America has been here before. Watch this video of the Freedom Singers that preeminent day 53 years ago. The Freedom Singers began in Albany, Georgia in 1962 during the Civil Rights Movement. From L-R: Charles Neblett (bass), Bernice Johnshon Reagon (alto) Cordell Reagon (tenor), unknown and Rutha Harris (soprano). This performance was at The March… Continue reading “We Shall Not Be Moved” ~ March On Washington 1963
Tag: SNCC
The Day the “Colored Sign” Walked Out
Penny Patch, Panola County, MS. 1965. Photo by Tom Wakayama Guest Blogger: Penny Patch Lyndonville, Vermont “In 1962 I was a young white woman working as an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Southwest Georgia. A brilliant young man named Charles Sherrod was our project director, my teacher and mentor. And during… Continue reading The Day the “Colored Sign” Walked Out
Please Sign Petition to Support the 15 Leesburg Stockade Women’s Nomination for Presidential Medal of Freedom
From a change.org petition started by Brittany Dawson ~ On July 15, 1963 fifteen outstanding and brave adolescent girls took a stand for their rights and were imprisoned for it, enduring terrible conditions and circumstances while confined within an abandoned Civil War stockade – a large holding cell that contained a broken shower head and… Continue reading Please Sign Petition to Support the 15 Leesburg Stockade Women’s Nomination for Presidential Medal of Freedom
Selma, The Film
I saw the movie and love it and I’m thrilled that a black woman, Ava DuVernay, directed. This is the story of a seminal moment in American history: the 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches for the rights of blacks to vote. It was a horrific time in the story of our nation. This film gets… Continue reading Selma, The Film
The March ~ Film narrated by Denzel Washington
I hope you found profound ways to mark today—being the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. In deciding how to celebrate on my blog, the answer came tonight after finding this film on the PBS website: THE MARCH The vital story of the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.… Continue reading The March ~ Film narrated by Denzel Washington
Three Heroes—with more on Emmett Till
133 people visited the blog yesterday! A recent high, topped by 296 the day I launched six months ago. I’m psyched! Thanks to all who came, read, hopped around the site and commented. It’s 5:30 am Saturday and I spent a restless night thinking about Emmett and Trayvon and their families, finally pushed from the… Continue reading Three Heroes—with more on Emmett Till
Charlotta Janssen ~ “So Abstract she’s concrete”
~ Anita’s Journal Entry June 1, 2011 Albany, GA :Researching novel at 50th Anniversary of the Southwest Georgia SNCC Movement Tonight after a long day of speeches and panels, a bunch of us left Albany State University’s Hyper Gym for an after party in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn on the banks of… Continue reading Charlotta Janssen ~ “So Abstract she’s concrete”
Growing up on Hazard Drive
Our house was #325 Hazard Drive, one door down from Hazard Laboratory School in Albany, Georgia. During the late 50s and into the 60s when I was growing up there, Hazard Drive was a dichotomous slice of black life, one of the east side communities closest to the Flint River. On the north end of… Continue reading Growing up on Hazard Drive