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Book Excerpt: The Civil Rights Movement Was Sometimes Armed—and Not Always Nonviolent
Editor’s note: The African-American civil rights movement is often lauded for its commitment to nonviolence. But it’s not clear that the movement’s aims could have been achieved without the less-often-discussed tradition of armed black self-defense. The history is examined by Charles E. Cobb Jr. in his new book, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns…
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Bounce TV: More of the Same
On Sept. 26, a new black network, Bounce TV, launched showing an old Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Nipsey Russell movie, The Wiz. Bounce did not attract much attention because Bounce is available only via over-the-air digital television. While television viewers overwhelmingly receive their TV signals via cable or satellite, the FCC has mandated that…
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Fred Shuttlesworth: Civil Rights Lion
The wells of courage from which the Southern freedom movement drew its strength are remarkably numerous and deep. Nonetheless, I would be hard-pressed to name anyone who was more courageous than the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who died Wednesday at age 89. There was no one quite like him, and it is almost tragic that —…
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The Shakedown at the King Monument
The builders of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial at the National Mall had to pay $761,160 for the right to use King’s words and images, according to financial documents obtained by the Associated Press. The money went to Intellectual Properties Management Inc. — a foundation controlled by King’s youngest son, Dexter. Another…
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Hunting for Muslim Radicals
On Thursday, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, will hold hearings on the Muslim community and terrorism. “The main goal is to show the extent of radicalization within the Muslim-American community, how dangerous that is, how serious that is,” he said on Fox television Sunday. “It’s a real…
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The Media Missed the Point in the Tucson Shootings
The media (and political) furor over whether or not the rhetoric of right-wing extremists fostered the attempted assassination of Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords almost completely missed the point. And what’s the point? Well, let me quote this observation by 1960s black militant H. Rap Brown: “Violence is as American as apple pie.” I won’t…
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Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders
Women are almost invisible in civil rights storytelling, and hardly present in the civil rights canon. What they did and who they were in the Southern freedom movement of the 1960s remains barely understood. Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, a new book by 52 women who worked for the…
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Florida's Elections and the Shifting Terrain of Black Politics
Florida’s Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, now the “independent” U.S. Senate candidate, trails the official Republican candidate, Marco Rubio, by six points, and political forecasters in the state now predict a Rubio victory. Kendrick Meek, the state’s first black Democratic candidate, is given no chance at all. Every poll since Labor Day has him with no…
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The Voting Rights Act, 45 Years Later
“A few years ago, people could not vote simply because of the color of their skin,” recalls Georgia Congressman John Lewis, former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). “You had to count the number of jelly beans in a jar or the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. Black teachers and…
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Shirley Sherrod, Hypocrisy and Political Expediency
Let me say—putting all my cards on the table so to speak—that the Sherrods are my friends. Charles Sherrod, the husband of the now controversial, fired USDA official Shirley Sherrod, was one of the founders and leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). We worked together. So what are we looking at? Well, the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
