My Civil Rights Pilgrimage
My Civil Rights Trip in July
During the last week of July, I was afforded an excellent opportunity last month to spend a week touring several landmarks pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement.
Enjoy the pictures and be sure to read the After Action Report at the bottom of this post. It's the report that I submitted to the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership to advocate for turning this pilgrimage into an Experiential Leadership Development summer cruise for Midshipmen at the Naval Academy.
We travelled to sites in Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, Ole Miss, and Memphis
One of the many monuments at Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, AL
Memorial to the four young girls who died in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. King served from 1954-1960.
Edmund Pettus Bridge, where Bloody Sunday happened.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, AL
James Meredith monument at Ole Miss.
Ever since I was a kid, I found the topic interesting for a number of reasons:
-Jim Crow laws were in effect until just over a decade before I was born.
-My maternal grandmother was born to Mexican immigrants and grew up near San Antonio. She had to ride in the back of the bus, attend "separate but equal" schools, and had to drink from the "colored" fountain. The Chicano Movement shares similarities with the Civil Rights Movement.
-I teach a leadership course and appreciate that the Civil Rights Movement required great leadership, invariably in the face of massive opposition.
Before I went on this pilgrimage, I had some opinions about modern racial issues:
-BLM is a cure searching for a disease. There is no such thing as "white privilege."
-Complaints about "voter ID" laws are red herrings.
-If we remove Civil War monuments, we risk erasing and repeating history.
I will explain how this experience led to me to reexamine these issues and how my opinions evolved.
1. "All Lives Matter" is a disingenuous reaction to Black Lives Matter. To begin with, there is no such thing as "colorblindness." As people, we are ingrained with perceptions and biases based on our formative experiences. People are comfortable with what they know and what they are exposed to. Invariably, this becomes manifest in de facto segregation along communities of interest. Why do most large cities have a Chinatown, etc.?
The Civil Rights Movement was part of a longer and ongoing struggle to achieve equality. More than two centuries of oppressive laws and social norms cannot be undone simply by dismantling the Jim Crow laws. Consider the oft-cited disparity in prosecution and sentencing, or the burden that any legal matter can place on a minority. Because a minority person is more likely to be working for an hourly wage, any time spent in a court room incurs a financial penalty.
We still see de facto segregation in our cities. Some places used forced bussing and other policies to address this but that comes at a price and is contentious. A recent factor has been the increase in charter schools and use of private schools. This currently happens as a result of forced bussing but it also happened in the Southern States in the wake of Brown v. The Board of Education decision. In fact, in many Southern municipalities, the Brown backlash led to many of the public schools becoming nearly 100% minority as wealthier White families opted to pull their children from the now-integrated public schools, enrolling them in all-White private or charter schools.
Adding further insult to injury, many of the public schools that opened post-Brown in Southern States were named for Confederate "heroes." From Virginia to Florida, schools named for J. E. B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, Nathan B. Forrest, Robert E. Lee, et al, popped up. This was not coincidental, but rather an effort to remind Black Americans of "their place" in the social hierarchy. Unfortunately, very few of these schools have changed their names. In fact, when I spoke with an official at the Southern Poverty Law Center, she explained to me that most of the resistance to changing the names of these schools has been from alumni who happen to be Black! In her words, "they were 'the Generals' and want to remain so." Perhaps a public service campaign is warranted.
As for "white privilege," it's real. Growing up in a half-Mexican, half-White family, I knew of my grandparents' struggles but my upbringing felt a lot more "White" in the sense that I never had to think much about race or endure reminders of my minority status. I look, for all intents and purposes, "White" and my Scandinavian first name and Anglicized German surname are "White." Imagine if my mother had gone with her first idea to name me "Ramone." I certainly would have been treated differently. Historical note: the founder of Pan American Airlines, Juan Trippe, was not Hispanic but named after the Venezuelan wife of a granduncle. People widely assumed he was Hispanic, though. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Trippe#cite_note-nyt-3)
"Women in boardrooms, disabled people getting on a bus, gay teens at a high school dance, and black youth in a school cafeteria are all aware of their social identity; straight white able-bodied males ignore their social identity." (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bedrick/whats-the-matter-with-all-lives-matter_b_7922482.html)
2. Voter ID laws are a threat to equal suffrage. I vote via absentee ballot because it's just easier for me to do. I'm also stationed away from my home (I'm a Florida Resident living in Maryland). I have never had to show my ID to vote so I thought, "what's the big deal about this?"
I have since changed my mind on this matter. I watched some episodes of "Eyes on the Prize," the acclaimed PBS documentary series. Virtually every episode showed the Civil Rights Movement as a voting effort. The political institutions of the Southern States with large Black populations would have changed had Blacks been afforded the honest right to vote. The segregationists and White supremacists reacted out of fear of losing their positions of power. As an example, this is why Sheriff Jim Clark employed a combination of passive and active measures to prevent Black citizens from registering. Passive measures included having the Voter Registrar take arbitrary lunch breaks while active measures included the infamous Bloody Sunday beatings. Bull Connor in Birmingham did much of the same; look at the picture of Black youth being sprayed with a water cannon.
So what do events from more than 50 years ago have to do with today?
Lots. Look up DMV hours across American States. I recall the DMV in Rhode Island being on limited hours when I needed to register a motorcycle. They were open Monday through Thursday, 0830-1530. Other DMV offices across RI are better but none are open on weekends. Here are some more examples:
Alabama: Dallas County Drivers License Office (M-F, 0800-1600)
Mississippi: statewide (M-F, 0800-1700)
California: statewide (M/T/R/F/S, 0800-1700; W, 0900-1700)
Oregon: statewide (M-F, 0800-1700)
So DMV hours aren't really all that convenient in most states but at least in California, you can get to a DMV on a day off if you're working a M-F 40-hour job because they are open on Saturday.
When I became a Florida Resident, I got my license, transferred my vehicle titles, and registered to vote in one fell swoop. Of course, I was on leave and had just moved into my house when I did this. In my location, they happen to be open the last Saturday of the month but otherwise M-F 0800-1700 (not the best for hourly wage workers, remember?).
My conclusion is that barriers to registering to vote still exist and disproportionally impact minority communities.
3. Removing Confederate monuments is not erasing history. The majority of the monuments were erected during the second rise of the Klan during the early 1900s.
From "Mother Jones" and SPLC:
1861-1865: Civil War.
1865-1875: Reconstruction Era.
1875-1895: Reconstruction Era ends. Lynchings skyrocket. Blacks are steadily disenfranchised, allowing Southern whites to enact Jim Crow laws. In 1896, Jim Crow is cemented into place when the Supreme Court rules it constitutional.
1895-1915: With blacks disenfranchised and Jim Crow laws safely in place, Southern whites continue their campaign of terror against blacks. This era features continued lynchings, the growing popularity of “Lost Cause” revisionist histories, a resurgence of white supremacy organizations like the KKK, and the erection of Confederate statues and monuments in large numbers.
1915-1955: Jim Crow reigns safely throughout the South.
1955-1970: The civil rights era starts after the Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that Jim Crow laws are unconstitutional. Southern whites mount massive and violent resistance, and start putting up Confederate monuments again.
(https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/the-real-story-of-all-those-confederate-statues/)
4. The fallacy of history text books. There has been discussion about how American high school history text books are selective. It got me thinking. My middle school history teacher taught to the "Civil War as a war for States' Rights" myth. I am still friends with her so I can't say there was anything malicious but children are still being taught this myth.
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AFTER ACTION REPORT TO STOCKDALE CENTER FOR ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
Introduction:
Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership is grateful to support your recent attendance at a leadership conference/activity. We look forward to knowing more about your recent participation as it applies to your role as a key influencer of midshipmen.
Stockdale Center seeks to be a strong advocate for future leadership initiatives, seminars and leadership-strengthening opportunities. Therefore, we continue to collaborate with stakeholders, including donors, to establish high-level objectives that communicate the potential value of your particular conference/activity for other USNA key influencers.
We seek your participation in this process. Your responses are highly valued and we will review your feedback as you help us continuously improve our ability to strengthen leadership among faculty, coaches, and staff.
Please submit your responses by the due date of Wednesday, 8 August 2018.
1. Your name and title: LCDR Harrison Bergeron, LEL Instructor
2. Title of conference/activity: Civil Rights Staff Tour
3. Location of conference/activity: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee
4. Conference/activity dates: 24-30 July 2018
5. Specific role at conference/activity: Participant
6. How did your attendance accelerate USNA’s mission to graduate leaders, enhance the importance and value of ethical leadership for USNA key influencers, and strengthen your personal ability to model ethical leadership at USNA?
My attendance is relevant to the mission of the United States Naval Academy to graduate leaders. As a military officer and leader, it is important to understand and appreciated the diversity among the group. In the current political climate, it is important to understand why racism in America continues to be an issue and why movements like BLM exist. It is also important to understand why there is so much discussion regarding voter ID laws, particularly in the South and also in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act. When one can understand the great sacrifices that were made in the pursuit of the vote, it makes a lot more sense.
7. How did this experience fit into your long-term goals and objectives?
My long-term goals are to become a better person and a better leader. This experience gave me a reminder that Americans only get better when they face their shortcomings. The South, during Jim Crow, was stuck in a static mindset and could not become better until the white leadership was forced to confront the injustices they had been (and in some cases still are) perpetuating.
Becoming a better person requires the ability to see issues and events with an objective eye. A good example of this is with the Civil War Memorials. My first reaction was that people on the left are trying to erase history. However, I learned that the majority of the statues (and the schools named after Confederate leadership), were created in the 1920s and again in the 1950s and that the real intent was to remind black Americans of “their place.” Understanding this creates a whole new context and it also answers my question of why two high schools that I know of in Jacksonville, FL (Stuart HS and Jefferson Davis HS) were opened after Brown and just happen to be more than 90% black.
8. What personal learning objectives did you achieve as a result of your attendance and participation?
I wanted to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement. I figured, going into this, that there was more to it that what is taught in public schools. I was right. Moreover, my maternal grandmother grew up near San Antonio and still stalks about the oppression she faced as a Mexican (she had to drink from the “colored” fountain, go to a different school, ride in the back of the bus, etc.). I found my grandmother’s story interesting because we are only taught that black Americans were impacted by Jim Crow when in actuality, I would have been impacted if I were living in the South during that era. In fact, I would not have been allowed to vote because being of half-Mexican descent would have made me “colored” as well.
9. Briefly describe how you intend to implement what you gained from this conference/activity?
I am in the process of deciding how to include this trip into my class. I am certain I will employ some of this in my lessons on Perception & Bias (I’ll make my students take Harvard’s Implicit Association Test, which is useful in making people understand they are biased) and Resilience (the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement embodied Resilience and grit).
10. How will you evaluate these outcomes?
My plan, for Perception & Bias, is to have my students tell me about their IAT results in a journal entry.
11. Please provide a statement on the value of this experience for current and potential donors/stakeholders of:
a.) the value of Stockdale Center’s influence-the-influencer initiative
I think this trip would be a great opportunity to influence the MIDN by making them understand and empathize with others.
b.) the value of this specific conference/activity.
I understand that this trip was the dry-run for a potential MIDN experiential leadership cruise, similar to what we have been doing with NOLS. This trip is a good opportunity to immerse the MIDN in the history of long struggle for equality.
12. Why (or why not) would you recommend this experience for other USNA key influencers?
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