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The Wrongs against Our Rights
September 17th, 2007Posted Sept. 17, 2007 – This week students at the University of Maryland were given a history lesson without opening a text book. The campus was swarmed by the media and the administration was up in arms over a noose found hanging from a tree outside campus building where Black student organizations were headquartered. 
This incident, coupled with the now famous case of the “Jena Six,” who are facing prison time for their reaction and retaliation to a similar display of racism on their high school campus in Louisiana, is reminiscent of the post-Reconstruction Era. ?
If Black folks have forgotten why there was a Civil Rights Movement, these recent incidents in school yards and college campuses should be a reminder.
African American’s can’t begin to discount the impact of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march on Washington, Rosa Park’s bus boycott in Birmingham or the 1955 lynching of 14 year-old Emmett Till. These were turning points in America history.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) spent his youth as a foot solider in the Civil Rights Movement, and he’s concerned about what’s ahead. That’s why he’s bringing attention to the danger of doing away with the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice.
Lewis notes some disturbing reports about what’s to occur within the division under the Bush administration. For example, career civil rights attorneys have been pressured to change rulings about state election laws, which in turn violates the Voting Rights Act. This type of behavior, like the firing of U.S. attorneys, which is now under investigation, could be the tip of the iceberg.
Earlier this month, Lewis testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to stress the historic significance of the Civil Rights Division and the need for its service. He also wanted to raise a red flag about department practices following the departure of former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales.
Lewis’s testimony was personal, practical and from first-hand experience as a young college student and activist. “People of color couldn’t vote; they couldn’t register to vote. They paid a poll tax. Black people could not sit on a jury. Segregation was the order of the day. It was so real. The signs were so visible. People were told to stay in their place. People were beaten; people came up missing.”
I hope we haven’t loss the momentum of 50 years of struggle. I hope today’s youths understand what’s at stake, and I hope Black folks realize the dangers ahead if they don’t actively participate in the system to guarantee what they take for granted.
Lewis reflected on his experience and told the committee, “In some instances it amounted to police – and state-sanctioned violence against people of color. Black people were afraid and White people were afraid to speak out. It truly was terror.”
Lewis is right racism is “terror.”
It’s a sad shame that the American people can’t see the writing on the wall.We as a people are digressing in our freedoms worldwide.None of us will be free until we are all free.We really need to re-think our laws and be more sure that they cover ALL people in the same manner,and not just those of any one color ,class ,or position in life.
God Bless The Children,God Bless Us All!!!
I dont think that is right at all.The ouly reason he in there cause this world is still about whites ever thing is ran by whites and to think about it the laws here is no good u ouly see a little whites trying to help not that many but it ok wat goes around comes right back around soon.
i agree with sen. john lewis that we need not forget the struggle. as a young man myself i often fought within myself saying that the world has changed and slavery and all that is long gone. but, as i grew older and looked at everything….i saw. it’s sad. if anything, capitol hill needs to keep anything and everything for minorities not to get ran over or overlooked. some say that we (blacks) need to stop blaming whites or others for things. hey, i do good and i bust my butt to provide for mine. it wasn’t easy though. depending on where you grew up you have to struggle to get passed some things. people mess you over on job applications for the “good” careers and jobs simply because of your color and not your skill. i work hard, have good head on my shoulders, i’m a military vet at 25, educated, and a good provider and teacher. but that doesn’t always hack it. good thing i have faith so i made it. lost my grandfather about 2 months ago…pillar of the family. a man who’s been through tough times in history and who had wisdom to teach the youth in my family. future times i see getting harder because as the elder folk pass, sometimes the wisdom die with them. then future generations who are farther from knowing that kind of struggle don’t and some won’t get it. it’s getting harder. cares of the world got them like i was at first. just to think how and where it’s happening…to a people who carried, built, and made better this country way before it was anything. blacks as slaves made this place flourish. so, some whites had headstarts already because the freed slaves had to build from scratch while the white kids got the best schools and inherited theirs. so, that inheritance keeps flowing. some (white) never really had to work for anything. so, how would they understand any struggle. sad that as blind as some of them are…that some of us are just as blind. but i pray and hope for more. God bless because i do think these are the last days.
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=5950
IT’S ASHAME THAT THERE IS STILL HATRED IN THIS COUNTRY.WE ALL ARE GOD’S CHILDREN & I AM SICK OF THE BIGGOTS IN THIS COUNRTY.THIS IS 2007 NOT 1957!
MY GIRLFRIEND IS AFRICAN-AMERICAN,I AM IRISH.WE WILL PRAY FOR THOSE IGNORANT PEOPLE.