Tag: Civil Rights
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James Baldwin on the White Man’s Necessity for a Nigger
Hi, I’m a bit embarrassed that I have not dedicated a space on this blog to talk about one of my favorite intellectuals: James Baldwin. In 1965, Baldwin visited Cambridge University for a historic debate against the leading Conservative “intellectual”, William F. Buckley. The debate took place at the debating hall of Cambridge Union surrounded…
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MLK – Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
Hi, Required reading: MLK’s 1967 book titled “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community“ In my opinion, this is King’s greatest work. King wrote his final book in 1967 in complete isolation. He rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone or access to the outside world. Here are some notes on the…
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A Timeline of Violence During the Civil Rights Movement
Let’s talk violence. America, and to be fair the world in general, has a very violent history. Civil rights, woman’s rights, gay rights, labor rights, political rights, etc. have all face extreme and ugly forms of violence. I wanted to make a timeline of some of the most appalling and violent acts that Americans inflicted…
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How America Disapproved of MLK
The overwhelming approval with which Martin Luther King, Jr is remembered today stands in ironic contrast to the way he was perceived by white Americans while he was alive. We may love Dr. King today, but that is a fairly recent phenomenon. We have Gallup poll data from May 1963 which show that 46% of Americans held…
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MLK and the Myth of Time
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., London, Dec. 7, 1964: Now I would like to mention one or two ideas that circulate in our society—and they probably circulate in your society and all over the world—that keep us from developing the kind of action programs necessary to get rid of discrimination and segregation. One is what…
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Noam Chomsky on How Businesses Sought to Destroy the Democratic Movements of the 1960s
Democracy Now! JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to take a—ask you to talk about a section of your book, Requiem for the American Dream, where you talk about this famous Powell Memorandum that Justice Powell sent to the Chamber of Commerce and to others, major business groups, in 1971, where he said that business is losing…
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Celebrating the Revolution of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Civil rights leader, political activist, and one of the greatest orators in American history. There is so much to be said about Mr. King. We are taught in schools about his struggle in bringing an end to racial segregation and racial discrimination in America. We are all too familiar with his…