Caroline Fowler, Michael Williamson,  Makenzie Mosby, Virginia Ariail, and Ashley Dill

Dr. McKinney

Group Review 2

Due: 9/30/16

At times the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis is boiled down to a few mainstream actions and key players. However, it is often neglected that there are many facets to the movement and each plays an integral part in its progression. These different facets can be used as a way to analyze and view the movement in its entirety. Evaluation of the way these categories are implemented and deployed brings into focus aspects of the movement that are not always considered. An example of this is the idea of gender and its role in the development of the movement. Both race and gender combined to allowed African Americans to use an all-encompassing approach to combat civil rights issues. Men and women struggled with issues stemming from their race and gender and by handling both they were able to make strides during the Civil Rights Movement. Three facets of society that display these race and gender battles are labor, public spaces and institutions, and police brutality.

The first facet of society that the battle of both gender and race is fully displayed is through labor. During the years of the Second World War, black women in Memphis faced two particularly tough battles in regards to labor struggles. First was the struggle for recognition by society and the other was economic opportunity. During this time, black women, more so than black men, faced a great deal of discrimination and stereotypes. While black men could be at least accepted to a lower status of job for say riveting, black women would be entirely omitted from the occupation. For example, Fischer Aircraft hired 700 white women as riveters, but absolutely no black women. In general, black women would be sidelined to occupations deemed traditionally acceptable for their race and gender, such as maids and laundry workers. Despite that, there was a concerted effort to resist the limitations of segregated society in the labor market. Black women formed so called, ‘Eleanor Clubs,’ which sought to break from the notion that that they were only capable of performing domestic work. Furthermore, society restricted black women’s  ability find jobs, their income—black women were paid the least among blacks and whites—and how they were treated in these jobs. In response to this, black women established and joined unions as a means to exert political power in their daily lives. In particular, black women used the power of an organized strike to fight discrimination in the workplace, for better pay, and working conditions.

In a similar manner to the resistance in labor, the battle of public spaces and institutions also demonstrated the inequality associated with both race and gender. Due to segregation and white supremacy, white popular culture excluded the black community by dominating the many facets of creativity, art, and culture during the Civil Rights struggle. In order to assert their independence and power, black communities created their own black civic universe through music, radio, religion, politics, and the press to explore more deeply ideas about race, gender, and sexuality. This black-oriented infrastructure helped to “create spaces for a cultural consumption by blacks that was grounded in politics of pride, despite their Jim Crow origins.” Like Ida B. Wells’ establishing her printing press on Beale Street, many black business owners took the initiative to establish themselves because of the massive impact it had on morale, and in turn, the influence it had to inspire these communities to react politically. Technological advances came with the movement to the entertainment industry during the movement to Beale Street: radio and movies. Radio, specifically WDIA which reached from Memphis all the way to the Mississippi Delta, became an integral part of black life. WDIA became a center for black music and its culture helping to play the music that was initially ignored by whites on Beale Street and exploring issues of black manhood and womanhood through radio conversation. Movies also became an important way for African-Americans to understand where they stood in the racial hierarchy due to Memphis censorship laws. These laws not only prevented black people from seeing certain movies, but it also cut out black musicians and would not even allow certain movies to be played if they bordered on equal rights. In one particular movie, a nurse who could “pass” as white was engaged to a white doctor and the Memphis censorship laws would not allow it to be played in Memphis theatres for fear of miscegenation.

In a comparable manner to public spaces, the intersection of race and womanhood are prominently reflected in the police brutality occurring against African Americans, particularly in Memphis through the 1940’s. The stereotype of black men as “bestial rapists” was long established in the late 19th and 20th century with the rise of lynching. This led to the continual police questioning of ‘suspicious’ African American men, stopping them on the side of the road merely for the color of their skin. If arrested, many of them were somehow charged with rape, or assault of a white woman. Women, however, were subjected to even more sexualized verbal and physical assaults. Black women were stopped on the basis of insufficient health cards, pointing to the demoralizing view of them as licentious, and immoral.

        A typical evening after work, two young black women, Alice Wright and Annie Mae Williams, were walking home from work when two police officers stopped them, and “accused them of loitering.” Despite the fact that the two women were walking, the accusation implies that they are on the street for other reasons—insulting their womanhood. This occurred not only in Memphis, but throughout the south for African American women in the early to mid-1900’s. They were also questioned about their health cards, which remained at work; the implication of the question further proves the stereotype that black women were promiscuous and therefore more likely to have venereal diseases. In fact, women who were held on the charge of a falsified health card, or of having syphilis, were quarantined within jail. This solidified the idea that black women were wanton beings. It is this exact point one juror made in the case of the two young black women, Williams and Wright, whom Green discusses in Battling the Plantation Mentality. “Given the state’s definition of rape, the outcome of [that] kind of trial usually hinged on whether or not the woman had been forced,” and this juror felt as if the “character” of the two young women determined that” force was not necessary” for the police officers to “accomplish their purpose.” This language wholly hinges on the fact that black women were overtly sexualized, thus defenseless to police brutality against them. Their status, defined by the color of their skin and their gender, created an entirely different space for young black women to navigate. This twisted dynamic forced women of color to grapple with society’s preconceptions of their nature as overtly sexualized beings, while they simultaneously struggled for recognition of their true femininity.

The intersections of gender and race are an necessary lens through which the Civil Rights Movement should be analyzed. These intersections will illuminate the other avenues that black folks used to combat discrimination such as the “Eleanor Clubs”. The relationships between gender and labor and gender and police brutality inform the South’s commitment to maintaining social control. This control is manifested through how black men and women are treated in the workplace, by the state, and how they are socialized. In the face of this oppression, black men and women combated racism through investing in their “black civic universe”. These two weeks readings have emphasized the necessity to delve deeper into understanding the movement through different and alternative lens.

Group Review #2

Alexa Calomiris, Sam Clark, Keeley Frost, Chip Olges, Blaire Smith

History 345 - Civil Rights in Memphis

Dr. Charles W. McKinney

9/30/16

Group Review #2

            “Everything about American society, from entertainment to education, ensured that the black body was not associated with humanity and citizenship” (Mitchell). Similarly to the aforementioned quote by Koritha Mitchell, we believe that the American society in which we live was founded on white supremacy. Systematic racism fostered and continues to foster an environment to which the Negro is suppressed and overlooked. The Civil Rights Movement offered an opportunity for separate dynamic groups to have a voice in a society where they were silenced. Although various associations were set in place for the progression of the black race, military veterans, women, and students are particular groups that stand out as large contributing factors to the further advancement of African Americans in society. This essay will attempt to break down these advocating groups by analyzing their specific methods in attaining greater freedom.

When speaking of influential groups, one must begin by analyzing the dynamic impacts of the military during the Jim Crow era. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, African Americans were drafted into the military like their white counterparts. However, despite the desperate need for educated and willing volunteers, the military still practiced segregation and prohibited African Americans from holding certain positions. For instance, when a black, published, college professor enlisted in the Army, they refused to accept him. If they had let him enlist, they would have been forced to give him a reasonably high rank because of his education and background, meaning he would have outranked white soldiers. The military refused to let this happen, and the only way he could join the Army is if he entered as a private (and therefore would be unable to use his education to help the military). Instead he refused to be belittled on the basis of racist policies. This displayed the United States Government’s dedication to institutionalized segregation, despite a desperate need for young, hard-working, intelligent soldiers.

Once they were active in the military, the uniform did not stop segregation. While German POWs could eat inside many restaurants, the Black MPs guarding them could not enter the establishment. In the eyes of these southern white business owners, Nazis are more fit to eat in their restaurants than a local black patriot. Despite being sent all over the world to fight and die for their country, the white men who were killing Americans were treated more like citizens. This treatment is what sparked what is known as the Double-V movement. This was described as victory overseas, as well as victory for greater freedom at home, or “victory over Fascism abroad and racism at home” (Green 48). While soldiers fought bravely on both fronts, they questioned what they were fighting for. While they wore uniforms with the stars and stripes on the sleeves, their own country seemed not to want them or think of them as first class citizens. The United States was upholding the same inequalities that the soldiers were supposedly fighting against in Europe and the Pacific.

As they were sworn to fight injustice, both foreign and domestic, African American soldiers and citizens turned their attention to fighting the blatant inequality that was running rampant in the south by politically mobilizing and creating organizations like the American Veterans Committee. Upon returning from service in World War II, African Americans in Memphis faced a myriad of struggles. They had defeated the Nazis and the Japanese, but they still needed to defeat the segregation and racism common and legal at the time. Despite some of the institutionalized racism in the military, it was even worse when they made it back home, especially when they returned to southern cities like Memphis. The veterans were unique to the movement because they were patriotic to an America that all of society loved. They had a special voice that defended white America while being suppressed by the same white America. There is no doubt that African American veterans called into question the legitimacy of segregation and racial inequality on a national level.

While black men were overseas fighting, African American women fought a different, arguably more important, battle at home. In 1941, President Roosevelt “issued an executive order banning racial discrimination in war production industries” (Green 47). This caused employment levels, especially mass production industries, to spike significantly in Memphis. Most places that hired African American men only allowed them to perform unskilled or semiskilled jobs. In addition, major defense contractors hired thousands of white women, but refused to hire women of color. If they were hired by places such as Firestone, they were sent to do work separate from white women further ingraining the idea of segregation in the American labor force. Black women's exclusion from industrial jobs associated with "Rosie the Riveter" images become a symbol for women wanting to join the work force during the war.

While black women sought to create more equal opportunities in the production industry, their presence dominated the laundry and dry cleaning work force as many white employers believed it was one of the only jobs they were deemed fit. Black and white women were slated for specific jobs and with the formation of unions and organizations the voices of African American women were heard, as they expressed their discomfort and anger with domestic service. Letters were written to federal officials and even President Roosevelt with points emphasizing their dedication to the war effort; however, the view of the “washer-woman” remained rooted in American culture.

The petitioners and the laundry owners had different ideas for the representation of this image; the laundry owners claimed that it represented “the kindly old negro mammy who is loved by people of both races such as the one featured by Aunt Jemima.” As we already discussed in class, Aunt Jemima is a slave woman and glorifying her is suggesting that slavery was acceptable. The laundry workers perceived this image as “mocking the laundry worker by sexualizing her” (Green 64). These letters demanded the “washer-woman” be stripped of its sexualization and made respectable. With that being said, the laundry workers faced sexualization on a daily basis. Black female workers struggled to protect themselves from sexual abuse by white male employers and had few options besides quitting. When the war ended, hospital laundry workers “protested to the FEPC that they had been fired because they refused to concede to their white male supervisor’s demands for sex” (Green 64). This injustice only continued when O.E. Myers, director of the Fifth U.S. Civil Service Region, declared that the cases were not racial discrimination. From the unequal job opportunities to the over sexualization of the black woman, African American females much like African American veterans had specific circumstances driving their fight for civil rights.

Even though African American veterans and females shared the same sentiment regarding the progression of the black race, students in the new generation felt the need to expedite the advancement of civil rights. In 1946, when Edward H. Crump refused to allow the Freedom Train to stop in Memphis, the LeMoyne College NAACP branch called onto students to distinguish themselves as leaders in the black struggle for freedom in Memphis. The younger and new generations of African Americans in Memphis were less patient in regards to their inferior status, lack of opportunity in the United States, and desire for social equality. The Crump political machine had a strong hold over African American leaders in Memphis, but LeMoyne students did not cooperate with the racial paternalism. Instead, they challenged its prejudice (Green 132). On January 6, 1946, LeMoyne students and faculty rented a bus and traveled over ninety miles to Jackson, TN to visit the Freedom Train. Their actions signified “a fugitive journey from the stifling confines of Crump-dominated thought to a nationwide dialogue centered on freedom” (Green 129). LeMoyne students, who were frustrated from of their lack of freedom, continued to push back against the Crump machines oppression of civil rights.

In the fall of 1947, faculty and students at LeMoyne College and Southwestern organized the Memphis Community Relations Committee (MCRC), in efforts to emphasis the “human relations” between African Americans and whites postwar. The organization launched public meetings with speakers that discussed ways in which the relationship between the two races need not be seen as genetic superiority and inferiority, but instead how African Americans could achieve greater freedom. The LeMoyne students’ participation in the MCRC “exposed them to local, national, and international discussions about postwar politics, race, and democracy; however, as writers and leaders of their own organizations, they were pursuing distinct ideas of freedom based on independent thought and action” (Green 135).

Although many LeMoyne students traveled to see the Freedom Train when it could not stop in Memphis, some African Americans felt like they had lost against Crump and his political subordination. Therefore, during the election of 1948 students protested the Crump machines’ concept of freedom. LeMoyne students “distinguished themselves not only by attending political rallies and encouraging students to vote but also by weighing in on proposed federal civil rights legislation and potential judicial decisions favoring civil rights” (Green 136). Attending rallies and hearing what other African Americans living inside and outside Memphis were saying about the status of blacks exposed the students to different ideas about freedom, which they could use or build upon to promote civil rights in their city. The LeMoyne students urged African Americans in Memphis to vote during the primary and general elections in 1948. The idea of placing black votes on the side of freedom created a surge of black activism, which energized black Memphians and unsettled Crump. The political actions and sense of urgency taken by the LeMoyne students helped African Americans gain civil rights in Memphis and distinguish themselves generationally from black veterans and women.

In conclusion, although the battle for freedom continues to be fought in Memphis and throughout the rest of the United States by African Americans, the various groups - i.e. veterans, women, and students - offered new methods of activism through their roles in the Civil Rights Movement. While differing internally from each other, veterans, women, and students utilized their specific experiences within their organizations in order to confront the problems of systematic racism as a collective unit.

Moving the Memphis Movement Forward: The Signifcance of War, Education, and Popular Culture

David Maselli, Raven Burks, Kala Burr, Sumner Richter, and Brooks Lamb

Professor McKinney

Civil Rights in Memphis

September 29, 2016

Moving the Memphis Movement Forward:

The Signifcance of War, Education, and Popular Culture

            The master narrative of the American Civil Rights Movement has traditionally been comforting in its simplicity of heroes and martyrs, far off from the realities that everyday people were forced to face. Battling the Plantation Mentality by Laurie B. Green offers a realistic, complex, and thus frustrating truth of the actions taken in the name of Civil Rights. She provides a history of Memphis’ Movement, giving insight not only into the importance of war and war-related activities, popular culture, and education—aspects highlighted in this paper—but far beyond into labor and urbanization and other major factors in the national movements. Through these “categories of analysis,” the modern reader can better understand the efforts of black Americans and allies, along with the extreme and effective measures taken in organizing, publicizing, and mobilizing for a more equal future.        

            Popular culture was a complicated component of the movement for increased African American freedom and equality in the first half of the twentieth century. Resentful white leaders harnessed certain aspects of popular culture to limit the freedom of black Memphians. These limitations can be seen clearly through examining movies and theaters in the Bluff City in the 1940s and 1950s. The social freedoms of African Americans were obviously constrained through the segregated seating of movie theatres. The restrictions, however, go much further than determining where black Memphians sat. The Memphis Board of Censors, led by the notorious white supremacist Lloyd T. Binford, strictly controlled what audiences saw on the silver screen. Cutting and splicing reels, or in some instances banning entire films, Binford refused to allow African American actors to be seen in roles that were not entirely subservient to white actors. This was a way, explains Laurie Green, for white leaders to extinguish the “mental liberties” of black Memphians, attempting to eliminate even the faintest notions of equality in the minds of citizens.^[1]

            But African Americans found other avenues through which to exercise their “mental liberties,” avenues that avoided Binford’s oppressive censorship. One example of black Memphians pursuing freedom through popular culture can be found in discussing the dance halls and clubs on Beale Street. Robin Kelley explains that black citizens went to these venues with “people who had a shared knowledge of cultural forms, people with whom they shared kinship, people with whom they shared stories about the day or the latest joke, people who shared a vernacular struggled to articulate the beauty and burden of their lives.”^[2] Through shedding—at least momentarily—the mistreatment that they faced on a daily basis in the work spheres, black Memphians could regain some of their mental liberties.

Another example of black Memphians embracing popular culture to propel the movement forward is seen in WDIA, a Memphis radio station with all-black programming. This station was nothing short of revolutionary. As the first radio channel in the country to cater solely to an African American audience, WDIA played music that was favored by the black community, broadcasted black church services, and employed black disk jockeys and hosts who spoke extensively about politics that affected the station’s listeners.^[3] Through this station, black Memphians had a constant source of entertainment and discussion that was uplifting, rather than oppressive. At work and at home, a source of comfort was only a few turns of the radio dial away. The positive impact of WDIA on the Memphis freedom movement cannot be underestimated.

World War II brought noticeable changes to the movement for civil rights in Memphis. As the United States geared up to fight a war against fascism, its African American citizens were left to wonder about the hypocrisy of the war. The average white American citizen was able to strap on his patriotic boots in order to support the eradication of the threat of tyranny abroad, and he was able to work in the defense industry as a skilled worker. African Americans, on the other hand, were only allowed to fulfill docile and servile positions. This lead to the ardent support of the “Double V” movement. National Black leaders claimed “that democracy could only be achieved if it were based on genuine freedom for African Americans and for people of color in colonized nations.”[4] Many African Americans wanted recognition as actual citizens with innate human rights. The national discrimination in the defense industry sparked protests within the local Memphis industry. Green reports that “over 20,000 Memphis workers joined CIO unions between 1941 and 1945.”[5] The pressure of black workers nationally and the threat of thousands of African Americans marching on the nation’s capital led President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, banning racial discrimination within the defense industry. But Memphis businesses did not comply with the president’s Order. Black Memphians, if hired, were typically placed in low skill jobs or, more often, servile jobs. E. H. Crump’s influence within the black community undermined some black leader’s efforts to gain better conditions for the black community. Crump affiliates cancelled a key 1943 rally, spurring anger within the black community. Crump’s hold on the black community hindered its progress. One of the March on Washington’s Movement most prominent leaders, A. Phillip Randolph, compared “Crump’s paternalism and black complacency with slavery.”[6] Randolph’s critiques highlighted the irony of local black leadership. Although it seemed like Crump was benefiting blacks, his machine only served to keep blacks within the segregated society, while strengthening its power.

During the Cold War when the Freedom Train began rolling through the nation, Memphis leaders banned its passage through the city limits. The train called for desegregated viewings because it represented things that united all American citizens—democracy, freedom, and the notion that “all men were created equal.” The American Heritage Foundation did not intentionally craft the train under these premises, but the strong opposition to its integrated viewings in Southern cities resulted in the train symbolizing more than just an exhibit. It spurred conflicting opinions of freedom. The battle over the train was paired with Memphis college students emerging as leader in the fight for freedom. These students established “their own demands for rights…in the context of the Cold War…[and] anticolonial movements.”[7] Student leaders separated themselves from the previous trend of local black leaders; they promoted civil rights openly and enthusiastically. They attended rallies, weighed in on legislation, and encouraged their communities to vote. The Freedom Train controversy combined with the LeMoyne students’ activism contributed to the demise of the Crump machine. During the 1948 election season, black Memphians were finally able to break the chains of the Crump machine.

A formal, systematic approach of confronting segregation and mistreatment in World War II era-Memphis allowed the essence of formal educational ideology—famously advocated in the early twentieth century by W.E.B. DuBois—to flourish, becoming a hallmark of the Memphis freedom movement. Colleges like LeMoyne were pivotal in this liberation-through-education tactic, as evidenced in their Freedom Train involvement and their outspoken activism mentioned in the previous paragraph. Through pursuing higher education and uniting as academics with a common goal, black students and educators were able to garner greater freedoms for African Americans in Memphis than were previous generations, despite being forced to abide by societal conditions very much dominated by a white supremacist, plantation mentality. It is important to remember that this appreciation of education was rooted in the experiences of those oppressed by slavery, those who first learned to confront inequality with what little they had before garnering greater measures of freedom throughout the South in the movement overall. Increasing the access to education and encouraging students to unite was essential to moving the Memphis Movement in the right direction.

Often, the transformation of figures like Dr. Martin Luther King and Ida B. Wells into folk heroes hinders real examination into their humanity; perhaps even more importantly, it also diverts historical attention from the hundreds of thousands of African Americans who instituted change in their daily lives through avenues such as war and war-related activities, popular culture, and education, among other institutions. Everyday activists receive recognition in Green’s work as she portrays the permeation of segregation and bigotry as well as the efforts to move past these restraining societal features. In their own unique ways, education, popular culture, and broadly-defined war involvement and rhetoric helped move the Memphis Movement for increased freedom and equality forward. The war for Civil Rights was not fought or won only in the oval office, on the Senate floor, or in the Supreme Court. Memphis’ localized struggles for equality serve as a microcosm of the greater movement that was happening on the ground throughout the nation.

---

[1] Laurie B. Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2007), 145.

[2] Robin D. G. Kelley, “We Are Not What We Seem”: Rethinking Black Working Class Opposition in the Jim Crow South, The Journal of American History 80, no. 1 (June 1993), 85.

[3] Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality, 142-143.

[4] Ibid, 48.

[5] Ibid, 51.

[6] Ibid, 75.

[7] Ibid, 141.

Blog Post #2

“No one remembers whose idea it was, but sometime the night before the Fourth of July, from one house to the next, Walker Homes decided to celebrate their babies. Perhaps it was the simple passage of time, but the movement from one season into the next made their babies appear permanent. The entire year had been a reminder that even after the surrender of husbands and sons to Vietnam, even after that Civil Rights Act, even after the sacrifice of a King, none of that was enough to convince all the world of their humanity. But with their babies as proof, Walker Homes was happy to at least pretend to be free” – Jamey Hatley

The quote above is an excerpt from the short story, Dream Season, by Jamey Hatley. On September 28, 2016, Hatley joined our Civil Rights in Memphis class to discuss her story and what she wanted to convey about African American lives within black communities and culture. Hatley, who was born in Memphis TN, won a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award for her excellent and promising career as a female author. During class, she addressed the simultaneous “legitimacy” and “illegitimacy” occurring within African American communities. Dream Season contained a mixture of both historical records and fictional characters. For all authors, there is a risk when telling a story, and for Hatley, the fictional elements within her work allowed her to evoke empathy and imagination in the readers. The Walker Homes community, along with many other black communities in Memphis, stayed silent and did not talk about Martin Luther King’s assassination. Instead, Hatley noted that people would talk around the assassination, like talking around a wound, because when there is silence there is shame. Gossip and conversations pertaining to the lives of members within the communities were intimate and kept the people together. By focusing on the small things happening – like the birth of the King twins – the community of Walker Homes got a feeling of control and power. The celebration of the King babies distracted the community from the horrors of the Civil Rights Movement occurring throughout Memphis. It allowed them the chance to feel like human beings in the oppressive American society, and it gave them greater sense of freedom. When I came across that passage while reading the story I truthfully got the chills. Hatley explained that the use of juxtaposition throughout the story – the intertwined images of beauty and trauma – was to prove that joy unfortunately gets undercut in real life and that during movements people are still have to live their personal lives because more than just one moment is occurring.

Blog Post #1

              Even though on September 8, 2016, I could not attend Dread Scott’s lecture, “The Impossibility of Freedom In a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide,” I was able to hear him speak during an intimate luncheon the following day. While Scott introduced himself at lunch, he started out by saying he was a multi media visual artist, who wanted to use his art to initiate conversations about revolutionary change in the United States. Also, he said that he was a communist, who considered a world without classes of people to be a better world then the one we currently are living in. Through his artwork, Scott wanted to display his belief that there needs to be a radical transformation within the American society because the current society is based on the exploitation of African American and other minority groups. According to Scott, the capitalist ideology of the United States of America is based on exploitation and historically it created the various classes within society. He argued that becoming a society without classes would pave the way from people being property owners, who are greedy for power, to people taking care of the world and eliminating pain and suffering. The lack of classes would ultimately eliminate divisions among people and make the world better for everyone. As a side note, Scott shared that a lot of his political opinions were formed when he was younger and would listen to Malcolm X speeches and read about Mao Zedong the Chinese communist revolutionary. For Scott, revolutionary action was the only thing that would cause change, and he did not view our current society or system of capitalism as being permanent or stable in the world. Scott was a revolutionary because of the political change his art depicted. While Scott did give credit to the accomplishments African Americans made towards gaining their community greater freedom during the Civil Rights Movement, he grappled with the idea that since there was no real revolution then maybe African Americans did not push the Civil Rights Movement far enough to create the change they really needed. Police brutality towards African Americans is a pressing problem in the United States and Scott concluded that war is what ended slavery; therefore, war potentially would be the next step toward the change African Americans need now – one class overthrowing another class.

            Something fun and interesting I learned during the lunch and think the rest of the class will enjoy knowing too, was how in 1986 he gave himself the name “Dread Scott” because his birth name was Scott, he wanted people to think about African American history when they said his name (the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision), he wanted people to become fearful when they heard his name, and at the time he had dread locks.

Let's Talk About What Happened at Collierville High School

Collierville High School (CHS) is located in Collierville, Tennessee. The demographics of its student body are 76 percent white, 14 percent African American, and 10 percent other minorities as listed on US News. On September 14, 2016, CHS hosted its annual "America Day" celebration at school where students were expected to don apparel that represented America--the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.  A group of students decided to react to the situation by wearing this:

They dressed in all black to protest the injustices that black bodies have endured in this land of the free.  The students followed their usual routine in school--they attended classes, lunch, etc.  The only difference was their choice in clothing.  When the final bell rang dismissing the students to go home, they were met with several squad cars and police officers waiting outside, "out of fear of a riot".  Why?  Because a black body in black clothing is a cause for concern.  Because a black body in black clothing is considered a threat in our society.  One student responded to the kids wearing black by stating that the police should shoot them, and another kid waved a confederate flag in response to those wearing black.  Additionally, the police officers followed the students dressed in black to keep an eye on them, but who followed the student that suggested shooting his classmates?  What crime did these African American students commit in order to be stalked by police officers?

This event highlights one of the most difficult realities about race relations.  African Americans are constantly criminalized for normal acts.  With the death toll of black bodies killed by police officers, this is becoming more and more apparent. Here's a list of some normal acts that have costed black individuals their lives.

• Buying a toy bb gun in Walmart 
• Walking on the sidewalk at 8 pm.
• Having a "bad day"
• Visiting a girlfriend
• Playing with a toy gun in the park
• Dropping off food to your children
• Having a broken tail light
• Talking too loudly

The list goes on.  In each of these cases, the victims were allegedly engaging in "suspicious" activity. So what exactly is suspicious about any of these activities?  Many across the nation have asked this same question regarding these deaths and others like them.  Nevertheless, the cops in the cases are rarely discharged from the police force or convicted in a court of law.  The victim's families and community are always the ones left behind to tell their stories.  It is these circumstances that contribute to the overall frustration with the United States justice system. 

 Under the beliefs tabs on CHS's website, the following words appear "Each student is a valued individual with unique physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs".  So, for these students protesting a country that has a long history of excusing the murders of its citizens to be profiled, intimidated, and threatened is repulsive.  Furthermore, students calling attention to the value of their black lives were silenced with the very force that is utilized to contest that statement.  Those students had attended the same school for a little over a month, when this event occurred.  Faculty and staff should have known the kids' characters by this time.  A black body in black clothing was the only change in their routine actions.  This should not have been considered a justifiable reason to call the police. They should have been allowed to wear black peacefully, to protest the unjust killings of people who look like them. 

Sadly, the CHS response is not an isolated instance.  It happens in many communities across the nation (remember the response to the students dressed in black while wearing berets at Rhodes College a few semesters ago?).  Nevertheless, there needs to be a better response to individuals peacefully manifesting their dissatisfaction with the state of our society.  How do we have healthy dialogue with those that do not understand the cultural and historical implications of responding to protesters in such a manner?  Please comment your thoughts and suggestions below.

The Confederate Flag Bearers' Response to Colin Kaepernick Kneeling During the National Anthem

Throughout the last few weeks, there has been a national outcry regarding San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem. Disheartened by the inequalities that African Americans face on a daily basis, especially in regard to police brutality, Kaepernick feels that he has no choice but to kneel during the anthem. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said. “There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder... To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”


Rather than focusing on Kaepernick's decision to kneel, which I feel is valid and is a right that he and any other American can exercise, or the movement that he has inspired across the nation (a high school football team in Seattle recently began kneeling during the song: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nfl-anthem-highschool-idUSKCN11N0I4), this blog post will focus on the criticism the west coast quarterback has received, especially in the American South. More specifically, I will focus on the hypocrisy of many Americans (these are, for the most part, Southern whites, but others across the country do this, too) who support the right to fly a Confederate flag but simultaneously bash and slander Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem.


Arguing that Kaepernick is showing a total lack of respect for soldiers who have fought and died for the flag (or the ideals the flag represents), many Confederate flag supporters have criticized the quarterback for being un-American. At the same time, though, they fly a flag that represents an attempt to forcefully secede from the United States in order to protect an institution that extinguished freedom and liberty and subjected black Americans to inhumane treatment. Challenging Kaepernick's decision to kneel, therefore, is a blatant show of hypocrisy by these rebel flag wavers. After all, they display a flag that supports an army who killed hundreds of thousands of American soldiers. How can they argue that Kaepernick is alone in showing disrespect when they are doing something that is arguably much worse? (Note - I do not believe Kaepernick is being disrespectful. I think he is exercising his right of freedom of speech.)


Their anger over the flag presents one major problem, displaying the hypocrisy of their beliefs. But their reactions to Kaepernick's kneeling are perhaps even more troubling. Taking to social media, many angry people have resorted to burning Kaepernick's jersey and filming the ordeal, showing how vehemently they oppose his actions. If this doesn't invoke images of lynching in the American South, I don't know what would. These people are upset that Kaepernick is stepping out of social norms by not standing for the flag; they react by burning his jersey, seeking to show him how little they care about him as a person. It's sickening, and it brings to mind the disturbing images that Ida B. Wells puts forth in Southern Horrors.


If Confederate flag bearers are going to rail against Kaepernick and burn his jersey, they should be burning the rebel flag, too, and raging against anyone who dares fly the flag of the Confederacy. But they won't. Because, for many Kaepernick-haters, this issue is not about respecting the American flag -- it's about race.