My brother, Danny, recently reminded me of the time my father took us both to the front of a picket line. I was two, my brother was six. It was 1959. My father was an activist and that day he was gonna show his two boys just how daddy did it. We watched as he took me off his shoulders and let go of Danny's hand, and decided to lay down in protest in front a moving bulldozer. Luckily for us he was just arrested and not run over. We learned the value of standing up for what you believe in from our parents. The three of us brothers (Danny, Joseph and I) were incredibly lucky to come from a background that encouraged creative expression. Many people during the time of my childhood were not so lucky. As we grew up in Queens, our experience during the civil rights movement was much different than those growing up in the deep South.
It took the courage of Rosa and Martin and Malcolm and the deaths of Medgar and Emmett and Bobby to set our people free. These were the heroes we read about, these were the heroes we spoke about, these were the heroes we remember. But there were so many other unsung heroes along the way, many of whom were so beautifully and painfully captured in the upcoming movie, The Help. When I saw this film I was reminded that it took the courage of giants to make way for ordinary citizens to speak up against the injustices that plagued our nation. We must remember that on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was just a tired department store worker not looking to make any trouble on her bus ride home from work. An ordinary citizen with a lot of courage. Just like Rosa Parks, the women depicted in The Help were tired of being beaten down for their whole lives, that they came to a point where enough was enough. And instead of refusing to get out of their seat on the bus ride home, they told their stories of what it was like to be a third class citizen in a first world nation, to a local white reporter who published them in what became a best selling book. The Help is a remarkable film, not just because of the superb storytelling and the amazing acting, but more important than that, it taps into the essence of what makes our country great, courage.
It was the courage of a young group of revolutionaries who crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night not knowing if this would cost them the war against the British. It was the courage of a black woman who escaped slavery and would later return to rescue over 70 slaves using a network of safe houses and passages known as the Underground Railroad. It was the courage of a preacher from Atlanta and a minister from Detroit who would give voice to an entire race of people and beyond. It was the courage of an openly gay mayor from San Francisco who propelled the gay rights movement forward. We have stood on the shoulders of these heroes and she-roes. We have built our democracy from their courage and their commitment to freedom. We have replayed their stories over and over in our heads. We have been inspired by their greatness. That is exactly how I felt when I saw The Help. The courage of greatness. Don't miss this movie.
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The Help Movie Trailer Official (HD) - YouTube
The Help (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thumbs up or down for 'The Help' movie trailer? - latimes.com
Star-studded event for 'The Help' movie premiere in Madison - WLBT ...
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Some black leaders believed she was too young, and too dark-skinned to be an effective symbol of injustice for the rest of the nation. Then, as local civil rights leaders continued to debate whether her case was worth contesting, that summer came the news that Colvin was pregnant — by a married man.
Claudette Colvin (b, September 5, 1939) is a African American woman from Alabama. In 1955, at the age of 15, she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white person, in violation of local law. Her arrest preceded civil rights activist Rosa Parks' (on December 1, 1955) by nine months.
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Claudette Colvin was an unmarried pregnant teenager and it did not look good for the civil rights movement at that time to have an unmarried, black teenager as a role model. Rosa Parks a professional agitator working for the NAACP was used as stand in. Claudette is still alive and lives in the Bronx. Google her
But how nice of you to try to excuse the massive disconnect in his life. This is the same man who makes money selling unecessarily expensive shoes, clothes, etc... and then writes articles finger wagging at people for being materialistic.
Your brother Danny is one hip dude (as, of course, are you). Caught him introducing Jazzmobile at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Tues. night, the magnificent Randy Weston.
When you do mention Dr. King you fail to mention the most important thing about him, his Christian faith. He let be known that without Christ there is no freedom. You sometimes fail to mention that when talking about him. Liberal much? Perhaps you are afraid of mentioning that because you are afraid the liberal media will crush you for even mentioning Jesus Christ's name.
Without Christianity none of what you mentioned would have been posible. I wonder how many of these other people were Christian? If you ever get the courage to look into it, tell us about it.
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Someone writes an essay praising our nation, but he's an evil liberal to you because he didn't mention Christianity?
God, you conservatives' standards are getting more and more narrow every passing year. A year ago you would have thought that anyone criticizing our nation is anti-American.
Now someone PRAISES our nation, and you STILL call him evil because he didn't praise your religious group personally?!
I don't get it. Do you just constantly look for evil everywhere, never satisfied?
You are correct about Lincoln, though. Without him "freeing" the slaves, there would be no America as it exists today, and thus different types of heroes.
Look what you are saying! With over 40% of US citizens not paying any taxes, who do you think already pays ALL of the bills? Do you really think the best plan is to take more of their money or would it be for gov't to spend less?
Maybe the problem is our screwed up value system, which praises only those virtues that allow you to earn money while giving absolutely no thought to those other virtues that every other society has found invaluable since the days of ancient Greece.
You're right about one thing. Our mess isn't the rich's fault.
It's YOURS. You and everyone in your political group who define virtue as the ability to earn money and be "successful," which is why you enable the rich to have as much power and influence as they do, because you think you'll be in their shoes one day.
I don't blame the rich or the corporations, I blame you, for aggressively attempting to spread selfish values to the entire planet and erasing everything else, even closing public libraries across our nation so that money can have its way without the inconvenience of thought and knowledge and ethics getting in the way.
Hardly the case at all. She had been a secretary for the NAACP for 10 years and the NAACP was looking for an arrest to use as a case to end the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system. The events leading up to her arrest were planned.