This picture is one of the more impactful of Civil Rights photos I have ever seen. Look at that glare, that “don’t mess with me” visage. She clearly means business.
Can you believe that this woman had the microphone taken away from her at the March on Washington in 1963 before she could even speak? You might ask why, but I think we’re all pretty familiar with the history equality movements have with the lack of intersectionality. Feminism and the LGBT movement has done it too. It has been a pretty prevalent practice amongst these groups to exclude people who don’t fit the image of the movement from the dialogue, even though they play a crucial role in it.
Take Rosa Parks for example. I doubt any of us would have known who she even was or that she existed if not for her part in introducing Martin Luther King Jr to the stage. Even so, she’s talked about more like a mythological figure rather than a person. In school, I learned about Rosa Parks as I would an archetype or a metaphor, and I didn’t know until a couple of years ago about Rosa Parks’ long history of activism, even before the bus incident. She was not new to civil disobedience, but because of her new link with Martin Luther King Jr, suddenly her efforts were notable.
Parks and Richardson were not really recognized for their efforts, and when they were, those efforts were usually talked about in third person by a man. Their identities as women almost overrode their identities as black activists, and that was why they could have used intersectionality between feminism and civil rights back then.
That’s why we still need it today. When I’m only now hearing about Gloria Richardson, we haven’t fixed the problem. It’s still there, and it’s making it hard to acheive equality on all levels with all people. When we’re still thinking about oppression in terms of who’s facing what because of which characteristics, we’re pigeonholing ourselves right into ineffectual extinction.
Only once we realize that the same forces are at work in all oppression, whether you’re black, a woman, or both, can we really take off toward true equality.
kyorika
Aug 28, 2013 @ 00:18:48
If this is the first I’ve heard of Richardson, something clearly is wrong.
Have you ever read the autobiography Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals? That picture reminds me a lot of that book. All throughout school I’ve heard the same thing said about the Civil Rights movement, but it was not until I read WDC it really dawned on my the horror of what it really meant to be an activist during the Eisenhower administration. The 101st Airborne Division had to walk these African American students to their classes.
A couple pictures, my favorite being the first. It really shows the bravery of young people. They are more courageous than I ever could be:
entropistanon
Aug 28, 2013 @ 14:45:18
I hadn’t heard of that book, but I’ll be sure to put it on my reading list. It sounds very educational. You know, I always regret how little I actually know about the Civil Rights movement. Sure they went over it briefly in school, but it was such a brief part of our history lessons that I really didn’t learn all that much about the people who made it happen.
I do clearly remember being amazed and appalled by how recent it was in history, though. Thinking about how other people were treated only about 20-30 years before I was born really blew my mind. In the bad way.
Those pictures give me chills.
kyorika
Aug 28, 2013 @ 22:19:38
They give only one month dedicated to remembering the Civil Rights Movement. How do they expect anyone to learn anything about it if it’s only taught one month out of the year? I personally think there should be classes for high school students, not just on Black History, but for other studies like on women’s accomplishments.
I definitely recommend dropping by the bookstore and purchasing Warrior’s Don’t Cry. It is very insightful about the early stages of the integration in public schools, starting in Little Rock, Arkansas, a very prominent former slave state. The governor, so opposed to the thought that African-Americans would be attending the state’s highest ranked high school, sent out the National Guard to keep them from entering the school .The students had to literally sneak through a side door. Eisenhower was forced to intervene and protect them with the military.
That young girl in the first picture didn’t even make it to the school on the first day. The mob of protesters overwhelmed her, but fortunately two sympathetic white activists saved her from harm.
I haven’t given away anything from the book, there is SO MUCH that went on in those four years that Melba Beals writes about. It’s a comfortable read, educational, and at times it had me gnash my teeth in anger. I decided to use WDC as a primary source to write an English essay on a topic of my choice. If you ever do get around to reading it in the future, I’d love to discuss the content of it with you *pulls out my own copy*
entropistanon
Aug 29, 2013 @ 15:19:01
I will definitely be happy to post a thread for discussion when I get to the book. Granted, my list is rather long, so it might be a little while before I get around to it…