Tag Archive for ‘civil rights’

Harry Belafonte, Most Charming Revolutionary

Over the last twenty years, I occasionally shared the limelight with Harry Belafonte, in the early 1990s in particular, as the campaigns on behalf of Haitian refugees denied asylum in the United States and democracy in Haiti joined to tilt the Clinton Administration’s hand towards democracy and human rights in Haiti. Belafonte spoke with the wisdom of a man who had seen his share of injustice and faced them with the conviction that comes from a place deep within.

Ella Baker: A Political Organizer’s Organizer

Baker, born on December 13, 1903 died in New York City on December 13, 1986. During the Great Depression, she became involved with the Young Negroes Cooperative League. Afterwards, she joined the NAACP, but jumped at the chance of working with the SCLC at its inception. Baker was instrumental at helping to establish the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) — from which Congressman John Lewis emerged to become a leader –, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

What was her philosophy and from which principles did she draw strength from?

From Protest to Politics: the Future of the Civil Rights Movement

Bayard Rustin is most closely identified as the master strategist behind the successful 1963 March on Washington. A consummate behind-the-scenes civil and human rights campaigner, Mr. Rustin labored in the trenches, took part in marches, sit-ins and demonstrations and initially guided Rev. Martin Luther King’s first steps as the civil rights and political leader that he was to become.

VISA says: Alleluia, Amen, Black is Beautiful. Yikes!

Just as the United States was readying itself to celebrate the Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday and Barack Hussein Obama’s ascendance to the Presidency, VISA, the credit card company jumped on the bandwagon without missing a beat. With a full-page ad in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine, it introduced the “exclusive VISA Black Card.”

Martin Luther King: First Among Equals

Since that faithful day in 1955 when he stepped forward to speak on behalf of the clergy and lead the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King never ceased to inspire the struggle for civil and human rights in the United States and the rest of the world. He made many speeches in the 13 years that followed his arrival on the political scene, the most famous and remembered being “I have a dream,” the speech he made in August 1963 in Washington before what was then the largest crowd that had assembled to advocate for civil rights and equality for all

In Memoriam: Ira Gollobin, a Haitian Refugee’s Best Friend Since 1972

Ira Gollobin. I will say it again: IRA GOLLOBIN… I will spell it out for you: I-R-A G-O-L-L-O-B-I-N. Does the name ring a bell? If it does not, it should. And if you are among the people who today seek wisdom and guidance because you are trying to make sense of the world and its… Read More ›