[Ohio-talk] Here We Are 50 Years Later

Thu Aug 29 05:12:05 UTC 2013

Hello All,
As do all of you I have some vivid memories of the60's, but today I
can say Thank God for the ancestors!
On yesterday as I sat in a suburban hospital, that was once set aside
for Jewish persons, waiting  to hear my name called, there was a
television on. There were African Americans, Jewish, Indian, and
others, Male  and female waiting with me. As we watched the
Celebration of the Historic March on Washington, tears ran down all of
our faces, positive comments were made, tissue was shared, and smiles
were  freely given. This is why I am proud to be an American! The Rev.
Bernice King delivered another speech that I am sure will go into
books as remarkable! To paraphrase her, Each generation must bear the
struggle of the beloved community, this is the core of the nfb and I
am proud to be a member of  a organization that is taking
responsibility of our beloved community of the blind and visually
impaired!

Let Freedom Ring, Let Freedom Ring!
Cheryl Fields

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the
narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader
concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

On 8/28/13, Smith, JW <smithj at ohio.edu> wrote:
> So here we are 50 years later and we have much to be thankful for in terms
> of diversity and inclusion in our society. As many of you may or may not
> know one of my areas of research is Black communication styles and the
> development of Black rhetoric in our culture. This is such a historic day
> for us so please allow me some meanderings. On August 28th, 1963, Dr. Martin
> Luther King Jr. had prepared a four or five minute speech as he was the last
> in a long line of speakers that day. Did you know, that his now famous "I
> Have a Dream" part of the speech was not even in his prepared notes and in
> fact he had delivered a similar speech in Detroit earlier that year? It was
> probably at the urging of the famous gospel singer Mahalia Jackson as she
> sat on the stage behind him that he even included the phrase. At one point,
> she was overheard to say "tell them about the dream, Martin" and if you look
> at the video it is at that time that he puts down his prepared notes and
> adlibs the last ten minutes of his speech, which by the way ended up being
> 16 minutes in length. Did you also know that immediately after his speech
> someone asked him for his notes and he gave them to him and he still has
> those notes? People have offered him between 3 and 4 million dollars for
> them but he refuses to sell them. Did you also know that the famous activist
> W.E.B. Dubois symbolically passed away on August 27th, 1963 seemingly to
> pass the torch onto Dr. King and others?
>
>                 Even though I was only 4 years old at the time I remember
> vividly what it was like and what it meant to be a Black blind person coming
> up in the city of Chicago. So I will get off of my soapbox soon but I want
> to reiterate as I said in my last message- in my opinion, I know we've come
> a long way as a people and a society and not just with the election of
> President Obama. You see I remember what it was like for us to take our
> trips by car from Chicago to Memphis, Tennessee and have to have community
> picnics on the side of the road because our formal lodging options were
> limited at best, as well as possibilities for filling our automobile with
> gasoline. I remember the whispered hush hushes of my family members in
> Greenville, Mississippi "you know how they are and we really need to be
> careful and stay away from over there and you all are from the North and you
> don't really know what it's like down here, so be careful." It was common
> knowledge in Chicago in the 1960's that if you were not a Caucasian there
> were several neighborhoods that you dare not visit after say 8 o'clock
> because there could be serious implications for that misjudgment. It is
> ironic to me today that one of my favorite hotels is located in one of those
> areas and its probably why I try to stay there as often as I can when I
> visit my hometown of Chicago.  I will close my meanderings with what I tell
> my students when we have finished discussing the impact of slavery on our
> society. I say to them there are three responses that are often communicated
> about this tragic period in our country. The first is "I didn't do it, I
> wasn't there so don't hold me responsible or make me feel guilty about any
> of that stuff that happened way back then." The second is "Your all guilty,
> you all owe us and we will never let you forget it." The third one and the
> one I like the best and is by far the one that I try to live up to is "it
> happened, lets learn from it and never repeat it and let's try and do what
> we can to move on." As you celebrate and commemorate this historic day think
> about what you can do to ensure that 50 years from now we have made even
> more progress and in more parts of our society.
>
> Thanks for listening, I'm going to shut up now.
>
> Jw
>
> Dr. JW Smith
> Associate Professor
> Interim Director of Honors Tutorial Studies
> School of Communication Studies
> Lasher Hall, Rm. 112
> Athens, OH 45701
> smithj at ohio.edu<mailto:smithj at ohio.edu>
> T: 740-593-4838
> F: 740-593-4810
>
> *Ask me about the newly revised Ohio Fellows Program or visit
> http://www.ohio.edu/univcollege/ohiofellows.cfm
>
> "Regarding the past, change what you can, and can what you can't."
> "Our minds are like parachutes. They work best when they are open."
>
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-- 
Peace