Reflections on the sexism described in Ch.6 -- Tate Burwell

How can the "backbone" of a movement be confined to the backseat of discussions? Why should I set the table if I can't have a seat at it?

       The Civil Rights Movement failed to recognize the hypocrisy of sexism and showed a severe lack of self-awareness that allowed a movement for racial equality to perpetuate hierarchies in other spheres such as class, gender, and sexuality.
        Ministers were seen as shepherds of their flocks while the female missionaries devoted themselves to "quiet, selfless services". These women gathered the people so that the men could lead them.
        In fighting for freedom, the Civil Rights Movement not only lost crucial voices and input, but denied certain freedoms and leadership privileges to people such as Ella Baker, because she was a woman, and Bayard Rustin, because he was gay. However it was because Baker was a woman that Levison and Rustin felt it unnecessary to inform Baker that they were lobbying King for a position for her. They knew why King was reluctant to work with her, but never considered that Baker could be reluctant to work with King.
        This was probably due to the history and expectation of the black woman to drop everything for the sake of her race. Despite all of the baggage between King and Baker, when he got stabbed she picked up all the slack, even though she had been home-bound with back pain herself. Nobody thought twice about the sacrifices she made because that was her role as a black woman-- to support the black man. To do the most work with the least resources, power, influence and recognition.

Black women are expected to:
Organize
Protect
Nurture
Work
Create

We get:
Ignored
Overlooked
Dismissed
Disrespected

Now black women were not completely locked out of the moment, and some, like Baker were able to take on leadership roles. However, there was a pervasive belief by the larger, dominant American society that women were to play a submissive role. These sexist attitudes permeated the movement for racial equality, tainting its professed moral purity.

Chairs - Baker's Rejection of The Offer (chapter 11)

Two Chairs.
Three Bodies.
Chaney --
Goodman --
Schwerner--
Say it.

Where shall they be seated?
Where will their voices be heard?
Two Chairs.

Boot-clad treks
through the heartland
Incessant rasping upon doors
Bruised knuckles and
Sweat-stained starch suits
Two Chairs.

Impassioned speeches,
Mass mobilization,
Salt tears,
Heaven raised voices
rendered raspy and coarse
Two Chairs?

Intimidation.
Beatings.
Death.
Resistance.
Two. Chairs.

Where shall they sit?
They, the three
Mangled, torn, swollen
with words of Freedom still dripping
from their lips.
In two chairs?

Social Protest Theory

Dear Ella Baker,

How should one go about creating a movement? That seems to be the fundamental question you and your contemporaries tried to address. Was the SNCC right in excluding whites from the movement, you clearly thought no, or not? Should the emergence of black power take over these student movements? In your mind, no. But despite these "nos," you espoused the view that, though these decisions did not accord with your political instincts, these efforts can find their own ways of being valuable and effecting change.

For the movements that are occurring today, I feel the same rules apply. Although there are certainly better modes of changing an oppressive, overarching system, why stifle voices that are speaking and reacting to it from the viscera when our first move should be to understand from where they're coming from? These are all questions movements like #BlackLivesMatter must come to face.

Sincerely,
Professor Olzak

Who is Ella Baker?

I think one of the major things that keep hitting me hard
as i read through this book, sentence by sentences, lines by line, word by word, Ella,
is that i never knew you existed until now.
i have read pages and pages about Martin Luther King Jr. and your name never crossed
my mind. I learned about the Civil Rights Movement and about Rosa Parks and
your name never entered my thoughts. Where have you been?
Is it the fault of my mother, that she never taught me about you? No, i doubt even now at the
white age of 60 that she has ever uttered your name. So it must be the educators
in charge of my education right? They must of spoken your name before right? But then why didn't they teach me about you? Was it because you were born a women instead of a man?
As i read this biography about your life, i like to ask myself the question, "if you had been born a  man would i have known who you were. Would i have known the impact of your fearless mind and words?"

The ordeal in Atlanta, makes me think about how hard you worked; how much you cared. How could anymore even think of wanting to compromise. To compromise the hard work, the struggle that generations have had to suffer. How could Rauh believe that what was best for the community was to accept once again inequality? But there you are again Baker, with your strong voice, passion vibrating in your chest, without a single ounces of weakness your ripped him to shreds. You let everyone know that no, two seats were not enough for the representation of people that had been brutalized, raped, lynched, killed. So i want to thank you for putting your foot down. For speaking the words many did not know how to say, that many were too fearful to utter.

Dearest Ella, meet me in my dreams

Ry Walker-Hartshorn

Professor Allyson Hobbs

African American Women’s Lives

March 6, 2017

A Letter to Ella Baker

Dearest Ella,

            You were a principled woman. You were a woman grounded in her morals, one who stood tall in her truth. Your courage, strength and leadership reverberated all throughout the nation, from the north to the south. Most importantly, your voice reached the most vulnerable folks in society, those African Americans trapped in the violent South while experiencing heighten levels of racial violence, economic instability and educational inequality. Throughout her biography, Barbara Ransby repeatedly mentions your efforts to center the Black liberation movement around the most marginalized. Ransby makes it impossible for one to forget or to confuse your desire to connect with the poorest and most uneducated Black folks in the South. To be specific, Ransby tells us that you, “emphasized that when the privileged took it upon themselves to seek for the underprivileged, the whole movement was in danger of losing its direction”(305). This resonated with me because in the world I live in, my generation has birthed a movement called #blacklivesmatter. This movement has every intention of empowering and liberating Black folks, however as a Black community we often fail to center our political actions on the most marginalized groups, which happen to be Black women, Black LGTBQ and Black poor folks. This puts #blacklivesmatter in danger of losing its direction and it is fascinating to read about your struggles and how they are somewhat similar to the issues facing my generation. 

Also, Ms. Ella Baker, I have to let you know that when reading about all of the work you have done for the liberation of Black folks, I became overwhelmed with emotions. At first my face turned red and my cheeks became hot, and then my eyes became glassy as gloomy despair rolled in and covered my face like storm clouds in the sky. I was hurt in that moment, not because of what you did but because it dawned on me that I was learning about you and your life for the first time. It took 22 years for me to learn of your courage, sacrifice and dedication. I would have loved to learn about you as a little girl; I can’t imagine how my life might have been different if I grew up with a role model like you. Learning about the freedom summer and the racial violence you and all your companions endured. How did you not quit? How did you keep going forward? How did you keep fighting? What was your inspiration? Ms. Ella Baker, I have so many questions for you, yet I’m only left with my imagination. I hope that one night we will meet in my dreams and you can tell me your secrets so that when I wake up I can continue where you left off.

With love and passion,

Ry

A letter to Ella Baker

Dear Ms. Baker,

The more I read about your life in Barbara Ransbury's biography of you, the more inspired I am by you. I can't help but wonder if so many of the insecurities about my abilities and ideas I felt growing up would have been lessened if my history teachers had talked about the work of Black woman activists, and how integral our accomplishments were to the global freedom struggle. African American women's place in history has always felt hazy to me, but the class I read your biography for is changing a lot of that. I feel what I am learning about Black woman grassroots organizers particularly has been especially powerful for me as I'm beginning to define my place in the world.

I read the chapter on your involvement in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party recently. I am less amazed by the sheer numbers you and your group were able to accumulate, than I am absolutely moved by the ideological shift you were able to rouse in the black community there. It is a powerful thing to convince an entire community that they do not need to accept anything less than political parties committed to radical change, and who cater directly to the needs of Black people.

I wanted to ask you now about the overwhelming percentage of Black votes the Democratic Party still tends to get today. Taking the most recent presidential election, I can understand voting blue to prevent a Trump presidency. However, I resonated a lot more with Black people who abstained from voting totally because of racist comments and policies made and supported by Hillary Clinton. What is your take on all of this? Is it time for a new party, or maybe something else entirely? We all know the two-party system is broken, but how can we start building something new in its place when we don't even know what that society might look like?

Sincerely,
Natalie Johnson

Lessons of Ms. Baker

You only stand above the ones you teach

To pass down the knowledge you can reach.

You are no better than them.

The people have to be with you

If you ever intend for progress to ensue.

No individual will change life for all of us on their own.

This battle is not one that can be fought divided. What use are fancy clothes to the rural family of Mississippi? Flashy clothes don’t feed hungry mouths and don’t protect the body from brutal beatings. The horrors of black folks in the south should not and cannot be ignored. One black person is a black person still. Rich, poor, educated, or illiterate – we all bear the consequences of being graced with brown skin.

What do you gain by believing yourself superior to a black man harassed into believing his voice does not matter? What pride fills you by disrespecting a black woman that is taught that her body is not her own? When you speak to these people, do you fear the lives that they live? Do your fingers twitch as you walk around their neighborhoods and their towns? How quickly do your shoulders tense when you see a white southerner?

These pains are daily experiences for the people living here. You are equal to the people you will be teaching. Yes, you have your textbooks and college experience, but they have felt the ground beneath their feet for years. They know the shop owners, the cracks in the pavement, and the breeze in the fields. They are not academics, but make no mistake: they are smart. The community will take this movement forward. It is your job to be there with them.

A good teacher can ensure that their students know the information they pass along. A great teacher makes an exchange with their students: they learn about and from their students while giving them information as well. The educated hold no more importance than the illiterate. The man holds no dominance over the woman. SNCC is working towards balance in this society. We have to start with ourselves, what and how we teach.