MELLANEOUS
By Mel Reeves
”This is the story of young people at great personal risk who set out to make a change, and they did not let anything stop them,” said Stanley Nelson, who wrote and directed the PBS documentary Freedom Riders that aired nationally last week. “I hope after people see this film they talk about the power we have as individuals in this country — the power to make change.”
Nelson is right: 50 years later, after a few hundred very courageous White and Black college students challenged and struck a successful blow against Jim Crow segregation, change is still needed. As much as conditions have changed, they are still the same in many ways. As an old preacher used to say, “Everything has changed, and nothing has changed.”
Unfortunately, some folks haven’t heard of the Freedom Riders and don’t know of their sacrifice and their role in helping open up a closed society. But for those who don’t know their history, what’s most important to know is that these young people were absolutely committed to ending this grave injustice.
For the uninformed, the young people used the tactic of nonviolence to confront the foolishness of segregation. About 300 White and Black young people literally and knowingly put their lives on the line. During one segment of the documentary, an exchange between a representative of the Attorney General’s office and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) student leader Diane Nash is revealed.
The government representative tried to discourage Nash by telling her how dangerous integrating bus facilities in the Deep South would be. Nash told him that their minds had been made up and that they were not going to turn back.
When the government official reiterated the danger, she said that the group had all signed their last will and testament. These young people, Black and White, had analyzed what was wrong and made the courageous decision to change it.
Today, unlike any time that I can remember, it has become more and more obvious that we live in a fundamentally unjust society. Racism still reigns, but right alongside it are economic, social and political injustices.
Banks are bailed out while homeowners are left to fend for themselves. Wall Street players have been allowed to steal with impunity. Prisons are filled with people of color for primarily minor crimes. Police are still getting away with brutalizing and sometimes killing citizens.
Multinational corporations are taking their jobs overseas while failing to pay their fair share of taxes.
Guantanamo Bay has been the scene of torture and violation of international law. Education for all is becoming less of a priority, and defense spending is out of control. The government fights two open wars and a few other covert wars while ignoring the call for aid and support by Arab nations seeking democracy and freedom.
We can no longer honestly pretend we don’t know what’s going on. There is no need to act as tortured as Cornel West, who has articulated on many occasions what needs to be done to bring about a just society. At some point, West and others who have correctly analyzed what needs to be done now have to have the intestinal fortitude to put into practice what they believe.
The Freedom Riders prove that there will always be a need for a committed cadre of men and women who are willing to put their lives and livelihood at risk for the rest of us. And, of course, the rest of us have to find some ways to support them.
Ultimately, we need to emulate the Freedom Riders and exercise the courage of our convictions.
Mel Reeves welcomes reader responses to mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
