articles tagged "civil rights movement"
Black Against The Empire
Tuesday, 26 February 2013 | buzz
Joshua Bloom, author of “Black Against The Empire: The History And Politics Of The Black Panther Party,” joined the 8 O’Clock Buzz on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. more »
Cindy Hooper: Conflict, African American Women, and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics
Wednesday, 24 October 2012 | buzz
On Wednesday October 24, Jan Miyasaki spoke with Cindy Hooper, author of Conflict, African American Women, and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics. In her book, Cindy surveys the history of black women in American politics in both women’s suffrage and in the civil rights movement. She looks specifically at the 2008 presidential election, examining how race and gender politics have shaped their political decisions. Cindy cites the lack of adequate research about the African American women subgroup and their influential role in the presidential elections as the reason that prompted her to explore the topic further and write her book, “there was one statistic that kept coming through the wires…that African American women had the highest turnout rate percentage of all racial and gender demographics in the 2008 presidential election. So I began to look for more books and more research about this specific subgroup, and I couldn’t find too much, so at this point… I felt someone had to examine this, and I wanted to be the one to do that.” Cindy explains how this particular voting bloc has been largely overlooked and passed over to focus more on others, “Given the fact that we are President Obama’s most loyal voting base, in a traditionally loyal voting base of the Democratic Party, it is disappointing when we feel we are not in the forefront of the candidates, in terms of their focus and making us a priority in their presidential campaign.” African American women participated in two struggles: the women’s suffrage movement and the civil right’s movement. This dual struggle, which was unique to African American women, created internal struggles in which they were often torn as to which direction to focus their attention upon. In her book, Cindy discusses the issue that many of the women faced regarding the “prioritization of race over gender.” She explains how, during the civil rights movement, the issue of women’s rights had to take a step back, noting how during the 1963 march in Washington, black women were not asked to speak, the focus being instead on the black male leaders of the movement, “we were strong workers in the background of the civil rights movement, and a lot of it was by choice, because we felt that the black men should be in the forefront, and they, in effect, became the leaders who were the most visible within that movement.” The book also talks about women of color in politics …. more »
Helen and Barbara Shores: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 | buzz
On Tuesday October 23, 2012, our host Aaron Perry interviewed authors Helen Shores Lee and Barbara Shores “The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: The untold story of Shores and his family’s fight for civil rights.” The two sisters speak with Aaron Perry about their father, a civil right’s attorney, whom the book is about. The origins of the book began twenty years ago when Barbara began chronicling the memories from her childhood. Last year, Barbara and Helen decided to combine the social and legal aspects of the story into a book. Shores was a civil rights attorney who handled civil rights cases beginning in the late 1930s and 1940s, much before the civil rights movement began in 1963. He handled voting rights, filed suits to equalize the salaries of black and white teachers, and even defended a young black man for the rape of a white woman. He successfully fought a zoning regulation in Birmingham. The city regulation prohibited blacks from living west of a particular street in the city, and Shores filed a suit on behalf of several residents, the outcome of which allowed blacks to take residence in previously prohibited zones. Among the people who assisted Shores in his fight against civil rights were Thurgood Marshall and Constance Motley. Barbara Shores explains her inspiration for the book, “what I was trying to do originally is give my children the opportunity to know a little bit more about their grandfather and the contributions he made to Alabama and the South…so that they could understand the triumphs and the struggles that he faced.” She explains that parents tended to protect their children from the movement events, “when everything was going on with regards to the movements, parents protected their children and just didn’t talk about those things.” She stresses the importance of having the younger generation understand where they come from and African American history, and observes that, presently, the education system is not adequately providing children with this history. They stress “We set aside one month of out of the year when we celebrate Africa American history, and that passes by swiftly. We don’t teach it in the homes, they don’t teach it in the schools, so where else are children to learn it? Except in February? And even within the schoolbooks, not only do you not have information about African Americans, but also the Native Americans…It is more like one line or paragraph rather than the whole …. more »