seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the South to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional.

Many of the passengers were beaten and imprisoned, including Mulholland, Green, and Dion.

Those brave enough to aboard the buses were dubbed Freedom Riders

PBS documentary helps renew interest in Freedom Rides

2011-01-08T00:41:00.000-06:00

(The following article came from the January 8, 2011 Los Angeles Times.)

By SANDY BANKS

Helen Singleton became a Freedom Rider because of her mother, and her childhood memories of family trips every summer in the 1940s from Philadelphia to her grandparents' farm in Virginia.

"Mother would be up all night over a hot stove, cooking chicken, potato salad, rolls" to sustain eight children over a 14-hour trip along back roads where every restaurant, market and hotel was "whites only."

"We could feel her exhaustion and the tension in the car," Singleton recalled. "And when we got there, there was always some incident — stores we couldn't go in because it's not the right day for blacks to shop.... It marred the joy of our summer vacations. I carried that with me for a long time."

For nigh on 20 years, in fact, she carried that memory of second-class citizenship. Then in 1961, Singleton and her husband, Robert, joined hundreds of college students — black and white, from every region of the country — on "freedom rides" through the Deep South.

The bus rides began in Washington, D.C., with a small group of civil rights activists. Seven were black and six were white. They boarded Greyhound buses in interracial pairs, shared seats and mingled in terminals at each stop.

It was a blatant challenge to Southern codes that mandated racial separatism. The U.S. Supreme Court had declared that segregation was unlawful in interstate travel, but federal officials had refused to enforce that precedent, fearful of political backlash.

The ride from D.C. to New Orleans was supposed to take 14 days. But in Alabama, jeering, violent mobs of whites firebombed the buses and attacked the riders as local law enforcement officers looked on. The wounded activists were forced to abandon their plan.

A group of Nashville college students stepped in, though, and that sparked a national swell of support on college campuses around the country.

In Los Angeles, 17 students — 10 white and seven black — traveled east as Freedom Riders. As head of UCLA's chapter of the NAACP, Robert Singleton was in charge of recruitment.

"I had the names of 42 people," he said. "But most of them got turned down by their parents. It was on the news back then every night — the beatings, the mobs, the fires." He got his bus-full, and they flew to New Orleans, then boarded a train for Jackson, Miss.

The Freedom Ride movement tends to get short shrift in history books. There was no single big-name leader, no symbolic murdered martyr. It was an exercise in courage and cooperation by young people with nothing personal to gain and little in their backgrounds in common.

"We had white kids from wealthy families and black students whose moms and dads had migrated up from the South," recalled Singleton, now a professor of economics at Loyola Marymount University. "Until then, we didn't know what we could do. We came back from there empowered."

They didn't spend much time riding buses or mingling in terminals; they were hauled from the train and sent to Mississippi's notorious Parchman prison, where they spent the next few months. "We could see the death chambers from our cells," Helen Singleton said. "It dawns on you then what you have done."

It took longer to dawn on them what their campaign had done for Los Angeles. There were no "whites only" signs or Jim Crow laws in the city. "But you couldn't get a haircut in a barber shop in Westwood," Robert recalled.

"When we came back from the Freedom Rides, we got a certain amount of respect on campus, from the chancellors and others who had ignored us. They began to cooperate, and we began to organize."

The Freedom Riders' efforts led to a raft of changes at UCLA and beyond — among them the integration of nearby all-white apartments and the introduction of ethnic studies courses on campus.

But the story of their struggle has been mothballed, a footnote in the saga of a civil rights movement that revolves around bright lights like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

That might change this spring, with the PBS release of a documentary that garnered praise at Sundance last year and was nominated this week by the Writers Guild of America as best documentary screenplay.

"Freedom Riders" by Stanley Nelson is a riveting look at the front lines of what Helen Singleton remembers as a "dangerous adventure" — the venom, the courage, the political maneuvers, the rifts in a splintering civil rights movement."

The film will be shown, for free, next Saturday at the Culver City Senior Center, as part of the city's celebration of King's birthday.

In May, it will be televised on PBS, and 40 college students will be selected this month to accompany original Freedom Riders on a reenactment of the experience.I watched it with my college student daughter this week. She aced her class in "Power to the People: Movements of the 1960s" last fall. But the movie's piercing images of frightened college students, their faces bloodied by hate-filled mobs, turned the topic into more than classroom babble.

Her friends remember the exhilaration of their own foray into activism as street soldiers in the Obama campaign, with its promise of historic change.

They Tweeted and Facebooked and made phone calls, camped out on floors and went door-to-door.

And I can't help but be grateful, as a mother now, how different are the front lines, then and now.

Portrait of civil rights pioneer unveiled

2010-09-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

A portrait of civil rights pioneer Barbara Johns was unveiled this week in our nation's capitol:

Johns, then 16, led a 1951 student strike in Prince Edward County that led to the inclusion of Virginia in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation.

The portrait depicts Johns on April 23, 1951, the day of the student strike. It was painted by Richmond native Louis Briel.

Hymn inspired Jefferson Thomas of the Little Rock Nine

2010-09-07T05:58:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times obituary of Jefferson Thomas of the Little Rock Nine features the following segment about what inspired Mr.; Thomas to hang on as he suffered from hate and abuse at Central High School in 1957 and 1958:

In 2007, Mr. Thomas told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that prayer had helped him through the integration struggle. He said that one Sunday at church he heard the hymn “Lord, Don’t Move My Mountain, Just Give Me the Strength to Climb,” inspiring him to pray for strength, rather than for the acceptance of his classmates.

“It seemed that overnight, things stopped being so bad,” he said. “The same things were happening, but they didn’t hurt me as much. I didn’t feel like I was a failure. I felt victorious because I made it through the day.”

Jefferson Thomas, one of Little Rock Nine, dead at 68

2010-09-07T05:50:00.000-05:00

Jefferson Thomas, one of the Little Rock Nine, died Sunday at age 68 from pancreatic cancer.

From the AP obituary:

Mr. Thomas played a number of sports and was on the track team at Dunbar Junior High School, but others had little to do with him once he entered Central, the state's largest high school.

"I had played with some of the white kids from the neighborhood," Mr. Thomas said. "I went up to Central High School after school, and we played basketball and touch football together. I knew some of the kids.

"Eventually, I ran into them . . . and they were not at all happy to see me," Mr. Thomas added. "One of them said: 'Well, I don't mind playing basketball or football with you or anything. You guys are good at sports. Everybody knows that, but you're just not smart enough to sit next to me in the classroom.'"

Ms. Beals said Monday that Mr. Thomas was nicknamed "'Roadrunner' because he was so fast. You could sometimes avoid danger by running fast."

Mississippi Burning case may be last crime of civil rights era in which charges may be filed

2010-06-28T07:09:00.010-05:00

In today's Jackson Clarion-Ledger, it is noted that the murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba, Miss., in 1964 may be the last crime of that era in which prosecutions can be made. The article lists some of the Mississippi Burning suspects who have yet to be brought to justice:

The FBI’s investigation into the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers may represent the nation’s last and best chance to prosecute unpunished killings from the nation’s civil rights era.
"It is one of the very few viable cases left," said former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones of Birmingham, who led the successful prosecution of two former Klansmen for a 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.

"The door is closing quickly," he said. "There's not much time left."

Civil rights photographer dead at 79

2010-03-17T12:33:00.003-05:00

Charles Moore, whose photos depicted the Civil Rights Movement is dead at age 79. From the Los Angeles Times obituary:

From 1958 to 1965, he trained his lens on the unfolding drama of civil rights as a news photographer for the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and Life magazine.

His shockingly graphic images -- of police dogs attacking protesters or marchers being assaulted by powerful water hoses -- helped propel what had been a regional dispute onto the national stage.

As his photographs created national outrage, they quickened the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to John Kaplan, a University of Florida journalism professor who wrote his master's thesis on Moore.

"He had the courage to stand up in the face of danger and let Americans know what was really happening, through his work," Kaplan told The Times. "That is why he is an unsung hero."