• Activists and Events Issue: April

  • May 8 2018
  • Duración: 43 m
  • Podcast

Activists and Events Issue: April

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  • This is Robin Lofton and I want to welcome you to rememberinghistory.com where are remembering history and we’re making it. Hello, habari gani, nangadef! I’ll explain that one a bit later. Right now, you are at a safe place to remember African American history, a quiet place to reflect on the African American experience and a powerful place to make history every single day.   I’m so glad that you’re here so we can share in this journey together. History should be a shared experience. So, let’s get started.   This is the month that we, at rememberinghistory.com, remember and acknowledge the activists who are working for a better world, we reflect on the importance of activism in the African American community and we resolve to keep up the work of the activists—past and present—to make changes in our communities, our country and yes even our world.   In April, we remembered the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (one of the world’s foremost activists) who, sadly, was assassinated on April 4, 1968. This year, 2018, marks the 50thanniversary of his death. His legacy definitely endures. However, the goals and visions that he had for a better world have definitely NOT been realized.  Poverty, injustice, economic, political and social inequality, violence, group supremacy. They are still a part of the American experience—the global experience, in fact—so we still have LOTS of work to do. And I’m so impressed with the constant, fearless of work of activists that are working and fighting to make a better world.   Music   Do you like movies?   I don’t really care for movies. But there are exceptions. I’ve noticed that there are more movies about history and cultural experiences.  And I really enjoy those kinds of movies. I’ve noticed, in particular, that there are more movies about African American history (or American history, actually) like Marshall, Loving, Twelve Years a Slave (based on the amazing book), Hidden Figures (again, based on the amazing book) and lots of others.  They always make me think a lot—then I start doing research. And I learn so much.  I was asked to make a presentation about the movie, Selma. Remember that movie about the Bloody Sunday march—it happened on March 7, 1965, on the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama. (Yeah, that name should be changed; he was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.) My presentation was simply to introduce the movie then we would watch the film and the audience would have a discussion about the importance of the march itself and voting rights in America.   To prepare for this presentation, I watched Selma. I had already seen the movie but I watched it again just to be more familiar with it. I had forgotten what a powerful movie that it was so I was kinda seeing it again for the first time.  Several things struck me about the movie.   First, the importance of the activists in the film. Yes, there was Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, John Lewis and SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee).  Yes, they were important and powerful.   But I was also impressed with people who showed up for the march for voting rights, the people who went to register to vote in Alabama like Annie Lee Cooper but was turned away by the registrar. By the way, Oprah Winfrey plays this role stunningly in the opening scene of the movie. I remember hearing so many people gasp when the registrar demanded that she name all of the judges in Alabama!  There was Jimmy Lee Jackson, a 26-year old woodcutter, army veteran and father.  Yes, he was a Black man. He had repeatedly tried to register to vote for many years and had been repeatedly denied.  In the movie and in real life, he (along with his mother and grandfather) participated in a night march to protest the arrest of another activist—James Orange—who was being held in the county jail. During that night march, the local police attacked the marchers and chased them through the night, beating them. Jimmie Lee and his mother and grandfather ran into a café to hide but police found them and continued beating them. As Jimmie Lee tried to help his mother who had been hit with a billy club, a state trooper shot him repeatedly in the stomach. Bleeding and in terrible pain, Jimmie Lee ran outside where troopers continued to beat him until he collapsed. Jimmie Lee died 8 days later in the hospital. That part was one of the most moving and difficult scenes of the movie. By the way, it is commonly thought that the Bloody Sunday march was about voting rights. This is a misconception. The march was actually held to protest the shooting and murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by the Alabama police. (Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of those marches in the past few years too.)   Let’s discuss another activist from the movie: Reverend James Reeb.   After the Bloody Sunday march, Dr. King had asked all people of conscience from around the country to come ...
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