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Martin Luther King Jr.'S Mission and Its Meaning for America and the World
To the Mountaintop Martin Luther King Jr.’s Mission and Its Meaning for America and the World New Revised and Expanded Edition, 2018 Stewart Burns Cover and Photo Design Deborah Lee Schneer © 2018 by Stewart Burns CreateSpace, Charleston, South Carolina ISBN-13: 978-1985794450 ISBN-10: 1985794454 All Bob Fitch photos courtesy of Bob Fitch Photography Archive, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, reproduced with permission Dedication For my dear friend Dorothy F. Cotton (1930-2018), charismatic singer, courageous leader of citizenship education and nonviolent direct action For Reverend Dr. James H. Cone (1936-2018), giant of American theology, architect of Black Liberation Theology, hero and mentor To the memory of the seventeen high school students and staff slain in the Valentine Day massacre, February 2018, in Parkland, Florida, and to their families and friends. And to the memory of all other schoolchildren murdered by American social violence. Also by Stewart Burns Social Movements of the 1960s: Searching for Democracy A People’s Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America (coauthor) Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., vol 3: Birth of a New Age (lead editor) Daybreak of Freedom: Montgomery Bus Boycott (editor) To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Mission to Save America (1955-1968) American Messiah (screenplay) Cosmic Companionship: Spirit Stories by Martin Luther King Jr. (editor) We Will Stand Here Till We Die Contents Moving Forward 9 Book I: Mighty Stream (1955-1959) 15 Book II: Middle Passage (1960-1966) 174 Photo Gallery: MLK and SCLC 1966-1968 376 Book III: Crossing to Jerusalem (1967-1968) 391 Afterword 559 Notes 565 Index 618 Acknowledgments 639 About the Author 642 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the preeminent Jewish theologian, introduced Martin Luther King Jr. -
The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’S Fight for Civil Rights
DISCUSSION GUIDE The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights PBS.ORG/indePendenTLens/POWERBROKER Table of Contents 1 Using this Guide 2 From the Filmmaker 3 The Film 4 Background Information 5 Biographical Information on Whitney Young 6 The Leaders and Their Organizations 8 From Nonviolence to Black Power 9 How Far Have We Come? 10 Topics and Issues Relevant to The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights 10 Thinking More Deeply 11 Suggestions for Action 12 Resources 13 Credits national center for MEDIA ENGAGEMENT Using this Guide Community Cinema is a rare public forum: a space for people to gather who are connected by a love of stories, and a belief in their power to change the world. This discussion guide is designed as a tool to facilitate dialogue, and deepen understanding of the complex issues in the film The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights. It is also an invitation to not only sit back and enjoy the show — but to step up and take action. This guide is not meant to be a comprehensive primer on a given topic. Rather, it provides important context, and raises thought provoking questions to encourage viewers to think more deeply. We provide suggestions for areas to explore in panel discussions, in the classroom, in communities, and online. We also provide valuable resources, and connections to organizations on the ground that are fighting to make a difference. For information about the program, visit www.communitycinema.org DISCUSSION GUIDE // THE POWERBROKER 1 From the Filmmaker I wanted to make The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights because I felt my uncle, Whitney Young, was an important figure in American history, whose ideas were relevant to his generation, but whose pivotal role was largely misunderstood and forgotten. -
The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi's Critique of Violence for Gandhi, Political
CHAPTER ONE The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi’s Critique of Violence For Gandhi, political life was, in a profound and fundamental sense, closely bound to the problem of violence. At the same time, his understanding and critique of violence was multiform and layered; violence’s sources and consequences were at once ontological, moral and ethical, as well as distinctly political. Gandhi held a metaphysical account of the world – one broadly drawn from Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist philosophy – that accepted himsa or violence to be an ever-present and unavoidable fact of human existence. The world, he noted, was “bound in a chain of destruction;” the basic mechanisms for the reproduction of biological and social life necessarily involved continuous injury to living matter. But modern civilization – its economic and political institutions as well as the habits it promoted and legitimated – posed the problem of violence in new and insistent terms. Gandhi famously declared the modern state to represent “violence in a concentrated and organized form;” it was a “soulless machine” that – like industrial capitalism – was premised upon and generated coercive forms of centralization and hierarchy.1 These institutions enforced obedience through the threat of violence, they forced people to labor unequally, they oriented desires towards competitive material pursuits. In his view, civilization was rendering persons increasingly weak, passive, and servile; in impinging upon moral personality, modern life degraded and deformed it. This was the structural violence of modernity, a violence that threatened bodily integrity but also human dignity, individuality, and autonomy. In this respect, Gandhi’s deepest ethical objection to violence was closely tied to a worldview that took violence to inhere in modern modes of politics and modern ways of living. -
'The Only Position for Women in SNCC Is Prone'
‘The Only Position for Women in SNCC is Prone’ 29 ‘The Only Position for Women in SNCC is Prone’: Stokely Carmichael and the Perceived Patriarchy of Civil Rights Organisations in America 1 Sabina Peck Second Year Undergraduate, 1 University of New South Wales There is the danger in our culture that because a person is called upon to give public statements and is acclaimed by the establishment, such a person gets to the point of believing that he is the movement ... There are those, some of the young people [of SNCC] especially, who have said to me that if I had not been a woman I would have been well known in certain places, and perhaps held certain kinds of positions. – Ella Baker, 19702 Until relatively recently, historiography concerning the Civil Rights movement and its organisations has been fairly devoid of the study of the participation of women, focusing instead on certain charismatic, notably black male individuals such as Martin Luther King Jnr., Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X.3 Steven Lawson, for example, has traced the evolution of 1 Note the following abbreviations are used throughout the article: CORE- Congress of Racial Equality MFDP – Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference SNCC – Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee 2 Ella Baker, Developing Community Leadership, Taped interview with Gerda Lerner (December 1970) paragraphs 15 and 14, respectively. 3 Joan C. Browning explores the extent to which women’s activities have been glossed over in Civil Rights Historiography in her article, ‘Invisible Revolutionaries: White Women in Civil Rights Historiography’ Journal of Women’s History, Vol. -
Adam Fairclough. to Redeem the Soul of America: the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr
whites in Kalispel country, Fahey writes that "in more than a generation, the traditional base of Indian life vanished." The very fact that Fahey takes the Kalispels' story well into the twentieth century is evidence enough to suggest that the Kalispel culture has not vanished, but like all cultures it has changed with time. Fahey's text contains a wealth of information and should not be overlooked hy persons interested in the Kalispel tribe. But because of its style and language, The Ka lispel Indians should be read with care. -Gretchen Harvey Arizona State University Adam Fairclough. To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987) x, 509 pp., $35.00; $17.95 paper. Following David J. Garrow's 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Bearing the Cross, Adam Fairclough makes extensive use of information gleaned from FBI wiretaps as well as other sources in an effort to peruse the soul of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr. Fairclough's subtitle is no accident, for he focuses at least as much on the SCLC as he does on King. Significantly, this emphasis causes him to add a chapter about the SCLC after King's death, a postscript not available in other books about King. Concentrating almost exclusively on the internal dynamics and structure of SCLC, Fairclough contrasts the flexibility and spontaneity of the SCLC to the bureaucratic rigidity of the NAACP. But he also presents the personal and political wrangles within SCLC that hampered its effectiveness. -
History of Civil Rights in the United States: a Bibliography of Resources in the Erwin Library, Wayne Community College
History of Civil Rights in the United States: A Bibliography of Resources in the Erwin Library, Wayne Community College The History of civil rights in the United States is not limited in any way to the struggle to first abolish slavery and then the iniquitous “Jim Crow” laws which became a second enslavement after the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Yet, since that struggle has been so tragically highlighted with such long turmoil and extremes of violence, it has become, ironically perhaps, the source of the country’s greatest triumph, as well as its greatest shame. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, who would have sought to guide the reunion of the warring states with a leniency and clear purpose which could possibly have prevented the bitterness that gave rise to the “Jim Crow” aberrations in the Southern communities, seems to have foreshadowed the renewed turmoil after the assassination in 1968 of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had labored so long to awaken the nation non‐violently, but unwaveringly, to its need to reform its laws and attitudes toward the true union of all citizens of the United States, regardless of color. In 2013 the anniversaries are being observed of two eloquent and crucial landmarks in U.S. history, one a document, the other a speech. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, re‐focusing the flagging Union’s purpose on the abolition of slavery as an outcome of the Civil War, is now one hundred and fifty years old. The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Dr. -
The African-American Freedom Movement Through the Lens of Gandhian Nonviolence
The African-American Freedom Movement Through the Lens of Gandhian Nonviolence Chris Moore-Backman May 2011 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Self-Designed Masters Degree Program Lesley University Specialization: Nonviolence and Social Change FREEDOM MOVEMENT THROUGH GANDHIAN LENS i Abstract This thesis explores the meaning and application of the three definitive aspects of the Gandhian approach to nonviolence—personal transformation, constructive program (work of social uplift and renewal), and political action, then details the African-American Freedom Movement’s unique expression of and experimentation within those three spheres. Drawing on an in-depth review of historical, theoretical, and biographical literature, and an interview series with six living contemporaries of Martin Luther King Jr., the study highlights key similarities between the nonviolence philosophies and leadership of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as similarities between the movements of which these leaders were a part. Significant differences are also noted, such as the African-American Freedom Movement’s relative lack of focused and systematized implementation of a constructive program along Gandhian lines. The study illustrates the degree to which the African-American Freedom Movement manifested Gandhian principles and practices, while also suggesting that contemporary nonviolence practitioners can identify ways in which the Gandhian approach can be more fully adopted. FREEDOM MOVEMENT THROUGH GANDHIAN -
Inspired by Gandhi and the Power of Nonviolence: African American
Inspired by Gandhi and the Power of Nonviolence: African American Gandhians Sue Bailey and Howard Thurman Howard Thurman (1899–1981) was a prominent theologian and civil rights leader who served as a spiritual mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. Sue Bailey Thurman, (1903–1996) was an American author, lecturer, historian and civil rights activist. In 1934, Howard and Sue Thurman, were invited to join the Christian Pilgrimage of Friendship to India, where they met with Mahatma Gandhi. When Thurman asked Gandhi what message he should take back to the United States, Gandhi said he regretted not having made nonviolence more visible worldwide and famously remarked, "It may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world." In 1944, Thurman left his tenured position at Howard to help the Fellowship of Reconciliation establish the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He initially served as co-pastor with a white minister, Dr. Alfred Fisk. Many of those in congregation were African Americans who had migrated to San Francisco for jobs in the defense industry. This was the first major interracial, interdenominational church in the United States. “It is to love people when they are your enemy, to forgive people when they seek to destroy your life… This gives Mahatma Gandhi a place along side all of the great redeemers of the human race. There is a striking similarity between him and Jesus….” Howard Thurman Source: Howard Thurman; Thurman Papers, Volume 3; “Eulogy for Mahatma Gandhi:” February 1, 1948; pp. 260 Benjamin Mays (1894–1984) -was a Baptist minister, civil rights leader, and a distinguished Atlanta educator, who served as president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967. -
Triumphant in Death James Earl Ray Is Laughing All the Way to Hell, Thanks to the King Family's Preposterous Belief That He Didn't Kill Martin Luther King Jr
triumphant in death James Earl Ray is laughing all the way to hell, thanks to the King family's preposterous belief that he didn't kill Martin Luther King Jr. http://www.salon.com/news/1998/04/28news.html BY DAVID J. GARROW | ATLANTA -- Very few people mourned the death last Thursday of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray's brother Jerry, who for years worked for convicted church-bomber and professional anti-Semite J.B. Stoner, was one of the few. But Jerry had reasons to be thankful, too. His brother had never implicated him -- or their other brother John -- in any discussions or arrangements that preceded King's April 4, 1968, murder. What's more, James Earl's notoriety had allowed Jerry to garner considerable public attention as his imprisoned brother's primary spokesman. Rarely did any of the eager journalists raise the matter of Jerry's long, intimate relationship with the once-infamous Stoner. But those who seemed to mourn Ray's death even more than Jerry were the widow and children of King himself. Coretta Scott King asserted that her family was "deeply saddened" by Ray's death, and proclaimed that it was "a tragedy not only for Mr. Ray and his family, but also for the entire nation." Readers who recalled the awkwardly staged 1997 scene in which Dexter Scott King, King's younger son, shook Ray's very trigger hand and proclaimed the King family's belief in Ray's complete innocence should not have been shocked by Coretta King's peculiar expression of grief. -
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. NoN-Violent Direct Action and the Legislative Process: The Chicago Freedom Movement and THE Federal Fair Housing Act Leonard S. Rubinowitz* Kathryn Shelton** If out of [the Chicago Freedom Movement] came a fair housing bill, just as we got a public accommodations bill out of Birmingham and a right to vote out of Selma, the Chicago movement was a success, and a documented success. Jesse Jackson^ Introduction Fresh from the success of the 1965 Selma, Alabama, voting rights campaign and the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ("SCLC") decided to take their Southern civil rights movement north to Chicago.^ Dr. King and the SCLC joined forces with local Chicago activists to launch the Chicago Freedom Movement ("CFM").^ The Southern civil rights activists decided that the Movement needed to address racism and poverty in the urban North and selected Chicago as the first site of this new initiative. The objectives to be achieved and the strategies and tactics to be employed remained to be determined. By the middle of 1966, the CFM decided to target racial discrimination and segregation in Chicago's housing market."^ That summer witnessed a direct action campaign aimed at white neighborhoods that excluded Blacks^—starting * Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, ** Staff Attorney, Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. The Authors would like to thank Jonathan Entin and Florence Wagman Roisman for their extremely helpful comments. The Authors would also like to thank Sean Morales-Doyle for his invaluable contributions to this Article, Susanne Pringle, Alyssa Morin, Helena Lefkow, and Maria Barbosa for their excellent research assistance, and Tim Jacobs for his logistical assistance. -
A Study of Swadeshi Movement in India
© June 2019| IJIRT | Volume 6 Issue 1 | ISSN: 2349-6002 Genesis of ‘Make in India’: A study of Swadeshi Movement in India Dr. Shekar Naik Assistant Professor of History, Government First Grade College, Channarayapatna, Hassan District Abstract - Etymologically, ‘Swadeshi’ means ‘One’s own and control. Such a policy aroused bitter feelings country’. It is made up of two words, namely, ‘Swa’ among some educated Indians, since it was believed meaning ‘self or own’ and ‘Desh’ meaning ‘country’, that Curzon was bent on bringing the entire system of which literally means ‘Make in India’ producing goods education under government control. within the country. This program was officially launched Baron Curzon set up the ‘Indian Universities on 25th September 2014 by the Government of India, to encourage companies to manufacture domestically Commission’ in 1902 to bring about a better order in (within India) by stimulating conducive investment into higher education. The commission made a number of manufacturing sector. The initiative aims at important recommendations, namely, to limit the size ‘Transforming India into a global design and of the university senates, to entrust teaching in manufacturing hub’. But carefully observed, this addition to examining powers to universities, to insist program finds its genesis in Swadeshi movement, which on a high educational standard from affiliated was proclaimed on August 7th, 1905, at the Calcutta colleges, to grant additional state aids to universities, Town Hall, in Bengal. Boycotting the foreign goods, to improve courses of studies, to abolish second-grade especially British made goods, was the core of ‘Swadeshi colleges and to fix a minimum rate of fees in the Movement’. -
1942 – Before and After Some Reminiscences
1942 – Before and After Some Reminiscences Chandrahas Shah Prelude I was nearly ten years old when I was exposed for the first time to the national movement. It was known as congress movement then. Congress was also known locally as Mahasabha. Hindu Mahasabha was either not born or not widely known. It was the year of 1930.Iwas a member of children’s wing of the movement. The wing was known as Vanar Sena. We used to wonder why this name. We now know just as Ram’s army consisted of monkeys we the little monkeys made a part of the army of Gandhi who like Ram lived the values Ram espoused. Even now I do not know how to fly a kite. As a part of the program of the national movement we undertook the program of Boycott of British Goods in particular and foreign goods in general. We used to go from house to house to collect the clothes to be discarded and used for making bon-fire of all foreign goods. Textiles were the main items but kites too were not spared, especially the string used to fly the kite. We used to do picketing through out the wintry nights to see no one buys and brings the string and kites from any corner of our area. Our area was then Mandvi Street. In the larger program of boycott we used to go to shops for picketing in Panch kuva mahajan area... The spirit of the people was preserved fully by the organization wing. No one pinched any item from the collection.