DOCSLIB.ORG

A Review of Bettina Aptheker's Morning Breaks

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Review of Bettina Aptheker's Morning Breaks The Black Scholar Journal of Black Studies and Research ISSN: 0006-4246 (Print) 2162-5387 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtbs20 Book Reviews Joy James, John Woodford & Michael Nash To cite this article: Joy James, John Woodford & Michael Nash (2002) Book Reviews, The Black Scholar, 32:1, 52-57, DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2002.11431170 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2002.11431170 Published online: 14 Apr 2015. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 14 Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtbs20 THEBLACKSCHOLAR BOOK REVIEWS THE MORNING BREAKS: THE TRIAL OF HERE ARE MANY INTERESTING STORIES woven into ANGELA DAVIS, by Bettina Aptheker. (lthaca, T The Morning Breaks. Aptheker recalls the NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 294 pp., adverse impact the trial had on her family. (Just as $16.95, paper. Reviewed ffyjay]ames Davis had seen her UCLA contract as an Assistant Professor in philosophy terminated because of FTEN, CONVENTIONAL ACCOUNTS of democratic her open membership in the Communist Party, O struggle sweep the most violent and unsa­ Aptheker's then-husband Jack Kurzweil would be vory aspects of U .S. history under the rug. At denied tenure at San Francisco State because of times, though, important works that deepen our the couple's highly visible role in Davis's defense understanding of contemporary battles for social team-a court later reversed the termination). justice in the United States surface. Providing a There are accounts of courage, venality, tragedy corrective to political amnesia, Bettina Aptheker and eventually triumph surrounding one of the offers a provocative and incisive narrative in The most massive and successful campaigns in twenti­ Morning Breaks. eth-century radicalism. The book documents the Aptheker and Angela Davis are professors at the complex activism and analyses of women and University of California at Santa Cruz, respectively men who helped to create the conditions for a in the Women's Studies and History of Conscious­ fair trial. (In the thirteen photographs repro­ ness programs. They became friends in the 1950s duced, readers will see the faces of some of the as teenage activists in New York. As young intellec­ most effective, daring and desperate organizers of tuals and radicals, they reconnected a decade later that era.) during the dangerous years in which reactionaries, Covering more than the trial itself, The Morn­ police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ing Breaks critiques the racism of the late 1960s (FBI) targeted radicals. Aptheker's book gives a and early 1970s, black liberation, and the roles of brilliant account of these antidemocratic elements black, chicana, and white women in challenging in U.S. society. Combining personal testimony, his­ state violence and repression. Aptheker relates torical documentation of battles against racist vio­ her own story as an antiracist white feminist along lence, and nuanced descriptions of the lives of pris­ with the stories of activists Kendra and Franklin oner leaders terrorized by guards, she highlights Alexander, Victoria Mercado and jury forewoman political figures and circumstances often dimin­ Mary M. Timothy who would later befriend her­ ished in hazy memory. the book is dedicated to their memory-as well as The Morning Breaks remained out of print Fania Davis and Sallye B. Davis, respectively sister until this year, when it was reissued by Cornell Uni­ and mother of the defendant, attorney Margaret versity Press, with a new introduction and after­ Burnham (a childhood friend of both Aptheker's word. The first edition was published by Interna­ and Davis's, currently a professor at MIT) and tional Publishers in 1975, one year after Random Charlene Mitchell, the former CPUSA leader who House, under the guidance of Davis's editor at the moved to California to coordinate the National time, Toni Morrison, released Angela Davis: An United Committee to Free Angela Davis. Autobiography. Davis's autobiography introduced many to the events that led to her political incar­ HE PROLOGUE RELATES HOW DAVIS, while ceration and development as an influential social T defending her right to teach at UCLA, began critic. The Morning Breaks, though, provides a narra­ working in a mass defense for the Soledad Broth­ tive with a richly detailed context about the trial ers-George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John not found in Davis's memoir (which also focuses Clutchette-African-American leaders in the Cali­ on her childhood and youth). It relates specific fornia prisoners' rights movement who were events leading up to the trial and the trial itself charged in January 1970 with killing a guard by amid an international struggle to free a woman, prison officials attempting to destroy their move­ who would become in the 1970s, the most promi­ ment. Through the Soledad Brothers' Defense nent political prisoner in the United States. Committee, Davis became close to George Jack- Page 52 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 32, NO. 1 son's mother Georgina and younger brother Given that the death penalty had not been abol­ Jonathan. She would eventually meet and become ished at the time of her imprisonment-Califor­ the intimate of George Jackson. nia Governor Ronald Reagan was actively cam­ In August 1970, out of concern for the safety paigning for her execution-the fight for Davis's of his older brother, and seeking to publicize state release was painfully intense. Aptheker relays abuses against the Soledad Brothers and dehu­ much of the tortuous struggle. With the (tempo­ manizing prison conditions, Jonathan attempted rary) abolition of California's death penalty, Davis to free from a Marin County Courthouse three was released in 1971. Progressives had faced prisoners-William Christmas, James McClain tremendous opposition from the police, courts, and Ruchell Magee-African American men who and media but garnered support from diverse had been tortured and threatened by guards for sources. Aptheker informs us that Davis's acquit­ reporting guard brutality. Jonathan Jackson had tal was partly, if not largely, won outside of the access to the home in which Angela Davis's guns courtroom and depended upon the mobilization were stored (Davis had received death threats and oflocal coalitions and mass, international protest. had legally purchased weapons for protection). Aptheker describes how, over the defense He carried weapons registered in her name into team's strenuous objections, the prosecutor the Marin County courtroom, arming McClain, Albert Harris introduced Davis's prison love let­ Christmas, and Magee. The four took as hostages ters to Jackson; the letters were taken from Jack­ Judge Harold Haley, his son-in-law and prosecutor son's cell after he was executed by a prison guard Gary Thomas and other jurors, and retreated to a in 1971. Reading the letters (a mixture of political van in the parking lot. San Quentin guards fired theory and self-reflection) to the jury, the state on the parked vehicle-standard California presented Davis as a woman "crazed" with frustrat­ prison policy was for guards to prevent escapes ed passion. Aptheker writes how Harris was forced regardless of the consequences-killing Haley, to abandon a political argument and "shrouded" Jackson, McClain, Christmas and seriously wound­ Davis in racial-sexual stereotypes. ing Thomas and Magee. Harris ... had intended to argue that Angela, Although she was not in northern California at driven by a political fanaticism (as evidenced by the time, because the guns were registered in her her speeches) and an irresistible passion (as evi­ name, and more importantly because she had denced by her June 1970 letters to George Jack­ been targeted for her political activities, Davis was son) had committed herself to this reckless crimi­ designated as an accomplice. Maintaining that nal enterprise. she did not know of Jackson's plans, Davis went underground, initiating one of the largest "man­ By the time the case finally came to trial, how­ hunts" in U.S. history. She was listed on the FBI's ever, the political situation in the country had Ten Most Wanted List until her capture in Man­ changed. In the wake of the Attica Uprising [the hattan several months later and her subsequent 1971 prison revolt sparked by Jackson 's assassina­ extradition to California to stand trial on charges tion] especially, there was a growing popular of murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping. awareness of the racism and brutality of the prison system. Angela's early denunciations PTHEKER DOES A THOROUGH JOB of explaining might now seem not only reasonable and just, A the government's sometimes deadly repres­ but prophetic. (166) sion of radicals and the immense difficulties in securing just trials for radicals: Prior to the June NGELA DAVIS WAS ACQUITTED on June 4, 1972, 1970 tragedy, the National Guard had killed A months after the surviving Soledad Brothers unarmed students at Kent State, while the FBI's and their supporters relished their own exonera­ illegal counterintelligence program, COINTEL­ tions in court and nearly two years after an PRO, created a covert policy of police executions exhaustive, nerve-wracking campaign to free her. and the framing of black revolutionaries. Aptheker writes "In the wake of the worldwide Notwithstanding the book's subtitle, its movement to free Angela, millions of people were detailed documentation in two chapters, "The made aware of prison conditions
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry
    0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry Howard Rambsy II The University of Michigan Press • Ann Arbor First paperback edition 2013 Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2011 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 5432 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rambsy, Howard. The black arts enterprise and the production of African American poetry / Howard Rambsy, II. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-472-11733-8 (cloth : acid-free paper) 1. American poetry—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. Poetry—Publishing—United States—History—20th century. 3. African Americans—Intellectual life—20th century. 4. African Americans in literature. I. Title. PS310.N4R35 2011 811'.509896073—dc22 2010043190 ISBN 978-0-472-03568-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12005-5 (e-book) Cover illustrations: photos of writers (1) Haki Madhubuti and (2) Askia M. Touré, Mari Evans, and Kalamu ya Salaam by Eugene B. Redmond; other images from Shutterstock.com: jazz player by Ian Tragen; African mask by Michael Wesemann; fist by Brad Collett.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work
    UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work Title Living History Circle (group interview): Out in the Redwoods, Documenting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1965-2003 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/05d2v8nk Author Reti, Irene H. Publication Date 2004-04-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California LIVING HISTORY CIRCLE This group living history circle was conducted on April 20, 2002, as part of the Banana Slug Spring Fair annual event for UCSC alumni and prospective students. The session was organized by Irene Reti, together with Jacquelyn Marie, and UCSC staff person and alum Valerie Jean Chase. The discussion was approximately ninety minutes and included the following participants: Walter Brask, Melissa Barthelemy, Valerie Chase, Cristy Chung, James K. Graham, Linda Rosewood Hooper, Rik Isensee, David Kirk, Stephen Klein, John Laird, Jacquelyn Marie, Robert Philipson, Irene Reti, and John Paul Zimmer. This was also the thirtieth reunion of the Class of 1972, which is why there is a disproportionate number of participants from that period of UCSC history. The interview was taped and transcribed. Where possible, speakers are identified.—Editor. Jacquelyn Marie: We have three basic questions, and they will probably blend together. Please say your name, what college you graduated from, and your year of graduation. Then there should be lots of time to respond to each other. The questions have to do with Living History Circle 159 the overall climate on campus; professors and other role models, and classes; and the impact of UCSC on yourselves as GLBT people in terms of your life, your identity, your work.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work
    UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work Title Helene Moglen and the Vicissitudes of a Feminist Administrator Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fc7q3z8 Authors Moglen, Helene Reti, Irene Regional History Project, UCSC Library Publication Date 2013-06-03 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fc7q3z8#supplemental eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California University of California, Santa Cruz University Library Helene Moglen and the Vicissitudes of a Feminist Administrator Interviewed and Edited by Irene Reti Santa Cruz 2013 This manuscript is covered by copyright agreement between Helene Moglen and the Regents of the University of California dated May 28, 2013. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to six hundred words (per interview) may be quoted without the University Library’s permission as long as the materials are properly cited. Quotations of more than six hundred words require the written permission of the University Librarian and a proper citation and may also require a fee. Under certain circumstances, not-for-profit users may be granted a waiver of the fee. For permission contact: Irene Reti [email protected] or Regional History Project, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. Phone: 831-459-2847 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction i Early Life 1 Bryn Mawr 6 Marriage and Family 9 Graduate Study at Yale University 12 Sig Moglen 18 Teaching at New York University 19 Teaching at State University of New York [SUNY], Purchase 26 Coming to UC
    [Show full text]
  • 5.00 #214 February/MARCH 2008 the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Summer Writing Program 2008
    $5.00 #214 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008 The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Summer Writing Program 2008 7EEKLY7ORKSHOPSs*UNEn*ULYs"OULDER #/ WEEK ONE: June 16–22 The Wall: Troubling of Race, Class, Economics, Gender and Imagination Samuel R. Delany, Marcella Durand, Laird Hunt, Brenda Iijima, Bhanu Kapil, Miranda Mellis, Akilah Oliver, Maureen Owen, Margaret Randall, Max Regan, Joe Richey, Roberto Tejada and Julia Seko (printshop) WEEK TWO: June 23–29 Elective Affinities: Against the Grain: Writerly Utopias Will Alexander, Sinan Antoon, Jack Collom, Linh Dinh, Anselm Hollo, Daniel Kane, Douglas Martin, Harryette Mullen, Laura Mullen, Alice Notley, Elizabeth Robinson, Eleni Sikelianos, Orlando White and Charles Alexander (printshop) WEEK THREE: June 30–July 6 Activism, Environmentalism: The Big Picture Amiri Baraka, Lee Ann Brown, Junior Burke, George Evans, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Lewis MacAdams, Eileen Myles, Kristin Prevallet, Selah Saterstrom, Stacy Szymaszek, Anne Waldman, Daisy Zamora and Karen Randall (printshop) WEEK FOUR: July 7–13 Performance, Community: Policies of the USA in the Larger World Dodie Bellamy, Rikki Ducornet, Brian Evenson, Raymond Federman, Forrest Gander, Bob Holman,Pierre Joris, Ilya Kaminsky, Kevin Killian, Anna Moschovakis, Sawako Nakayasu, Anne Tardos, Steven Taylor, Peter & Donna Thomas (printshop) Credit and noncredit programs available Poetry s&ICTIONs4RANSLATION Letterpress Printing For more information on workshops, visit www.naropa.edu/swp. To request a catalog, call 303-245-4600 or email [email protected]. Keeping the world safe for poetry since 1974 THE POETRY PROJECT ST. MARK’S CHURCH in-the-BowerY 131 EAST 10TH STREET NEW YORK NY 10003 NEWSLETTER www.poetryproject.com #214 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008 NEWSLETTER EDITOR John Coletti 4 ANNOUNCEMENTS DISTRIBUTION Small Press Distribution, 1341 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA 94710 6 READING REPORTS THE POETRY PROJECT LTD.
    [Show full text]
  • 2017-2018 Academic Year 02
    CELEBRATING THE HUMANITIES 2017-2018 Academic Year 02 LETTER FROM THE DEAN TYLER STOVALL As we come to the end of another academic year, many of us are no doubt grateful for the relative calm we have experienced since last year. National politics remains turbulent, but there have been no new changes or transitions comparable to those of a year ago. If last year was a time of drama, this has been more one of reassessment and new beginnings. It has been my pleasure to welcome new colleagues to the Humanities Division. History of Consciousness has two new faculty, Banu Bargu and Massimiliano Tomba, whose presence has brought new dynamism to the department. Ryan Bennett and Amanda Rysling joined the Linguistics department as assistant professors. I’m also pleased to welcome Literature professor Marlene Tromp, who so wanted to join us she consented to accept an administrative position as Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor! At the same time, I must say farewell to some valued colleagues. Professors Tyrus Miller and Deanna Shemek are moving to faculty positions at UC Irvine, where Tyrus will also serve as Dean of the Humanities. Professors Bettina Aptheker, Jim McCloskey, and Karen Tei Yamashita retired from the university, although I hope they will remain active as emeriti faculty. Finally, I must acknowledge and mourn the passing of professor emeritus Hayden V. White. One of the most renowned and influential faculty members at UC Santa Cruz, Hayden White left a rich legacy to History of Consciousness, the Humanities, and UC Santa Cruz in general. This has also been a year of new initiatives.
    [Show full text]
  • The Black Power Movement
    A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections General Editors: John H. Bracey, Jr. and Sharon Harley The Black Power Movement Part 1: Amiri Baraka from Black Arts to Black Radicalism Editorial Adviser Komozi Woodard Project Coordinator Randolph H. Boehm Guide compiled by Daniel Lewis A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Black power movement. Part 1, Amiri Baraka from Black arts to Black radicalism [microform] / editorial adviser, Komozi Woodard; project coordinator, Randolph H. Boehm. p. cm.—(Black studies research sources) Accompanied by a printed guide, compiled by Daniel Lewis, entitled: A guide to the microfilm edition of the Black power movement. ISBN 1-55655-834-1 1. Afro-Americans—Civil rights—History—20th century—Sources. 2. Black power—United States—History—Sources. 3. Black nationalism—United States— History—20th century—Sources. 4. Baraka, Imamu Amiri, 1934– —Archives. I. Woodard, Komozi. II. Boehm, Randolph. III. Lewis, Daniel, 1972– . Guide to the microfilm edition of the Black power movement. IV. Title: Amiri Baraka from black arts to Black radicalism. V. Series. E185.615 323.1'196073'09045—dc21 00-068556 CIP Copyright © 2001 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-834-1. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Berkeley Poetry Conference
    THE BERKELEY POETRY CONFERENCE ENTRY FROM WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Poetry_Conference Leaders of what had at this time had been termed a revolution in poetry presented their views and the poems in seminars, lectures, individual readings, and group readings at California Hall on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California during July 12-24, 1965. The conference was organized through the University of California Extension Programs. The advisory committee consisted of Thomas Parkinson, Professor of English at U.C. Berkeley, Donald M. Allen, West Coast Editor of Grove Press, Robert Duncan, Poet, and Richard Baker, Program Coordinator. The roster of scheduled poets consisted of: Robin Blaser, Robert Creeley, Richard Durerden, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Joanne Kyger, Ron Lowewinson, Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, Jack Spicer, George Stanley, Lew Welch, and John Wieners. Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) did not participate; Ed Dorn was pressed into service. Seminars: Gary Snyder, July 12-16; Robert Duncan, July 12-16; LeRoi Jones (scheduled), July 19-23; Charles Olson, July 19-23. Readings (8-9:30 pm) New Poets, July 12; Gary Snyder, July 13; John Wieners, July14; Jack Spicer, July 15; Robert Duncan, July 16; Robin Blaser, George Stanley and Richard Duerden, July 17 New Poets, July 19; Robert Creeley, July 20; Allen Ginsberg, July 21; LeRoi Jones, July 22; Charles Olson, July 23; Ron Loewinsohn, Joanne Kyger and Lew Welch, July 24 Lectures: July 13, Robert Duncan, “Psyche-Myth and the Moment of Truth” July 14, Jack Spicer, “Poetry and Politics” July 16, Gary Snyder, “Poetry and the Primitive” July 20, Charles Olson, “Causal Mythology” July 21, Ed Dorn, “The Poet, the People, the Spirit” July 22, Allen Ginsberg, “What's Happening on Earth” July 23, Robert Creeley, “Sense of Measure” Readings: Gary Snyder, July 13, introduced by Thomas Parkinson.
    [Show full text]
  • Killing in the Name of Struggle: Amiri Baraka's Revolutionary Theatre
    KILLING IN THE NAME OF STRUGGLE: AMIRI BARAKA’S REVOLUTIONARY THEATRE DOUGLAS KERN PhD THE UNIVERSITY OF YORK DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE, FILM AND TELEVISION JANUARY 2014 ABSTRACT This study explores representations of murder, killing, and death in the revolutionary drama of Amiri Baraka. After a brief Introduction, Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to Baraka’s birth as an activist and provides background regarding the U.S. racial climate in the 1960s as it relates to his activism. Moreover, it presents Baraka’s Black Arts Repertory Theatre School and how it helped establish the Black Arts Movement. Chapter 2 provides a detailed study of Dutchman, Baraka’s first success, to initiate an analysis of killing and murder within his plays. In addition, it examines The Slave and Slave Ship, which present revolutionary models whereby Black Power is sought, and in the case of Slave Ship achieved through the killing of whites. Chapter 3 offers a detailed look at Baraka’s move towards Third World Marxism. After categorically denouncing Nationalism, Baraka’s public embrace of Marxism in 1974 isolated him from the Black theatre he had helped establish. Case studies examine representations of Capitalist killers in What Was the Relationship of the Lone Ranger to the Means of Production? and Song. Chapter 4 begins with a brief introduction to Baraka’s activism in the early 1990s, along with details of his son’s tragic shooting, and culminates with in-depth analyses of Jack Pot Melting: A Commercial, The Election Machine Warehouse, and General Hag’s Skeezag, all published in the ‘90s and performed together for the Nuyorican Poets Café Theater in 1996.
    [Show full text]
  • Jeanne Theoharis a Life History of Being Rebellious
    Want to Start a Revolution? Gore, Dayo, Theoharis, Jeanne, Woodard, Komozi Published by NYU Press Gore, Dayo & Theoharis, Jeanne & Woodard, Komozi. Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: NYU Press, 2009. Project MUSE., https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/10942 Access provided by The College Of Wooster (14 Jan 2019 17:21 GMT) 5 “A Life History of Being Rebellious” The Radicalism of Rosa Parks Jeanne Theoharis In all these years . it’s strange . but maybe not . nobody asks . about my life . if I have children . why I moved to Detroit . what I think . about what we tried . to do. Something needs to be said . about Rosa Parks . other than her feet . were tired. Lots of people . on that bus . and many before . and since . had tired feet . lots of people . still do . they just don’t know . where to plant them. Nikki Giovanni, “Harvest for Rosa Parks”1 On October 30, 2005, Rosa Parks became the first woman and second African American to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. Forty thou- sand Americans—including President and Mrs. Bush—came to pay their respects. Thousands more packed her seven-hour funeral celebration at the Greater Grace Temple of Detroit and waited outside to see a horse- drawn carriage carry Mrs. Parks’s coffin to the cemetery.2 Yet what is com- monly known—and much of what was widely eulogized—about Parks is a troubling distortion of what actually makes her fitting for such a national tribute.
    [Show full text]
  • John Logan: a Retrospective
    San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Faculty Publications, English and Comparative Literature English and Comparative Literature August 1981 John Logan: A Retrospective Alan Soldofsky San Jose State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub Part of the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Alan Soldofsky. "John Logan: A Retrospective" Poetry Flash (1981). This is brought to you for free and open access by the English and Comparative Literature at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, English and Comparative Literature by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CAUF Free Number 101 August 1981 Subscriptions $7 1t 1:~ 1 1 :1 1 W~ I : l:::m:l: t;:l:mt11:lf:lllll 0 2007 1581018 6 Caltfonua Stale Library , John Logan and Family. JOHN LOGAN: A RETROSPECTIVE Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream: Selec· ted Poems, Ecco Press, New York, 1981 , $14.95. Strange 10 be al>le 10 ~ee through the steam The Bridge of Change: Poems 1974·1980, BOA (but sallsl ymg to me pornt of calm. lik e tne viSion o llhC PCIICCI new born) Editions, Brockport , N.Y., 198 1, $4.50. ,or rhe lust 11me With the publication of Only the Dreamer Can Change the the whole Dream and The Bridge of Change, we have once more in print a beautiful body of a loend substantial body of work by one of this country's most valuable (Poem Tears. Spray. and Stoom part r) poets. John Logan·s opus of ntne books thus far, including the In a recent conversation, Logan told me that when he started out Selected Poems, represents a formidable and sustatning accom­ in poetry his background was in b1ology and physics.
    [Show full text]
  • Amiri Baraka
    National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox The Making of African American Identity: Vol. III, 1917-1968 AP / Library of Congress LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka THE REVOLUTIONARY THEATRE Liberator, July 1965 * This essay was originally commissioned by the New York Times in December 1964, but was refused, with the statement that the editors could not understand it. The Village Voice also refused to run this essay. It was first published in Black Dialogue. LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka, 1965 LeRoi Jones The Revolutionary Theatre should force change, it should be change. (All their faces turned into the lights and you work on them black nigger magic, and cleanse them at having seen the ugliness and if the beautiful see themselves, they will love themselves.) We are preach- ing virtue again, but by that to mean NOW, what seems the most constructive use of the word. The Revolutionary Theatre must EXPOSE! Show up the insides of these humans, look into black skulls. White men will cower before this theatre because it hates them. Because they have been trained to hate. The Revolutionary Theatre must hate them for hating. For presuming with their technology to deny the supremacy of the Spirit. They will all die because of this. The Revolutionary Theatre must teach them their deaths. It must crack their faces open to the mad cries of the poor. It must teach them about silence and the truths lodged there. It must kill any God anyone names except Common Sense. The Revolutionary Theatre should flush the fags and murders out of Lincoln’s face. It should stagger through our universe correcting, insulting, preaching, spitting craziness .
    [Show full text]
  • Civil Rights Done Right a Tool for Teaching the Movement TEACHING TOLERANCE
    Civil Rights Done Right A Tool for Teaching the Movement TEACHING TOLERANCE Table of Contents Introduction 2 STEP ONE Self Assessment 3 Lesson Inventory 4 Pre-Teaching Reflection 5 STEP TWO The "What" of Teaching the Movement 6 Essential Content Coverage 7 Essential Content Coverage Sample 8 Essential Content Areas 9 Essential Content Checklist 10 Essential Content Suggestions 12 STEP THREE The "How" of Teaching the Movement 14 Implementing the Five Essential Practices 15 Implementing the Five Essential Practices Sample 16 Essential Practices Checklist 17 STEP FOUR Planning for Teaching the Movement 18 Instructional Matrix, Section 1 19 Instructional Matrix, Section 1 Sample 23 Instructional Matrix, Section 2 27 Instructional Matrix, Section 2 Sample 30 STEP FIVE Teaching the Movement 33 Post-Teaching Reflection 34 Quick Reference Guide 35 © 2016 Teaching Tolerance CIVIL RIGHTS DONE RIGHT // 1 TEACHING TOLERANCE Civil Rights Done Right A Tool for Teaching the Movement Not long ago, Teaching Tolerance issued Teaching the Movement, a report evaluating how well social studies standards in all 50 states support teaching about the modern civil rights movement. Our report showed that few states emphasize the movement or provide classroom support for teaching this history effectively. We followed up these findings by releasingThe March Continues: Five Essential Practices for Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, a set of guiding principles for educators who want to improve upon the simplified King-and-Parks-centered narrative many state standards offer. Those essential practices are: 1. Educate for empowerment. 2. Know how to talk about race. 3. Capture the unseen. 4. Resist telling a simple story.
    [Show full text]