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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Abbott Spurred Great Migration; New Books Tell Heroes’ Journeys

Robert S. Abbott

Abbott Spurred Great Migration; New Books Tell Heroes’ Journeys
By George E. Hardin | Published 11/24/2010

George E. Hardin

The Great Migration, the exodus of almost six million blacks from the South to the North, East and West, variously described as taking place between 1915 and 1970, brought significant changes to the lives of those who relocated as well as the course of events in the United States. New interest is rising in the Great Migration partly as a result of two new books on the subject: “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson, and “The Grace of Silence: A Memoir” by Michele Norris. Wilkerson writes that those who left the South were linked together by “their heroic determination to roll the dice for a better future.”

One of the central figures who added to the impetus of the Great Migration was Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, parent publication of the Tri-State Defender. From the Chicago Defender’s beginning in 1905, Abbott persistently urged blacks to leave the South. The Defender wrote blistering stories against racism, listed jobs that were available in the North, and printed train schedules from various southern towns to Chicago. It ran huge headlines over stories about lynchings and other atrocities committed against blacks. Abbott believed in fighting back against mistreatment by whites and used such slogans as, “If you must die, take at least one with you.”

As a result, many Southern cities tried to ban the Chicago Defender and confiscated copies when they arrived in town. But a distribution network was organized by railroad porters, who bought quantities of the paper in Chicago and sold them on trips to the South. Also, barnstorming athletes in the Negro Leagues and Chicago visitors brought back copies. The Encyclopedia Britannica said the Chicago Defender became “one of the most powerful organs of social action in America.” Abbott, who was born the son of former slaves 140 years ago this week, Nov. 24, 1870, started the newspaper with 25 cents and became a millionaire.

Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,200 people and chose three – a sharecropper, a physician and a farm worker – who migrated in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, for detailed exposition. Her subjects found that leaving the South meant leaving some problems but newer ones were present in the places to which they relocated. The North was better but it was not the Promised Land.

The title of Wilkerson’s book is from a poem by former Memphian Richard Wright, who wrote about leaving the South to “Respond to the warmth of other suns/And, perhaps, to bloom.”

“At the beginning of the 20th century,” Wilkerson says, “before the migration began, 90 percent of all African Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration, nearly half of them were living outside the South in the great cities of the North and West.”

Michele Norris’ book originally was intended to focus on “America’s hidden conversation about race,” but when she learned that her father, just out of the Navy, had left Birmingham for Minneapolis after being shot by a police officer she turned her attention to the “profound secrets” that exist in many families. Her father never mentioned the shooting and Norris learned about it from an uncle after her father’s death. Norris’ well-educated grandmother worked as a traveling Aunt Jemima, showing white housewives how to make pancakes – a story that was kept secret. Norris said she discovered her elders “wanted their children to soar, so they chose not to weigh down their pockets with personal tales of woe.”

Many blacks who moved away from the Bible Belt, in the manner of the early European migrants, referred to the South they left behind – with both loathing and longing – as “the Old Country.” It was a daring act to leave everything behind.

Not all heroes do spectacular things that attract wide attention. Sometimes the sacrificial attention to the everyday details of ensuring a family – especially the children – is well cared for can be a supreme act of heroism.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Monday, April 05, 2010

Tea Party Invoking Stale States’ Rights Argument

By George E. Hardin

Memphis Tri-State Defender

| Published 04/1/2010

Tea Party Invoking Stale States’ Rights Argument

The Tea Party movement is resurrecting the idea of interposition and nullification in its mounting opposition to the health care reform bill. It is a doctrine presented by those who believe in extreme states’ rights to the detriment of the federal union. Those who hold this view believe states can interpose their own laws to prevent the implementation of federal laws with which they disagree – in this case the health care bill. And they believe they can nullify any federal acts they feel are in opposition to their own interests.

Segregationists used the same ideas in the 1950s to oppose the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that outlawed “separate but equal” public schools. In the 19th century those who believed they had a right to enslave black Americans advocated the same concept. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has legally discredited interposition and nullification.

Dr. Martin Luther King Luther referred to this failed strategy in his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech when he said, “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor (George Wallace) having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

Mitt Romney is now attacking the health care plan, which has provisions similar to the legislation that passed while he was governor of Massachusetts. He has been derided by some of the state’s residents who have objections to the plan’s provisions. He responded by saying the plan was not perfect. Yet he and his fellow Republicans are railing against Obama’s good plan because it isn’t perfect. The president has called it a middle of the road approach, noting the government is not taking over anything. It is observing its right to present legislation that advances the common good.

The governor of Texas, who earlier suggested his state would be better off if it would secede from the union, also has commended the idea of interposition and nullification to show disdain for the federal government.

The dialogue seems less about health care opposition and more about discrediting Obama. Some of the hateful signs have said: “Obama Plan: White Slavery” and “Obamanomics: Monkey See, Monkey Spend.”

It is unfortunate that the word “fight” as a figure of speech is being taken literally by some right-wingers. Sarah Palin has said “reload” to attack Obama, and John McCain has endorsed that viewpoint. McCain, who gave a memorable concession speech and claimed to put his country first is now urging Republicans not to support any Obama proposals. The satirist Bill Maher said, “You can’t use the statement ‘there will be no cooperation for the rest of the year’ as a threat if there was no cooperation in the first half of the year.”

A recent Harris Poll indicates 67 percent of Republicans surveyed believe Obama is a socialist; 45 percent believe Obama was not born in the United States and therefore is not eligible to be president; 38 percent say Obama is “doing many of the things that Hitler did:” and 24 percent say Obama “may be the Antichrist.” The president also was called “anti-American” and condemned as someone who “wants the terrorists to win.”

The poll said that those who were less educated were more likely to hold the most extreme views, clinging to their opinions and ignoring the facts.

The Daily Beast, quoting Horace Mann, said, “Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.” And as for those screaming they want their country back, the most legitimate people to utter such a claim would be the American Indians.

(George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week.)

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Friday, December 24, 2010

Chart Worthwhile Goals As New Year Approaches

Chart Worthwhile Goals As New Year Approaches
By George E. Hardin

12/22/2010

As this year wends toward its end and a new one approaches, many people are already charting a path to self-improvement for 2011, which will result in the making of one or more New Year’s resolutions. Among the most common goals are to lose weight, reduce debt, save more money, get better organized and stop smoking.

I admire and respect those who make New Year’s resolutions – and keep them, but refrain from making them myself, not because I see no need for improvement, but because I question the wisdom of waiting until the first of the year to address problems that existed the previous 365 days.

However, I do make resolutions of a kind, in my fashion, throughout the year. With all my mistakes – and they are legion – I assess what happened and vow never to do that again, although it seldom happens that way. And when things turn out well, I evaluate the situation to see what can be done to replicate such results, an effort that is not always fruitful. Essentially, the aim is a continuing commitment to put forth my best effort all the time, to grasp each opportunity to be better.

The well-known poem “Opportunity,” by the late Memphis Judge Walter Malone is engraved on a monument in Court Square. Many of us of a certain age had to memorize it as schoolchildren. In the poem, Opportunity personified cries out: “They do me wrong who say I come no more/ When once I knock and fail to find you in;/ For every day I stand outside your door,/ And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win.” He goes on to warn against lamenting over “precious chances passed away” and “vanished joys,” and concedes that although the past consists of “blotted archives,” we “find the future’s pages white as snow.” The poem promotes constant readiness for growth.

One poll says from 40 percent to 45 percent of adult Americans make one or more New Year’s resolutions. The study indicates that 75 percent keep their resolutions past the first week, and 71 percent past the second week. After one month, it drops to 64 percent, and after six months, 46 percent. Yet the process is considered worthwhile. “People who explicitly make resolutions,” the survey claims, “are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.”

New Year’s resolutions derive from a practice of the early Babylonians, who believed that one’s actions on the first day of the year influenced what happened the rest of the year.

It is easy to understand the appeal of fitness gurus, life coaches and motivational speakers who offer to fix things we think we need to change, and promise a new you for the new year, but major changes can only take place when the individual is motivated from within. Some psychologists say public accountability often helps inspire people to keep resolutions. They suggest telling family and friends about your plans and enlisting their support.

With a sound approach toward resolutions, the new year could bring personal improvements rather than a new start on the same old habits. Still, some goals are always likely to remain elusive, but that does not indicate life is less meaningful or a lack of success. How far you have advanced, not your perceived shortcomings, is what counts.

James Matthew Barrie said, “The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Saturday, December 11, 2010

GOP ‘Frenemies’ Ready For Steele To Hit The Road

GOP ‘Frenemies’ Ready For Steele To Hit The Road
By George E. Hardin | Published 12/9/2010

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has found that many of those he thought were his supporters are turning into “frenemies” – people who act like friends, but soon turn against you. And in Steele’s case, some of them are out to get his job.

When Steele was elected to the GOP position on Jan. 30, 2009, in the sixth round, he was promoted as evidence the party was committed to inclusiveness and was making an effort to attract more minority votes in the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s victory. Steele soon found opposition was strong and one month after taking his position he showed his frustration by saying, “I’m trying to move a Republican Party that’s become mired in its own muck.”

A number of GOP leaders have said Steele should be ousted and opponents are lining up. Most recently, on Monday, Dec. 6, Reince Priebus (ryns PREE-buhs), the top legal counsel for the RNC, resigned to seek the party’s chairmanship. Priebus, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, advocated the election of Steele in 2009 and served as Steele’s right-hand man. He was encouraged to run by some close to Steele, whether Steele seeks the position again or not.

Steele learned early on that the brash style he used as lieutenant governor of Maryland met strong resistance once he took over the RNC. Steele once said, in reference to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show: “The whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly” – comments that offended many GOP conservatives, who urged Steele to apologize, which he did. Limbaugh had questioned whether Steele was qualified to lead the GOP.

Steele’s election to a two-year term was perceived by some in his party, such as Raynard Jackson, an African-American GOP consultant, as an effort to “get a black person out there and let him attack the first black president.” And Ada Fisher, who is among the few blacks on the RNC, suggested early on that he resign because “he makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish.”

Leading up to the November elections Steele complained that some in the party did not want to give him credit for the party’s successes and said on National Public Radio, “They don’t want me in this job.” After election day, complaints against Steele intensified.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former RNC chairman, is backing Priebus and has said he believes Steele should be replaced because Barbour doesn’t believe the GOP could defeat Obama with Steele as leader. (Under Mississippi term limits, Barbour, who is chairman of the Republican Governors Association, cannot succeed himself and is being promoted as a GOP presidential hopeful for 2012.) Barbour’s nephew, Henry Barbour, one of the 168 voting members of the RNC, is trying to form an anti-Steele voting bloc when the RNC meets in January.

And Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier: “Michael Steele is a good person; he helped me tremendously last year when I ran for governor. But I can tell you, many of us have great concern about the fiscal state of the RNC, about the lack of effort and effectiveness at the grass-roots ground game during the last election.”

The prevailing view is the party wants a chairman who will remain in the background and allow Rep. John Boehner, new Speaker of the House, to become the major spokesman for the Republican Party.

As of last Monday, Steele had yet to disclose whether he would seek reelection. But many in the GOP feel he has outlived his usefulness and want him out. Whatever Steele’s decision, the forces allied against him indicate if he tries to stay he is in for a long, drawn-out battle.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Friday, January 21, 2011

Palin Is Potential ‘Sleeper’ Candidate

Palin Is Potential ‘Sleeper’ Candidate
By George E. Hardin

1/20/2011

Managing the message you present and controlling your image is crucial for a person in politics. Sarah Palin is a sterling example of someone who is raising that strategy to unparalleled heights. She restricts her statements largely to social media and self-produced video clips. She has learned what Marshall McLuhan said—“the medium is the message”—and has mounted an approach that could wreak havoc on both the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama.

Obama, by contrast, gracious as he is, seems to spend more time trying to cooperate with his opponents and win their support than promoting his own accomplishments. That technique would be fruitful if only his detractors would meet him halfway.

One of the most astute critiques of the Palin phenomenon was made by Melissa Harris-Perry recently in the nation. She contends that Palin’s potential impact is being overlooked and she is riding a popularity wave that could push her closer toward the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2012.

A Princeton professor and former University of Chicago faculty member, Harris-Perry lived in Hyde Park when Obama was campaigning for president. She assigned Palin’s book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” to her Princeton class. The students, the professor said, are “mostly young women self-identified as liberal and feminist and actively engaged in local and national politics.” She said although the students “found her (Palin’s) authorial voice irritatingly self-assured and disagreed with her policy conclusions, they also found her surprisingly compelling.” And as Harris-Perry carried the book on planes and trains, she said it resulted in both “clucking disapproval” and “enthusiastic bonding” with strangers. She concedes her experiences are not a scientific study, “but after reading and watching Palin and the reactions to her these past few weeks I’m convinced that underestimating Sarah Palin is a mistake of epic proportions.”

Palin positions herself so “every attack is just evidence of the virtue of her chosen path.” Her approach “proves magnetic even for those who disagree with her.” She is “a candidate who attracts us even when she repulses us.”

In using social media to communicate and generally refusing to be interviewed by journalists, Palin is like the leader of a Third World country who controls how he is seen by the masses. She denounces her opponents as “others,” different from her fan base—less patriotic, more fiscally irresponsible, less inclined to work and more likely to seek a government handout. Therefore those “others” are less important and not entitled to equal participation in the democratic process—a role reserved for people committed to the ideas of the Tea Party. She and her constituents present themselves as victims of a malicious government. In Palin’s view, reporters become the enemy when they take on their traditional role as representatives of the public interest.

When John McCain pushed Palin upon the electorate he sabotaged his own campaign and added to the atmosphere in which style—personal and physical—was valued over substance.

The recent Tucson shootings united the nation in mourning but also exposed the width of the national divide. When Palin spoke about the tragedy it was in terms of “us” and “them,” accenting ideological separation.

Palin fails to give the impression that she could tackle the serious business of running the country, especially if she found it so difficult governing a state with a population of about 700,000 that she found it necessary to resign. She points to everything that is “wrong” and identifies herself as the one who can save us, all without speaking with substance on major issues.

Many blue-collar conservatives along with Palin are being deluded into taking positions against their own best interests and in favor of the rich and powerful. Palin criticizes “socialism” while the Alaska Permanent Fund, derived from oil and gas revenue, provides annual checks for Alaska’s citizens.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Government Shutdown May Loom For Lack Of Compromise

Government Shutdown May Loom For Lack Of Compromise

By George E. Hardin

Published on 11/11/2010

Now that the Republican majority has the power in the House of Representatives—the right has the might—and Senator Mitch McConnell has said the main GOP goal is to make sure President Barack Obama is not reelected, political fireworks are almost a certainty in the days ahead. Never mind that President Obama has offered from the beginning to work with the Republicans and acknowledged that the economy and joblessness need more attention.

The opposition party is willing to disregard pressing issues, such as the deaths of our armed forces men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is ready to bypass major domestic and foreign problems in an effort to defeat the nation’s leader in 2012.

It has been said that the difference between a politician and a statesman is the politician is mainly concerned about the next election, while the statesman is mainly concerned about the next generation. McConnell and others with similar views have already carved their niche.

Along with defeating Obama, the Republicans want to repeal the health care legislation although it provides coverage to about 30 million people who did not have it before. In pledging a hard-line stance on this issue, the GOP and the Tea Party may be moving toward the kind of partial government shutdown that took place in 1995 when the budget bill did not pass at the end of the fiscal year and no funds were appropriated. Ultimately it worked against the Republicans and Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House. Many in the House were holding out for cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, education and environmental funding. The aim was to trim the budget regardless of consequences.

It resulted in a tug-or-war between Gingrich, who led the Republicans, and President Bill Clinton.

Tom DeLay, former House Majority Leader, said in his book “No Retreat: No Surrender” that “He (Gingrich) told a room full of reporters that he forced the shutdown because Clinton had rudely made him and Bob Dole sit at the back of Air Force One… . What had been a noble battle for fiscal sanity began to look like the tirade of a spoiled child.” According to polls, Gingrich was viewed as egotistical, his political stature was damaged, and the GOP’s image took a beating. Clinton said he arranged the seating so Gingrich would be closer to his pickup car when he got off the plane.

Noting how Obama has been criticized, Walter Mondale, vice president under Jimmy Carter, recently told a reporter that when things go bad “people think the president is the only one who can fix their problems. And if he doesn’t produce solutions, I’m telling you – when a person loses a job, or can’t feed his family, or can’t keep his house, he is no longer rational. They become angry and strike out – and that’s what we have now. If you’re the president, they say, ‘Do Something!’”

Mondale believes Obama began his presidency with some false presumptions. “One was the idea that we were in a post-partisan era.” And he said Obama is “doing a good job” but “the public’s expectations are so outsized.”

Robert Reich, who was labor secretary in the Clinton administration, said of the current political climate, “The public is in no mood for a government shutdown. They want their elected representatives to be able to work together effectively.”

Republicans have said in essence that compromise is capitulation. However, what you lose in compromise you gain in collaboration. If the results benefit the people and move the nation forward, the setbacks of compromise are more than offset by the gains of collaboration.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Friday, February 04, 2011

Black History Facts May Help Heal Racial Wounds

Black History Facts May Help Heal Racial Wounds
By George E. Hardin
Published on 02/3/2011

Race is a crucial issue in almost every aspect of American life. Therefore it is figuring in the ongoing debate over whether Black History Month should continue to be observed. Those who say yes note that blacks – with a few exceptions such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks – are largely excluded from American history books. Those who say no contend that since separate but equal was wrong a separate month for black history is also not a good idea.

Those with varying views have expressed themselves on the subject with reactions ranging from mild irritation to furious anger. Memphis-born Morgan Freeman called the idea of Black History Month “ridiculous” and bristled with rage when he was asked about the celebration by TV reporter Mike Wallace. Freeman said, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month? I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history,” he said, indicating that there are no months dedicated to white history or Jewish history. Freeman said the best way to eliminate racism is to “stop talking about it.”

The historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926 after noting that black American contributions “were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” His efforts were initially opposed by many black educators and some historically black colleges. The week was expanded to a month in 1979 because it was felt that one week was not enough time to tell such a comprehensive story filled with so many achievements.

Sarah Willie-LeBreton, the African-American chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at Swarthmore College, said black history is “very relevant” and she looks forward to a time when black history, black sociology, black psychology and black literature and the arts are studied all year long.

Until then, it seems, Black History Month should have a place on the calendar and a section in the curriculum.

Each year Black History Month has a special theme chosen by its official sponsor, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the organization Woodson established. This month’s theme is “African Americans and the Civil War,” focusing on the ruinous conflict that divided the nation and established race-relations patterns whose influence continues until this day.

As the nation geared up to fight the war that President Abraham Lincoln saw as a conflict for the preservation of the Union, Frederick Douglass said that regardless of the intentions the war likely would end the chattel slavery that was one of the bedrocks of American life. Four million people of African descent, enslaved and free, supported the Union effort in the pursuit of freedom. Of that number about 200,000 took up arms in the Union Army. Others served as recruiters, scouts, cooks, nurses and spies. Carter G. Woodson’s father, James Woodson, born a slave, was among those who helped Union soldiers.

Although the month’s basic idea is to remember African American contributions, commercial efforts are making inroads. Nike, for example, has introduced a line of Black History Month sneakers to honor “the achievements and pioneering spirit” of Julius Irving, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

If it is true, as has been said, that history is a race between education an catastrophe, then by educating whites and other ethnic groups about black achievements might well help prevent a catastrophe between hostile factions with racially charged differences.

Some of those who object to Black History Month have the absurd opinion that black citizens have not made major contributions to American life and therefore are reaping the benefits of others’ efforts.

John Hope Franklin said “color and race are at once the most important and the most enigmatic” issues that affect the interaction between various people. “If the (American) house is to be set in order,” he said, “one cannot begin with the present; he must begin with the past.”

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Effort Pending To Redeem Withers’ Tarnished Name

Effort Pending To Redeem Withers’ Tarnished Name

by George E. Hardin

Special to the Memphis Tri-State Defender

Streams of commentary are still gushing forth following the flood of opinions regarding Ernest C. Withers’ alleged role as an FBI informant. His memorable photographs of civil rights events and activists established him long ago as one of the preeminent photojournalists of the 20th century. Now, on the basis of these recent revelations, probing questions are being raised about if and whether he might have damaged the movement he made it his life’s work to document.

One of the recent assessments was printed in The New York Times, which questions the relationship between life and art and asks whether Withers’ images would “be seen differently if the captions noted that Mr. Withers was known in some circles not by his name but by an Orwellian cipher, ME 338-R,” his reported FBI code name.

The Times says further: “But beyond the issues of personal betrayal, the news raised much more difficult and fundamental questions—ones central to photography and documentary work but to the history of art and popular culture as well—about artistic intent, about the assumptions and expectations of the viewing public and about the relationship between artists and their work.”

“The camera doesn’t lie” is an expression frequently quoted at one time. But photographers have always known that, with retouching, the camera can not only lie, but it can tell a cockeyed lie. However, there is absolutely no evidence that Withers manipulated his images or otherwise distorted his photographs to depict something other than what actually happened. That would be the only reason to question the truth and reality of his work.

Many of those criticizing Withers most severely did not know him. I met Withers as a 19-year-old beginning photographer and knew him for over 50 years. Though working independently we often ended up on the same photo assignment—during the sit-ins, Tent City and the desegregation of Memphis State University. It would be ridiculous to claim I knew every aspect of Withers’ life. Likewise, it is ridiculous for those depending on secondhand or thirdhand information to defame him with the vile names that have appeared in print, on broadcast media and the Internet.

It is odd also that the journalist who broke the story reportedly said he had “only one chance” to ask Withers about his alleged role before Withers died but declined to do so because someone else was in the room. Surely there must have been numerous other opportunities to make a phone call or stop by Withers’ studio.

Among those who feel Withers has been judged too harshly is Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis, who has an unimpeachable reputation as a civil rights activist, college professor and as a person who has ensured that the pioneers are remembered, with such works as her comprehensive book “Notable Black Memphians.”

“I still have the greatest respect for Ernest and his many accomplishments,” DeCosta-Willis said, “ because I believe that he was basically a GOOD man—though imperfect as all of us are and even King was. He was just trying to survive and support his family in this racist world. I have defended him to the people who have asked me about him.”

Last week’s issue of The Nation listed “The Fifty Most Influential Progressives of the Twentieth Century.” It said that many on the list committed acts or held positions that would be considered less than complimentary, yet their contributions are such that their names have remained unscathed.

The evaluation of others’ conduct has been a troublesome issue at least since the evolution of ethics. We look around, critique behaviors and analyze motives. Yet in many cases we reach conclusions based on incomplete information or assertions of dubious value. Withers’ family plans to use the same Freedom of Information Act that was relied upon to sully his reputation to determine what facts might be available to help restore the luster of a brilliant photographic career.

(George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week.)

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

GOP Filibusters Against Obama Likely To Increase

GOP Filibusters Against Obama Likely To Increase

By George E. Hardin
01/6/2011

As the 112th Congress marks its opening days, the Republican Party has a majority in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party has a majority in the Senate, although it is a slim one. One does not need the gift of prophecy to predict that the forthcoming two years will be contentious.

Since blocking President Barack Obama’s proposals seems to be the GOP’s primary goal, we can be sure that Senate filibusters will be more in evidence in the days ahead. During a filibuster, a parliamentary maneuver historically used to block debate and stymie the actions of opponents, a senator who has the floor is allowed to talk without restraint. The original idea was that any senator’s comments should be unrestricted. But in practice the filibuster has been turned into an obstructionist strategy, with senators talking for hours sometimes about topics that have no relation to the issue at hand, causing gridlock at the highest level of our national government.

When a filibuster is under way, no vote on anything can occur unless 60 senators (three fifths of the 100 senators—a supermajority) agree to cloture—a vote to end the filibuster. With 51 Democratic senators, 47 Republicans and 2 Independents, and with the present level of hostility, it will be difficult for Democrats to get the 60 votes needed for cloture.

The word “filibuster” derives from a Dutch word meaning “pirate,” a Senate description says, and was first used more than 150 years ago to describe “efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent action on a bill.” Basically, one senator can stop 99 others from doing anything on behalf of the American people.

John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House, who has opposed virtually everything President Obama has tried to do, engaged in a short-lived filibuster-type maneuver last June when he read some of the 300 pages of amendments to an energy bill designed to reduce carbon emissions and promote the development of renewable energy. Filibusters are not allowed in the House, but rules permit the House Minority Leader, which Boehner was at that time, to speak while at the microphone for as long as he wishes.

The late J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina holds the record for history’s longest filibuster. The segregationist senator filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in protest against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He assailed the Civil Rights Act, which focused on ensuring African Americans the right to vote, as unconstitutional and “cruel and unusual punishment.” He read the Constitution, rambled on about his grandmother’s biscuit recipe and read from various telephone books. His efforts failed, however. The bill, the first civil rights legislation passed by Congress since Reconstruction, was approved 60-15 less than two hours after he finished. The House approved it 270-97.

“The incessant misuse of the filibuster,” The Nation claims, “has turned the Senate into an increasingly dysfunctional body where, quite frankly, it’s miraculous that anything ever gets done.”

Democrats are hoping to reform the rules and make it more difficult to filibuster.

Every Senate Democrat has signed a letter suggesting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid raise the issue in Congress.

Recent cases in which Republicans used the filibuster or threatened to do so include: unemployment compensation and payment for 9/11 emergency workers, repeal of the don’t ask, don’t tell military policy, requiring disclosure of interest-group spending to influence elections, ending pay discrimination based on gender, and a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said recently, “Here at the close of the 111th Congress, the abuse of the filibuster has been on full, disgusting display.”

The Senate has been called the world’s most exclusive club. It should not seem to be an imposition to ask that those who represent us in such an august body refrain from the arrogant incivility that takes place when a filibuster is in full bloom.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

More Bro. George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+e.+hardin

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Black Struggle Was Catalyst For Egypt’s Mass Protests

Black Struggle Was Catalyst For Egypt’s Mass Protests

A connection has been established between the Egyptian dissents and the Rev. Martin Luther King’s push for justice for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.
Black struggle was catalyst for Egypt’s mass protests

George E. Hardin

The recent events in Egypt confirm the value of mass demonstrations as a strategy for empowerment and political change. A connection has been established between the Egyptian dissents and the Rev. Martin Luther King’s push for justice for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. In Egypt the people arose in opposition to a despot who ruled with an iron fist. In the United States black Americans joined to protest discrimination in their own country. Both movements grew out of protracted discontent over the official abuse of power. In Egypt’s case, it was some 30 years of control by President Hosni Mubarak. In the U.S., it was more than 300 years of oppression, slavery, lynchings and segregation.

The gatherings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square began as a campaign against police brutality, in particular the fatal beating by police of a man suspected of distributing videos of police corruption. It broadened into a general discontent against government abuses.

This comic book, titled “The Montgomery Story”, recently translated into Arabic, is credited for imparting the format for the successful non-violent movement in Egypt. (Courtesy of NNPA)

Along with Wael Ghonim, whose Facebook and Twitter postings helped engineer the protests that led to President Mubarak’s resignation, credit is being given to a small publication, “The Montgomery Story,” extolling the benefits King’s of nonviolent protest strategy. The publication, in comic-book style for easier reading, tells the story of the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the end of segregated seating. It was translated first into Arabic and then Farsi and reprinted and distributed in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. Adapting the strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience to their own purposes, the Egyptian activists set out to secure basic freedoms, to end human rights abuses and oppressive social conditions,

The Montgomery book was first printed in 1958 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (founded in 1915) to depict how nonviolent civil disobedience can be effective.

As in the U.S., the Egyptian movement was largely promoted by youth—predominantly those in the 15 to 35 age group. The book was first translated by Dalia Ziada, 27, head of an American Islamic group. The strategy as described emboldened and inspired the activists as they came to realize that change is possible when a unified front is arrayed against one’s oppressors. Ziada praised the book “as contributing to the air of peaceful revolution in Egypt.”

King and the civil rights movement have motivated other freedom fighters throughout the world. Here at home the techniques of the civil rights movement were a catalyst for those advocating for women, children and gays to name a few. Even the anthem of the civil rights movement—“We Shall Overcome”—has been translated and sung around the world to rally for justice, proving that the cries of oppressed people everywhere mingle in the same chorus. The song’s memorable melody and moving lyrics have resounded in China, Latin America, Kosovo, Denmark, Bangkok, India and Africa.

King said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1964: “Negroes in the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.”

All people are entitled to certain rights merely because they are human beings, an idea that existed long before Thomas Jefferson outlined it in the Declaration of Independence. This concept was reaffirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adoted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948. The document was viewed as necessary because of widespread outrage over the atrocities committed during World War II.

The United States has found that democracy is not exportable like a commodity. But the idea of freedom is likely to be imported by others if they labor under the yoke of oppression. That process is most effective when the people themselves, who are most affected, generate on their own the procedures necessary to improve the conditions under which they live.

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

More Bro. George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+e.+hardin

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Legacy Of Burleigh Hines, Defender Reporter, Recalled...

(Sunrise August 26, 1932-Sunset November 8, 2009)
Burleigh Hines, shown in a 1960 photograph, began his career at the Tri-State Defender. He later worked as a print, radio and TV newsman in Chicago. (Photo by George E. Hardin)

Legacy Of Burleigh Hines, Defender Reporter, Recalled

A television reporter was covering a story about a bereaved mother who had lost her daughter. As he approached the woman’s house he told his cameraman to begin taping as soon as the woman opened the door and he began asking her how she felt and other inane questions – an action that exploited the mother’s grief. Coincidentally, the same cameraman was working later on a similar story with another reporter about a woman whose daughter had died. That reporter told the cameraman to remain in the truck until he was called, while the reporter knocked on the door. The reporter and the woman talked about five minutes; they hugged, and then the cameraman was beckoned.

The reporter in the second incident was Burleigh Hines, who began his career at the Tri-State Defender, moved on to the Chicago Daily Defender and later joined the staff of WBBM-TV Channel 2 in Chicago, where these events took place. The story was told to this reporter in a telephone interview with Denise Hines, Burleigh’s wife, a few days after I belatedly learned about his death. She heard about the incident from the cameraman.

Hines retired from WBBM-TV in 2001 and later moved to Glendale, Calif., where he was living when he died of complications from a fall last November 8. He was 77. Besides his wife, he is survived by six children and several grandchildren.

Hines worked at the Tri-State Defender in the early 1960s, and his time in Memphis is fondly remembered. His name was among those listed on the program held last March 18 at the National Civil Rights Museum marking the 50th anniversary of the Memphis sit-ins. Hines and several other black newsmen – including this reporter – were arrested along with the sit-in students they were covering. He also was honored in absentia at a similar ceremony in March 2004 when sit-in participants were given certificates from the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission.

Before joining the TV station’s staff, where he became the first African-American editorial director, Hines was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and WBBM-AM 780, an all-news radio station. In 1968 Hines and his co-author, Van Gordon Sauter, published a book, “Nightmare in Detroit: A Rebellion and its Victims,” about the 1967 riots.

Born in Nashville, Hines attended Pearl High and graduated from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., where he studied under Armistead Pride, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in journalism. I last talked to him about eight months before he died and we recounted our time working together at the Tri-State Defender.

Denise Hines said, “He just loved being on the street. He would do regular stories – breaking news, what have you – but he always loved doing the personal, the human interest stories.” She attended a memorial for Hines in Nashville as well as another one in Chicago. Mayor Richard Daley signed a resolution for the City of Chicago honoring Hines as a compassionate reporter and complimenting him for his good work.

Referring to the tributes, Denise Hines said, “You tend to forget when you’re with somebody 24-7 in a, quote, normal day-to-day living (relationship) what an impact this person has had on so many lives. It does your heart good (to hear about it).” She said Hines was an avid tennis player and the two of them played together until Hines was in his early 70s. “He was a terrific guy, hard-working, always looking out for the underdog and trying to make things right.”

Jim Williams, one of Hines’ former TV co-workers, noted that Hines had won many awards but said, “His finest achievement was just being the guy who would look for the best in people and make you laugh, no matter what.” Deb Segal, who also worked with Hines, said, “He was one of the true gentlemen who worked in the business. This is a guy who believed in peoples’ humanity and in telling really-compelling human interest stories.”

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

More Bro. George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+e.+hardin

Monday, May 31, 2010

Deacons Largely Uncredited For Defense Of Civil Rights

Deacons Largely Uncredited For Defense Of Civil Rights

When James Meredith began a 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, Miss., in June 1966 to promote black voter registration, he was shot and wounded by a sniper. With Meredith hospitalized, other civil rights leaders decided to continue the march, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokley Carmichael (later Kwame Ture).

The Deacons for Defense and Justice were among those providing protection as the march resumed. The Deacons of Defense, to use the common name, was an armed group of black men that believed in fighting back rather than nonviolent acceptance in the face of racist attacks.

Carmichael suggested the Deacons be used for security because local and state law officers could not be trusted. (Ku Klux Klansmen, White Citizens’ Council members and law enforcement officers were often one and the same.) King had reservations about what he called the Deacons’ “aggressive violence,” and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP also expressed concern. But a compromise was reached for the sake of unity in the march and the movement and the Deacons were able to serve.

One of the most prominent members of the Deacons for Defense, Robert Hicks, died last month in his hometown of Bogalusa, La., at age 81. He was one of the group’s last survivors. Hicks and two friends organized the Deacons’ Bogalusa chapter in 1965, less than a year after Earnest Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kilpatrick founded the group in Jonesboro, La.

Hicks became actively involved in self-defense after he was tipped off that a band of Klansmen was planning to bomb his house because he had provided lodging for two white civil rights workers. Hicks, an employee of a local paper mill, sent his children to stay with neighbors, called friends and asked them to bring their weapons. Heavily armed, the men waited. Word apparently filtered out and the Klan did not show up. Hicks and his friends continued as gun-carrying activists. He filed suits against Jim Crow laws and fought racist hiring practices at the mill where he worked. The Deacons eventually formed more than 60 chapters, even one in Boston.

The March Against Fear and the ascendancy of the Deacons for Defense is seen by some observers as one of the signal events that helped redefine the character of the civil rights movement to the extent that nonviolent protestors and gun-carrying defenders were able to create an uneasy alliance.

Carmichael said of the Deacons, “Here is a group which realized that the ‘law’ and law enforcement agencies would not protect people, so they had to do it themselves…. The Deacons and all other blacks who resort to self-defense represent a simple answer to a simple question: What man would not defend his family and home from attack?”

As gains were made and nonviolence became the accepted strategy, the Deacons became marginalized, but continued as a group until 1968. Some of their exploits are told in “Deacons for Defense,” a 2003 TV movie, starring Forest Whitaker and Ossie Davis.

Although the civil rights movement is generally thought of as fundamentally nonviolent, there are many whose pugnacious presence looms large on the scene. Among them were Fannie Lou Hamer and Robert Williams. Hamer, one of the leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, was not reluctant to disclose that she kept several loaded guns in her bedroom. Williams operated an armed unit within the Monroe (N.C.) NAACP Branch he headed (to the dismay of the national office) until he was hounded by the FBI and moved first to Cuba and then to China. He later said, “To us there was no such thing as the Constitution, no such thing as moral persuasion. The only thing left was the bullet.”

(George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week.)

More George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

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More Civil Rights Movement On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. :

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=civil+rights+movement

Friday, March 12, 2010

Do Oscars ‘Reward’ Blacks For Playing Negative Roles?

Do Oscars ‘Reward’ Blacks For Playing Negative Roles?

The complaints swirling around the tributes given the movie “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” seem to have increased with the presentation of the Academy Award for best supporting actress to Mo’Nique. The central criticism has been that white-controlled Hollywood is quick to salute black actors, directors and screenwriters for performances that portray African Americans in a negative light and less inclined to honor screen depictions that present positive images. (Geoffrey Fletcher also won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for “Precious.”)

Mo’Nique, sassy and self-confident, honored Hattie McDaniel – who won a best supporting actress Oscar for “Gone With the Wind” – in both her accolades and her attire. As the 1940 winner, McDaniel also was roundly criticized by many segments of the black community, including the NAACP, which claimed her role as “Mammy” in the movie was downgrading and stereotypical. She was further condemned for her similar roles as maids and cooks. Jill Watts, McDaniel’s biographer, said the NAACP was right but said the actress felt that black people needed a presence in movies and if she did not accept the roles she took black people would not be on the screen at all. Noting the limited acting roles, McDaniel reportedly said, “I would rather be paid $700 a week to play a maid than be one.”

Those who claim there are racist undertones in the Academy Awards presentations point to what they see as the less than commendable characters that have garnered the coveted statuettes for African American actors:

Halle Berry won her Oscar as best actress in 2002 for “Monster’s Ball” by playing a character, Leticia Musgrove, who exchanged sex for shelter with Billy Bob Thornton’s character—the prison guard who executed her husband.

Denzel Washington won as best actor in 2002 for “Training Day” in which his character was a crooked cop. He did not win for playing the title role in “Malcolm X.” (Washington also won the best supporting actor award for “Glory” by playing a runaway slave turned soldier.)

Forrest Whitaker earned his best actor award in 2007 for his portrayal of Idi Amin, the murderous president-dictator of Uganda in “The Last King of Scotland.”

“The Color Purple,” released in 1985, with themes of racism and sexism, was nominated for 11 Academy Awards but did not win any.

Another viewpoint states that blacks should not seek validation from the white establishment, and black actors and creative personnel in the movie industry and elsewhere should not feel compelled to hold up a banner that indicates blacks are always prim and proper. Depravity exists, the argument goes, and the creative mind should have the freedom to represent things as they are.

The tension between blacks and the moviemaking profession has existed almost from the beginning of the American film industry. D. W. Griffith was criticized for depicting blacks as savages in his 1915 movie “The Birth of a Nation,” also known as “The Clansman.” In the 1930s and 1940s shuffling and bug-eyed characterizations by the likes of Stepin Fetchit and Mantan Moreland generated many complaints. And in the 1970s blaxploitation films were derided because they glorified blacks as pimps and drug pushers.

Commercial and creative positions are often at odds. Add the race element, for, as Cornel West claims, race always matters, and it becomes a thicket so entangled it is almost impossible to bring the two ends together.

(George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week.)

More George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+e.+hardin

See Also...
Tha Artivist & W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News Salutes Mo’Nique On Well Deserved Oscar Win…

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/03/tha-artivist-we-all-be-news-salutes.html

'Precious' Little Patience For Blaxploitation

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/01/precious-little-patience-for.html

Meet Lee Daniels The Mastermind Behind Precious...

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/01/meet-lee-daniels-mastermind-behind.html

Monday, November 15, 2010

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Special: Weds. 11/17/2010 @ 9pm c/ 10pm e*Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Ernest Withers: The Final Word? Part 5

Celebrating 3 Years Strong & Still Got It Going On

***Radio Free Dixie For The 21st Century***

November 2010 Theme: Never Too Late For Justice

Air Date: Weds. November 17, 2010

E-mail: r2c2h2@gmail.com

Time: 9 PM C/10 PM E/7 PM P

Call-in Number: 646-652-4593

Show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/11/18/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

topic: Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Ernest Withers: The Final Word? Part 5
(Note: Show Is Not Live But Pre-recorded)

Featured & Honorable Guests...

1.) ***Bro. George Hardin, A Peer & Friend Of Ernest Withers***

George E. Hardin worked as a photographer, reporter and editor, and in public relations during a long career before he retired. His column appears every other week on W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

More Bro. George E. Hardin On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=george+e.+hardin

***

2.)***Bro. John Judge, World Class Political Conspiracy & Assassination Expert***

"You can call me a conspiracy theorist,
if you call everyone else a coincidence theorist.
I prefer to say I'm an alternate historian."
—John Judge

John Judge is a researcher, activist and public speaker. His primary
focus of research has been into the assassinations of President John F.
Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is a
co-founder of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA), and
organizes COPA's annual conference in Dallas. With other members and a
network of researchers, he continues to pursue outstanding questions
relating to the assassinations of the Malcolm X and many others.
Another area of his investigative research is the background and details
of the attacks of September 11, 2001. He worked with family members of
the victims to push for a federal investigation, monitored the work of
the 9/11 Commission and is writing a critique the 9/11 Commission Final
Report for the 9/11 Research Center.

John is also a co-founder of CHOICES, an organization engaged since 1985
in countering military recruitment in DC area high schools and to
educate young people about their options with regard to the military.
John is a life-long anti-war activist and supporter of active duty
soldiers and veterans.

From 2005 to 2007 John served as Special Projects Assistant to Rep.
Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. One of his many undertakings in Congress
was to advocate on behalf of active duty soldiers who received harsh
sentences for declaring themselves conscientious objectors and others
who claimed to being tortured in military brigs. He helped write the
Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush which Rep.
McKinney introduced in December 2006, before leaving office.

John Judge's future plans include founding a Hidden History Museum and
research center in Washington, DC, to educate a new generation about
covert operations and to support the work of investigative researchers
looking into the National Security State and the rise of secrecy, plans
for extra-Constitutional government in emergencies, and threats to civil
liberties and international relations, especially since the end of WWII.

These efforts are all part of his Real Democracy Project which depends
on public donations and support.

Website:
http://www.judgeforyourself.us
http://www.groundsforimpeachment.com
http://www.politicalassassinations.com/

***

More Bro. John Judge On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio:

Testify: The Truth About The MLK Assassination, The Jonestown Massacre, 9-11, The Tea Party Movement, The New World Order & Other Things Utterly Scary...
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/04/08/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

Testify 2: What You Need Know About The Jonestown Massacre & 9-11...

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/04/22/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

***

***Legendary American Father Martyrs(Starts In The 2nd Hour)**

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/06/15/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-A-LL-BE-News-Radio

***

*** We All Be Remembering JFK.

A Tribute***

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/11/23/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

***

3.)***Bro. Joshua "Billy" Withers, The Son Of Ernest Withers***

******

Listen To The Previous Shows In This Series...

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio: "Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Ernest Withers: The Civil Rights Generation Speaks Out!"Part 1

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/09/23/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio:"Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Ernest Withers: The Civil Rights Generation Speaks Out!"Part 2

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/09/30/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio: "Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Mr. Ernest Withers:Reactions From The Press." Part 3
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/10/07/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio: Concerning Our Father, Brother & Friend, Mr. Ernest Withers:Food For Thought From Colleagues, Associates & Peers...Part 4

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/10/14/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

Tha Artivist Remembers Ernest Withers (1922-2007)...

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/11/tha-artivist-remembers-ernest-withers.html

The Commercial Appeal Story That Started The Controversy

http://www.commercialappeal.com/withers-exposed/

Contact An American Civil Rights Veteran Today:

http://www.crmvet.org/

More Civil Rights Movement On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. :

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=civil+rights+movement

***