We Shall Not Be Moved

[khaosworks]

Today in HIST 2112 (American History from 1865 to the present), we showed the class a bit of a PBS documentary about the Little Rock, AK resistance in 1957 to the desegregation of high schools. If you'll remember, Eisenhower had to send in the 101st Airborne - the Screaming Eagles! - to make sure the kids got to school.



Watching the documentary footage of rabid white folks hurling epithets at black kids - kids for all that's holy - who were just trying to go to school was surreal. I'm not trying to assert that we're more enlightened now... in many ways, we're not, but the vehemence and public - not to mention primitive - nature of the hate was horrifying to watch. An intellectual appreciation that people could be capable of that kind of hate, just over color, is one thing, but to actually watch it happen in front of you...

I laughed, though. I mean, what else could I do? If I should laugh at any mortal thing, 'tis that I may not weep, and all that.

When Orval Faubus, the Arkansas governor, who took a position against desegregation to win re-election, goes on TV and asks, "What is happening to America?" he was responding to the military "occupation" of Little Rock, but that question could have easily been directed to people like him.

That was nearly 50 years ago. I wonder how many of the white school kids who we saw on archive footage standing around chanting, "two-four-six-eight- we don't want to integrate" still remember those days, and how many of them feel like complete assholes.

The sad part is, probably not all that many.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I read an article in Smithsonian Magazine a few months ago (let me recommend that magazine to you, btw; it's interesting and educational)about two women, one a Black woman who used to be a student attempting to attend a newly desegregated school, and one a White woman who once was a girl screaming at that student, who, forty-odd years after they were photographed together, the White girl yelling at the Black girl, met again and had a very healing talk. Among other things the White lady apologized and the Black lady hugged her.

Issues of race in the US are....interesting. Many things have improved, but many haven't, many others have developed for both good and ill, and so on. But we shall talk about that later. Maybe over a beer.

[dietbubba.livejournal.com]

One of my professors in college was one of the first black students to graduate from Little Rock High School. Any timeit was mentioned, he talked about it with pride but you could tell he didn't want it to be the primary topic of conversation.

I never understood the guys in class who thought it was funny to continually bring up Orval Faubus just to try and get my professor angry. The lack of intelligence in college students never ceases to amaze me.

Chicago

[forestcats.livejournal.com]

I don't believe you are granting enough people credit for growth. Back in the 50s MOST people didn't graduate High School, many left school by 6th grade to take jobs. I'm a strong believer in education and the effects it has on a society.
I was a kid in the 60s and 70s when there were race riots going on in my schools in Chicago. Girls would jump into their lockers and close the doors and wait for it to be over. This was followed by busing. Prejudice and hatred broke off further into neighborhoods, Poles, Irish, Italian, Greek. My maternal grandparents were at their time very racy, Irish Catholic & German Lutheran married. Their best friends were black. Yet my step father was just down and out evil being a bigot is an understatement. Yet he loved the early 70's sitcom "All in the Family" which was lampooning HIS VALUES. He landed at Normandy in WWII and saw things not to be comprehended. I learned part of his hatred came from his family home being torn down to make the Robert Taylor Housing Projects. He was the first in his family born in the USA, from Italian immigrants and hates anyone getting handouts. It's beyond sinful and an insult to accept charity when you are capable of working. To be here in America is a priviledge that you either help carry your load or get out. He fought for this, and believed in it having seem much of Europe in the war. Today though at 83 he has learned tolerance and criticizes my brother, his son for being a racist. He believes in Mexican immigration so long as they speak English because his family had to do so. Old dogs can learn with time, patience, and comprehension of whole pictures. Everything comes in cycles of progress.

[bookwitch.livejournal.com]

People can change.
Some will not and will go on spreading hatred until they die.

My father, who has always been one of the most racist, homophobic people I know, has gotten a lot more tolerant since he's been sick.

I'm sure he still has racist tendencies, but he no longer tries to antagonize me with them. And I've even been able to have friends of other races around him without fear of being mortally embarrassed.

[(Anonymous)]

Things have definitely changed; as I think I've mentioned to you, my brother-in-law is black. They live in North Carolina. And as far as I've been told, they've not had any issues (other than one uncle on my side cutting my sister out of his life, which I then did to him in return. Unfortunate, as he had been fairly close to us. He died recently, and it should be noted his son's never had any problems with the whole thing) due to the interracial marriage, nor have my 12 and 7 year old nieces had problems due to being biracial.

And a lot of it, I think, was based on upbringing and lack of personal experience. My grandfather was, in most respects, a good man. But he was also born in the 19th century and always lived in small towns in the Appalachias in Western North Carolina. He was racist, not in the sense of physically mistreating or shouting at blacks, but considering them inferior to whites...because that was really all he knew how to be. Had he been alive when it started, it's pretty certain he wouldn't have approved of my sister and brother-in-law's relationship. Clearly, I think he was dead wrong about this, but I'm also aware of it being due to how he was taught and lived for the vast majority of his life.

Tom Galloway

[nighthellcat.livejournal.com]

But Khaos, didn't you know that God made black people black so that 'we' could identify their evil in a second and not have to mingle 'OUR' innocent children with their heathen brothers? I'm white because I'm pure *coughcough* and sinless, and God loves me. *cough*

Well, actually, I AM pretty sure God loves me, but that has nothing to do with me being white...