The civil rights era in living memory (30 min.)

This piece is a reminder of the Civil Rights Era; a time not so long ago when, because of skin color, some Americans struggled for equality against a strongly resisting society. Why is it important to recall this era? As retired educator and veteran of the struggle Janice Kelsey states: It is important to put the truth out to help people recognize that this was real:  these weren‘t fairy tales. And peoples’ lives were affected and still are as a result of things that happened fifty years ago.

 Early in the segment Harvard Professor Emeritus Alvin Poussaint introduces the concept of Post-traumatic Slavery Syndrome: a phenomena with roots in the earliest days of North American settlement and during 250 years of slavery up to the present day. Poussaint argues convincingly that PTSS explains many of the persistent challenges faced by some African Americans.

 Interviews with veterans of the era recount a range of negative experiences including common daily insults, basic rights denied, intimidations, theft of land, assaults, rape and terroristic violence. Interviewees include:

        ·        Birmingham’s Myrna Jackson recalls a time when white storekeepers would not touch black customers when accepting payment or giving change.

• Dr. Marvin Dunn, educator, researcher, author and Professor Emeritus, Florida International University speaks on discovering, at about 6 years old, inequality based on his family’s race. The realization occurred when he saw his mother, a domestic servant, directed to enter the rear door of the home where she worked.

• Janice Wesley Kelsey served as a teacher, counselor and principal for 30 years. She was just 16 years old in 1963, when she and fellow students were arrested for participation in what became known as the Children’s March in Birmingham, Alabama. “People died, people went to jail. People were beaten and bitten and hosed just to say I’m OK. I’m as good as you are.”

• Retired College Librarian, Sherry Sherrod Dupree describes two instances of attempted theft of her family’s land by whites. One attempt resulted in the loss of 100 acres and a farmhouse. In both instances whites intended to kill the male owners.

• Dr. Dunn recalls nights when the Klan would drive through his neighborhood firing shots into black owned homes.

• Paula Pennebaker. President and CEO of the Southeast Wisconsin WYCA, speaks of the life long shame experienced by her mother for her light skin which may have resulted from rape. Before the Civil Rights Era the rape of black girls and women was done with impunity in some parts of the country.

• Three women, all life-long activists, share memories of the deaths of four little girls (all contemporaries) in the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church.

• Dr. Luther Ivory recalls witnessing the aftermath of the lynching of a family friend in 1964 Memphis. This was an event with life-long consequences for Dr. Ivory.

Life-long activist Calvin Taylor speaks on the importance for black people to remember the past despite shame over past treatment. Failure to do so discounts both the heroic nature of the struggle and how far blacks have come.

Dr Poussaint ends the piece urging blacks to recognize what they contribute to society and to continue their struggles for change.“The blows may continue to come, but maybe at a lesser rate than they used to, because one of the things that helps create change is fighting for change. So any time something happens the more we speak up and get involved and demand that there’s a change, the more change will occur.”