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[tofulikewoah]

Hi everyone--my name is Jessica and I just joined the community so I thought I'd introduce myself.  My particular area of interest in African American history is the civil rights movement.  In fact, the class I am currently taking on the modern civil rights movement is what inspired my interest in African American history to begin with.

I'm

Comments

[verbalessence]

Hi Jessica and welcome to the group. Thank you for providing the link on white privilege. I think it's an important discussion to have because for so long the privileges that come with whiteness have gone relatively unacknowledged and sadly in some cases, denied. It is until we recognize and deal with those privileges that we can begin to move closer to racial equality. Again, welcome.

Welcome

[sofvckinghot]

Hello Jessica, I'm Bonnie (not Jane Holborn, that's a joke...my Spinal Tap name ;)).

Other communities that may be of interest to you, especially if you are interested in civil rights: anti_racism, debunkingwhite, and possibly human_rights.

Best of luck to you in your studies! The educated should always make a point of educating the uneducated. :)

[recumbentgoat]

Welcome--thanks for the link. And we're quite a mixed bag of people here so don't worry--we're all learning something new about history.

Hope you check out the history of the modern civil rights movement more. We tend to get caught up in MLK and such cuz there's alot of great accessible footage of the struggle.

I'm more into the colonial beginnings of the civil rights fight(Paul Cuffe, Belinda Royall, Prince Hall)---people forget that the 60s was built on the blood sweat and tears of the previous generations.

[tofulikewoah]

The more I learn about the modern civil rights movement, the more I am convinced that MLK played a very minor role. A very public role, but a minor one nonetheless. It was those people like Ella Baker and Septima Clark who were working at the grassroots level that really created the forward momentum of the movement.

I'd be interested in learning more about the colonial beginnings of the civil rights fight if you have any reading recommendations or websites. :)

[recumbentgoat]

Learning about Paul Cuffe is always a good start--if you look at the userinfo there's a link to a book that's good.

Also--I think there's a link to the Royall House and to Belinda Royall. Those are as good to start as any...

[shellcase]

Welcome Jessica, I am John.

I like studying all aspects of history from a political and (mostly)economic point-of-view.

I have always thought the civil rights movement is interesting in the aspect that is was an economic struggle as well as a political struggle. Voting rights got a lot of the press at the time, but the economic rights of being able to find employment, get a good education and simply being allowed to ride a bus to work were important too. Thus, what good is a man's vote when his children starve. (End of my little speech.)

Anyway, good luck with college. And see you around LJ.

[tofulikewoah]

I agree completely with what you're saying about the economics of the civil rights movement. The political aspect was harped on so deeply at the time, that the economic situation was ignored to a great extent and is actually the cause of many of the problems in [particularly urban] African-American communities today. Also, political "equality" and economic "opportunity" are of little worth in a society that still regards you as second-class citizens. The social aspects of white supremacy are STILL alive today and were never adequately addressed during the civil rights movement. [/end speech]

[sogucited]

hi! I'm Amber. I study American History. My undergraduate minor was African American Studies and my graduate minor is Women's History. I'm white too, but I'm descended from African Americans that passed into white society sometime in the late nineteenth century. I'm especially interested in African American women activists and general race/ethnicity/gender stuff.

[thewayoftheid]

I'm white too, but I'm descended from African Americans that passed into white society sometime in the late nineteenth century.

That's fascinating. Have you ever held discussions with your family about this, or gone into detailed research? If so, i hope you wouldn't mind sharing with the group.

Welcome to both you and Jessica. :)

[sogucited]

I have long wanted to do the research on this. In some ways I think I chose to study history so I could learn how to research this. In reality school has meant that I have had no time to really delve into this. I have tried but I've hit a lot of road blocks (and the road blocks come at the time and with the ancestor who would have been the one to "pass"). I've talked to friends who study history and do geneology and they tell me they're not surprised, since if the story is true, the ancestor ( my grandfather's great-grandfather) who all the family "rumors" center on, would have actively hid his racial identity. Another friend who is a grad student in African American history and had done some very impressive geneology of his own African American family tells me that the family's oral tradition is enough. There are no "old folks" left on this branch of the family tree and no one in my family is close to extended relations. One very elderly great great aunt told us when I was about 7 years old, that her father lied about his "