Extra Credit Blog Post: A People’s History, Chapter 19 (Optional)

by David Parsons | 1 Comment

Cesar Chavez

 

For this (optional) extra blog post, you should read Chapter 19 in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.  The chapter is titled “Surprises” and is about the various important liberation movements that occurred in America during the 1960s and 1970s. Zinn discusses women, Latinos, gay people, Native Americans, and many more. Choose TWO individuals from the chapter and write brief profiles, focusing on why you think Zinn includes them.  In other words, WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?  Your post should include direct quotes from each figure. Do not post repeats!

 

Taxi Driver (Group 5, Due 11/26)

by David Parsons

Instructions: Using the “New Post” function, choose a specific moment from the film Taxi Driver and write a brief (1-3 paragraph) blog post explaining how the moment reflects how American society in the 1970s defined the life options for a specific character (Travis, Betsy, or Iris).  Remember to think divergently, and avoid repeating moments that have already been written about. Your group should aim to produce posts about a diverse range of characters, scenes, and topics, so pay attention to what others have posted and choose your moment accordingly.         

IMPORTANT:  Be sure to categorize your post under “Taxi Driver” (the Categories buttons should be on the lower right) so you can get credit for your post!

Change Comes After the Tragedy

by pr156544

A local woman, Mrs. Unita Blackwell, said:”I feel that the federal government have proven that it don’t care about poor people. Everything that we have asked for through these years had been handed down on paper. It’s never been a reality. We the poor people of Mississippi is tired. We’re tired of it so we’re going to build for ourselves, because we don’t have a government that represents us.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The freedom of Black liberty was fought for an entire century in America. Progress would also be made but it never moved forward. Black people were given fake freedom in which the government would not even lend support. It was a curse to be a black person for many people in the United States, but to be poor and black was hell on earth. Mrs. Unita Blackwell felt the pain of being one of the many without a voice. In a time where one reaches there lowest point, a revolution is always next. It is not confusing to why she wanted to build the government for themselves and it was not confusing to why so many tragedies occurred  during these times. In 1967, the Detroit riots killed 3 black teen-agers, a police attack in a school campus killed 2 black females, policemen killed unarmed black people and killed suspected black looters without warnings. The “white” government was obviously fearful of what was to come. They were all actions from the result of fear, but it only sparked more rage. It would soon be discovered as Howard Zinn states, ” later that the government in all the years of the civil rights movement, while making concessions through Congress, was acting through the FBI to harass and break up black militant groups. “This was the social order and political order of our government. In the end they would soon come to realize that if they can’t beat them they would join them.

– And when they did join them, they used black government leaders to be the leaders of marches and the new social order. Malcolm X new this was happening and opposed it with his speeches.

A Black Consciousness

by sn154501

Rosa Parks

“Well, in the first place, I had been working all day on the job. I was quite tired after spending a full day working. I handle and work on clothing that white people wear. That didn’t come in my mind but this is what I wanted to know: when and how would we ever determine our rights as human beings? … It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn’t feel like obeying his demand. He called a policeman and I was arrested and placed in jail….” – Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks questioned if black people would ever receive the equality that they were waiting for. Her simple act of disobedience caused a wave of boycotts and violent uproars in Montgomery, Alabama. These persistent boycotts were successful as the segregation on local bus lines was outlawed. These boycotts led to a bigger protest movement in the South. Zinn speaks of a “new black consciousness being born” towards the end of the chapter. This black consciousness was the realization that they could speak out and revolt. They had the right to protest against their discrimination.  The outlaw of segregation was not enough. New uprisings were taking place and being led by activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

The heart of the civil rights history

by MIRZOMUHSIN QODIROV

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 “. . . This is what they did with the march on Washington. They joined it… became part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot, it ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. . .”  – Malcolm X

During the years 1950’s and 1960’s, black Americans arose as one “big family” led by racial equality and unfair civil rights. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civilresistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civildisobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities.For almost 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still experienced “unequalness,” disenfranchisement, segregation and great volume oppressions towards blacks. In the following, civil rights activists extensively continued to protest for their freedom and whites, on the other hand, were fierce because the whole community of blacks marched boycotting on the streets in a either violence or nonviolence way depending on a leader. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and etc.   Two arising leader powers such as Malcolm X who was a black male activist leader fighting for blacks’s present and past where as Martin Luther King who also was a black male who fought the idea of “peacefulness” and solving any conflict with love and care. Even thought they had totally different approach towards civil rights movement, white privilege and racial inequality, they both centered the question to where is respect for humanity disappear. A key factor in the success of the civil rights movement was the choice that radicalized African-American organizations offered to cautiously slow-moving governmental policy-makers: the rhetoric of “Black Power” or the pacifism of Martin Luther King Jr. Policy makers chose the leader representing peaceful change.

 

You better not X with the X

by in156719

“You’ll get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it. When you get that kind of attitude , they’ll label you as a “crazy Negro,” or they’ll call you a”crazy nigger”-they don’t say Negro. Or they’ll call you an extremist or a subversive, or seditious, or a red or a radical. But when you stay radical long neigh and get enough people to be like you, you’ll get your freedom.” (461)

Malcolm X believed in a different way of attaining equality. Passive resistance was a pipe dream that the white man would not respect. The Black Panthers showed intimidation with their guns and call for self-defense. The March on Washington was artificially made by whites. Government leaders were scared of the march and endorsed the march. “They controlled it so tight, they told those Negroes what time to hit town, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make, and then told them to get of town by sundown…”Post March on Washington,  there was a continuation of bombings and lack of civil rights improvements. An alternative action and route must’ve been taken. When a black church is bombed, African Americans are not thinking of showing passive resistance but are filled up with rage they wish to release. Howard Zinn is puts emphasis on the different forms of protesting and shows the response it received. Zinn understands the rough edginess of Malcolm X being that passive resistance wasn’t very impactful.

The True Motives of the US Government

by kn158312

Truman’s Committee:

“Those with competing philosophies have stressed- and are shamelessly distorting- our shortcomings… They have tried to prove our democracy an empty fraud, and our nation a consistent oppressor of underprivileged people. This may seem ludicrous to Americans, but it is sufficiently important to worry our friends […] the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record” (President Truman’s Committee 449).

 

The above quote speaks to the true motives of the US government’s actions taken toward civil rights. The intent behind the small steps that the US government took came from a calculated power play and popularity struggle. Devoid of morals, the government determined that civil rights were indeed necessary. However, they came to this conclusion in order to appeal to the opinions of other nations and therefore to secure their spot as a national superpower. This quote also suggests that the idea of America as an oppressor is ridiculous. Even going so far as to call the accusations, “shamelessly distorting” of American shortcomings. This quote proves that despite the strife and struggle of leaders and activist groups the US government was still oblivious to the moral necessity of equality for African Americans.

“…we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.“

by sp157036

“If we are arrested every day, if we are exploited every day, if we are trampled over every day, don’t ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight, we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.“

– Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Martin Luther King was a preacher. He fought with words, motivation and respect. This angered some of the black community, as “respect” didn’t satisfy their desires. Zinn explains that many blacks thought Kings’ methods were “naïve”, which made sense in regards to how the white community was treating the blacks. King however was able to convey his message to the majority of the black community, which was monumental.  He conveyed to his followers the principles of civil disobedience and the importance of respecting the hate that was shown against them. By constantly doing so King was able to motivate his people by emphasizing that change was coming, for example like stated above; “we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.” His speeches were full of powerful messages and intellectual statements that were used to rally up supporters. Zinn explains that Martin Luther King acted as a catalyst in motivating blacks into standing up for their rights, however further argues that people like Malcolm X and other radical black leaders were what caused people into using violence as opposed to methods of civil disobedience.

Negligence and Consequences

by gr156728

“… it’s inevitable that we’ve got to bring out the question of the tragic mix-up in priorities. We are spending all of this money for death and destruction, and not nearly enough money for life and constructive development… when the guns of war become a national obsession, social needs inevitably suffer.” – Dr. Martin Luther King

During the era of the Civil Rights movement, another troubling issue was at hand that wasn’t just equality for Americans. The Vietnam War also occupied much of America’s mind. These two significant issues, however, were not being dealt properly by the United State’s government. Part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 included that the government was able to put anyone in prison for up to five years if they are related in some way to a riot (which was defined as “three or more people involving threats of violence”). This shows the government’s feeble attempt to quell civilian unrest while still not directly dealing with it. Much of the focus was instead shifted towards the war. With King’s quote, it demonstrates how much the domestic problems that were not being prioritized were affecting the people. Zinn talks about this because of how much inner turmoil the country was going through and how little it was being focused upon by the government. In a way, it links to the title of the whole chapter, “Or Does it Explode?” There’s only so much something can put pushed to the backseat, or suppress an issue without really focusing on it, before it bursts. With this, Zinn shows the government’s neglect on the matter and its consequences.

“An Area of Intimidation”- Kennedy

by MARTA


“…it was a sellout. It was a takeover. … They controlled it so tight, they told those Negroes what time to hit town, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make, and then told them to get out of town by sundown…” -Malcolm X (Zinn, Ch 17)

The 1950’s & 1960’s were a period of time in the United States that was plagued with racial unrest that resulted in many civil rights demonstrations, some peaceful, others not so much. The black community was struggling with deciding what they should do to confront the people that were destroying their lives; they wanted an end to segregation in public schools, the passage of a meaningful civil rights legislation, they wanted equality, and this was when the ideas of influential leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King arose. These two men were both highly respected within the black communities, but they had a difference in opinions regarding how confrontational their demonstrations should be. Malcolm X was a more radical activist; he brought forth anger and the idea of black power in order to motivate blacks to become involved in their own process of liberation. He had a confrontational attitude towards slavery, his ideas spoke to young people, and he (to some extent) promoted the idea of defending oneself with violence.
This idea that Malcolm X was promoting scared many whites, which is mentioned in Zinn’s text. During the March on Washington of 1963, many whites, including those in the White House, feared that violence would arise. President Kennedy originally opposed the March because he felt that if things got out of control, the legislature would vote against the civil rights laws that he was backing. So when he couldn’t stop the march, he decided to join it. His involvement led the Kennedy administration to be accused of being too involved. As Malcolm X says in the quite above, the administration went from opposing the march to almost controlling it totally. They decided what was going to be said, where it was going to be said, and who was going to say it. In a fight for freedom from the oppression by whites, the blacks were still being told how to fight, when to fight and who could do the fighting. With this help from the Kennedy administration the March paved the way for an end to segregationist laws, but to what extent should the federal government have taken precautions when it came to this demonstration? Were these political leaders trying to help the movement, or were they just taking on the role of “puppet masters” just as they have throughout history up on to this point?