Friday, February 5, 2010

Exploration 6

One of the things that struck me as the most interesting from the documentary was the dedication people had while partaking in the sit-ins. When protesters were arrested from sitting in stores and restaurants, a new wave of protesters would come in and take their spots. Once that group was arrested, another wave came in. It kept repeating so there was always a room full of non-violent protesters. It says a lot that these people completely knew what was going to happen to them if they participated in direct-action, but it was important enough to them to suffer the consequences.

My favorite speaker from the video was Frederik Leonard. He had a unique and effective way of telling stories from the civil rights movement. He illustrated how awfully racist people were during that time. My favorite story of his was when he recollected attending a court hearing revealed that even prominent authorities were racist. Leonard recalled, "While he was defending us, the judge turned away and faced the wall." Not even a judge of a county court gave any sort of respect or courtesy to African Americans. This gives us an idea of how hard it was to be a minority during this time.

It amazes me how recent these events are from the documentary. It feels like we are so far past segregation in our society that the civil rights movement should have happened over a hundred years ago. I think what has really pushed it along is fact that there are a couple of new generations of people that were born after the civil rights movement. We've moved on quickly, but that doesn't mean our society is free from discrimination by any means.

2 comments:

  1. I liked Frederick Leonard as well. He was an amazing storyteller. That story about the judge just pisses me off.

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  2. I really liked that story too- that just blew my mind that someone didn't even have common decency.

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