Today is February 1st. For many of us, this marks the beginning of Black History Month, a time when we remember and seek to renew the struggles of the past. While we certainly celebrate our past, ARA maintains that every month should be black history month. Attacks on our communities persist, whether through outrageous rent and utility bills, sub-par schools in our communities, racial profiling in Detroit and particularly in the suburbs, where "Driving While Black" is a serious offense, or the stares and looks that constantly remind us that we are far from a colorblind society. In spite of the current state of affairs, we remain proud and assured of our ability to change the world through our committed actions. Every day is a chance to reflect on the proud political tradition of our people. From the Deep South to the intersection of Cass and Warren to Africa, the Middle East and Asia, we are one people struggling for justice. There is much that remains to fight for.
One key moment in the history of our struggle happened on this day 48 years ago, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four young black men walked into a Woolworth's store, sat down at the lunch counter, and demanded service. When the waitress told them they couldn't sit at the counter, they refused to move. When the manager, red-faced and full of arrogance, told them they had to leave, they refused to move. When the police came, and an officer slowly beat out a rhythm in the palm of his hand with his nightstick, they refused to move. One of the young men, Franklin McCain, remarked that he felt relieved when he sat down, as if a weight had been lifted, as if we was alive for the first time. An elderly white woman walked up to them and patted one of them on the arm. "I'm disappointed in you," she said, and continued, "I'm disappointed that it took you so long!"
Many others had been waiting on the spark that emerged in Greensboro. The next day, instead of four, there were almost thirty students. The next, students filled sixty-three of the sixty-six stools at the counter. By the fourth day, hundreds of black students were taking part in the demonstration. Soon, the sit-ins spread throughout North Carolina, first reaching Winston-Salem and Durham, then spreading to Charlotte and Raleigh. By February 10th, the movement had reached most of the state, and by the next week, the spark the Greensboro four lit had spread throughout the South. All around them, young black folks and some anti-racist whites joined the sit-in movement, inspired by their newly-discovered power: their ability to challenge and defeat racism through collective action.
On July 26th, 1960, Woolworth's lunch counter was desegregated, but at this point, the challenge to Jim Crow had expanded well beyond Greensboro, and had even institutionalized itself with the forming, in April, 1960, of one of the most important organizations in the history of the Civil Rights movement, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick"). SNCC would dominate the Civil Rights movement for much of the next decade, and its uncompromising militancy and bravery in the face of racist attacks made the young people who formed SNCC (many were in their late teens and early twenties) the stuff of legend. We remember their names today: Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Bob Moses, Jim Forman, Cleveland Sellers, and even John Lewis.
SNCC established a reputation as the most uncompromising of Civil Rights organizations, and this had much to do with the youth of its members, their idealism, and their total rejection of racist American society. One of the original Greensboro Four once remarked that at the time, their attitude was, "Don't trust anyone over eighteen." Their rejection of racism was an attack on every previous generation that had accommodated and accepted it. All who refused to oppose it stood condemned in these young people's eyes.
So today we honor the legacy of the Greensboro Four, the sit-in movement it sparked, the organization and leaders that arose from that movement, and the lessons their legacy teaches us. Tomorrow, we continue their struggle.
For more information about SNCC and its history, check out Clayborne Carson's, In Struggle, as well as Howard Zinn's SNCC: The New Abolitionists.
No comments:
Post a Comment