Your Vote is Precious

I was about twelve when I asked my mother about this mysterious voting thing she did a couple times a year... getting dressed in one of her nice dresses, then walking with my father up to our local grammar school to vote. She told me all about voting, concluding with, "it's both your privilege and your obligation to vote."

Her words came back to me as I worked my book Marching for Freedom, about the Selma to Montgomery march for the vote. I discovered the incredible courage and conviction of the people of Selma who stood up for their right -- and every American's right -- to vote. Below: John Lewis after crossing the Selma bridge.

Both he and Amelia Boynton were at the Democratic Convention. Here's a video of John Lewis's inspiring, impassioned speech.

Amelia Boynton, 101 years old, was in the audience. She was an amazing, unstoppable force for the vote in Selma.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/amelia-boynton-robinson-dnc_n_1863273.html
 
And an earlier blog post of mine on crossing the bridge with Amelia Boynton and many others on the night of Obama's election. A true hero of mine.

Arc of the moral universe

Finally, finally, finally.

Forty-five years ago, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by State Trooper James Fowler during a night protest in Marion, Alabama, near Selma. His death led to the march from Selma to Montgomery, which resulted in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act.

Fowler has just plead guilty and been given a six month sentence. Short? Very, very short. But Fowler had previously maintained that Jackson was not murdered, but that he, Fowler, shot him in self-defense.

As Dr. King said in his famous speech in Montgomery about waiting for justice, "How long? Not long, because 'No lie can live forever.'.... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

Here's the New York Times piece.

Check out the archived New Yorker online article, Letter from Selma, by reporter Renata Adler who was on the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. It will give you a vivid feeling of being on the march. Several times during the five day march, Adler spoke with a young marcher, Charles Mauldin, whom I was lucky enough to interview two years ago for Marching for Freedom.

I'd love to hear thoughts on how to ask the right questions to get students to talk about what this means. I can think of a couple of obvious ones: Why do you think Fowler plead guilty? Do you think a jury would be more likely to convict him of murder today than in 1965? What has changed since 1965 that Fowler would now be more likely to be held accountable for his actions?

Any other ideas?

Dr. King's arc of the moral universe: 45th anniversary

Forty-five years ago today, 30,000 marchers poured into Montgomery, Alabama to demonstrate for voting rights. John Lewis, then Chairman of SNCC, now a Congressman from Georgia, was granted time on the podium that afternoon, and Martin Luther King Jr. gave his powerful “How Long, Not Long” speech.

March 25th wasn’t the protestors’ first attempt to reach the state capitol. Two weeks earlier, Lewis had been at the head of a line of solemn marchers who’d walked anxiously out of Selma. In what became known as Bloody Sunday, the marchers were stopped at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge by mounted deputies and state troopers. Acting under the orders from Governor George Wallace, they attacked the marchers with tear gas, clubs and cattle prods.

Lining the sides of the road were whites who’d come out to watch for sport, their taunts and threats caught by network news. What they said was ugly, and generously spiked with the N-word.

One of the first protestors clubbed down was Lewis. Scores of others were injured as well, among them fourteen year old Lynda (Blackmon) Lowery. Determined to show Governor Wallace he couldn’t stop her, she marched again two weeks later, the black threads of her stitches dangling on her forehead.

Along the route, hostile whites came to watch and jeer. Overhead, a small government surveillance plane circled, scanning the nearby woods for hidden sharpshooters. “I was not brave,” Lowery said. “I was not courageous. I was determined. That’s how I got to Montgomery.”

Just last Saturday, Representative Lewis along with several other members of Congress had racist Americans slinging the N word at him again. It went further than the congressional halls as Tweets urging the assassination of the president went out on two Twitter sites.

Forty-five years on, and we’ve got hate talk, hate Tweets. Hate radio’s been popping with an “us against them” mentality since the House passed the Health Bill on Sunday. The racism, implied and overt, is both frightening and depressing. We’re all going to need fourteen year old Lowery’s determination. That arc of the moral universe Dr. King was counting on has still got a long ways to go as it bends towards justice.

Old and New California

I had a great time at the Mechanics Institute. I was awed by the other speakers -- Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, authors of Wherever There's a Fight, had me totally excited about the history of civil rights in California Did you know in the 1860's an African American woman sued when she was forced off a bus in San Francisco and the case went all the way to the California Supreme Court?

Carl Anthony was incredible, speaking about the Urban Habitat Program, the oldest environmental justice program in the country, and his newest book, Breakthrough Communities.

And the stairs at the Institute are gorgeous.....

New York Times Book Review

Some days lightning strikes, in a really good way.

Children Who Changed the World

I especially love the last line: "...Partridge's stirring history poses another, more immediate, question for a thoughtful reader: Where are today’s Selmas and what might a young person do about them?"

Exactly!

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice wins the NBA and goes viral

This year's short list for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature had not one, but two non-fiction titles. Very, very exciting. Both fantastic books: Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, and Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose.

[Late breaking correction!! Since I originally posted this, several people have pointed out that the short list actually has three non-fiction titles. I was so captivated by the graphic novel aspect of Stitches by David Small, I completely overlooked that it's a memoir. I wonder if the judges looked at their short list and said...wow, we've come down three non-fiction titles. Is this okay? Will people say this list is unbalanced?]

Unlike many other awards, the committees for the NBA are made up of authors. Two years ago I chaired the Young People's Literature committee, and I'll tell you: deciding which are the "best" books of the year is incredibly difficult. It's relatively easy to start winnowing, but it gets harder and harder as the list gets shorter. In order to prevent leaks, the NBA committees meet for lunch on the very day of the awards to choose their winner. In my year, a rumor flashed around the banquet hall as we gathered for the award ceremony that the adult non-fiction committee was still out in the hall, duking it out.

 This year's Young People's Literature award went to Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. I can't even begin to tell you how fantastic this book is. Well researched. Beautifully written. Compelling. And the best part: it has, suddenly and without warning, shifted our view of history, and put Claudette Colvin into her rightful place in the civil rights struggle. Her story has gone viral, on the Newshour, and in the New York Times.