Civil Rights
February 17, 2010
- My latest piece is up at the Broad Street Review. Here's its opening paragraph, pre-editing:The White House concert honoring the music of the civil rights movement made some curious choices in the performers it presented, and their artistry did not always stir my soul, but I did not regret that we taped and watched. Natalie Cole was fine, the Freedom Singers rousing, Yolanda Adams ...
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December 23, 2009
- The Christmas Gift John Ramsey MillerI was twelve years old, it was 1962, and the struggle for civil rights was gathering speed and the social fabric and traditions of the old South were undergoing enormous strains and stresses, and the threat of violence was thick in the air. My father was the minister of the First Methodist Church in Starkville, Mississippi. I remember that September on a ...
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December 8, 2009
- 8122009Like it or not, parallels exist between the two separate-but-similar battles for civil rights. I received some flack the other day for posting the title statement on my Facebook page (“Gay is the new black.”), and in turn, learned there is some resistance against aligning the two movements for civil rights primarily because of fear that in so doing 1) the history of the black civil ...
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November 12, 2009
- The agenda In Birmingham they love the governor And we all did what we could do Now Watergate does not bother me Does your conscience bother you, now tell the truth? —"Sweet Home Alabama,” sung by Lynyrd Skynyrd It was the late summer of 1963. Everybody had an agenda. In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy had an agenda. Dr. Martin ...
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October 14, 2009
- In the interest of full disclosure, I have long admired Elaine Elinson, co-author with Stan Yogi of Wherever There's A Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California (Heyday Books, 2009, $24.95). Elaine was the communications director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California for over twenty years and we ...
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October 12, 2009
- When our countries are at war, it’s important for us to give equal opportunities to our peoples to fight for our countries, regardless of them being gay, straight, Black, White, men, women etc. We are dealing with hard times and we cannot afford to waste our time of being suspicious of others because of race, ethnicity, gender, religious, non-religious, sexual orientation, marital status etc. ...
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September 29, 2009
- bettnorris | Edit From the foot of Dexter Avenue, looking toward the capitol. Sometimes, it begins with an image in my head, sometimes, it starts with stumbling across an old photo, like this one. I lived in Montgomery for 13 years, and worked in a state building behind the capitol. No one can resist being struck by the juxtaposition of so many interconnected and disparate ...
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June 29, 2009
- You know when we can really celebrate? When the guys who left town with our Constitution get 150 years behind bars (and not the kind that offer dry martinis).
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June 22, 2009
- So much to celebrate last November 5th, the day after America's 2008 national election. The Chicago audience was giddy with excitement as the incoming president spoke. No reason to notice an older man standing quietly in the crowd, tears running down his face, features twisted with emotion. Once the photograph was published, though, responses were quick -- twitters, smug columns and lightweight ...
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June 5, 2009
- "In 20 years, historians will call Steve Travers's ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS the BOYS OF SUMMER of college football." - Fred Wallin, Sports Overnight.
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