Wishing for a leader? A new 'MLK'? Ordinary people can bring change...

[Sapphire Blue]

Ordinary people can bring change, activist says

February 24, 2006 | MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Prominent civil rights activist Diane Nash, whose leadership spurred the sit-in movement and helped create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the early 1960s, said yesterday the Civil Rights Movement left a legacy for today: Ordinary people can bring about social change.

"No one can solve today's problems but you and me," she told an audience at Troy University's Rosa Parks Museum. "History books mistakenly portray the Civil Rights Movement as Dr. Martin Luther King's movement. But it was a people's movement. Many thousands participated.

"If young people think of it as King's movement, they'll wish for a leader. But if they understand that it was ordinary people who did it, they can ask themselves 'What can I do?'," Nash said.

Known for her commitment and discipline, Nash was a leader among Nashville college students who became shock troops of the lunch counter sit-ins and were legendary in the early days of SNCC. After the original Freedom Riders of May 1961 were so bloodied in Birmingham they were encouraged to quit by several black leaders, it was Nash who sent a fresh wave down from Nashville and into Mississippi.

Continued @ http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=166

[mdmc]

1. good stuff!

:kick:

[H2O Man]

2. Nominated.

We need to bring out our own Martin potential, or else he died in vain.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. So true, H2O Man... and we all have that Martin potential!

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Ms. Nash is absolutely right

One of the gifts that America has brought the world is that occasional extraordinary ordinary man, such as Lincoln or Dr. King. It doesn't take a blue blood to lead. Elites are too often the problem rather than the solution.

Dr. King simply assumed leadership of a movement that was already there. The problem existed and demanded a solution.

Yesterday's injustice was segregation; today's is neoconservatism. Both are founded on the idea of some people are simply better than others and have either a natural or divine right to rule over the masses. That is anathema to the democratic spirit. If we resolve to fight this injustice a leader will rise. Like Dr. King, he will probably come from outside the political arena.

[Sapphire Blue]

5. You may be missing Ms. Nash's point...

Questions that I keep hearing... "Who's going to lead us?" "Where is our leader?" "Where is today's Martin Luther King?"

Ms. Nash's point was that if young people today think of the movement as Dr. King's movement, they will keep wishing for a leader; if they realize that the movement was made up of ordinary people, people like themselves, they will be inspired to do something themselves, rather than waiting around for someone else, waiting for a new MLK to emerge.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. No, I'm not missing that point

I am saying that the problem of injustice has generated a movement; a leader will rise from it.

It was not Dr. King's movement any more than it was Ms. Nash's or Rosa Parks'. The movement was there. Dr. King simply rose to speak for it and give it direction.

History will repeat itself. We needn't and shouldn't wait to be led to start marching. We know where we want to go. In time, someone who can speak for us and give direction will become the focal point of the movement for international justice, just as Dr. King became the focal point of the civil rights movement.

As Bob Dylan said: You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

[Sapphire Blue]

7. The problem is that many want that leader NOW.

There seems to be a sense of hopelessness that a new MLK hasn't yet emerged... and an unwillingness, or perhaps hesitance, to move forward w/o one. All it takes is one step. Then another. And another...

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I agree that is a problem

We shouldn't wait.

Let's state this as clearly as possible: The present US regime is a threat to democracy and must be removed from power as soon as possible.

That's a short term goal. It would be desirable to accomplish this through Constitutional means. For that, we will need a leader, or a small group of leaders, from the political realm. It looks like Conyers and Feingold are stepping up. However, they are very much following our lead. Feingold even seems a little reluctant at this stage to talk about impeachment, which is fine. He's right when he suggests an impeachment process will be divisive. Nevertheless, it is necessary if we want to preserve democratic institution from the full frontal assault it is getting from the neoconservatives.

On a long term goal, we need to make sure that economic production is used for the benefit of the masses, not just the elite who have legal title to it. We also need to make sure that production is done in such a way as to not be destructive. If those goals together require the altering or abolishing of an economic system based on private property, so be it.

Who will lead us? Don't wait to find out. Just start marching. The leader will emerge from the movement.

[Sapphire Blue]

9. Diane Nash and the Sit-Ins...

Diane Nash and the Sit-Ins

Diane Nash grew up in Chicago, Illinois, where she had only heard of the segregation in the South. Nash enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in the late 1950s, and for the first time she was denied rights she had always taken for granted. For example, in downtown Nashville, African Americans could buy things at Woolworth's and other stores, but were not allowed to eat at the lunch counter or get jobs in those same stores.

Frustrated by the legalized segregation she encountered, Nash attended nonviolent workshops led by civil rights leader James Lawson. The workshops, based on the teachings of Indian spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, were designed to teach people about peaceful methods of protesting segregation. Nash and other participants took turns role-playing and testing each another to ensure they could withstand violent white resistance without fighting back.

In February of 1960, Nash helped organize the Nashville Student Movement and Nashville's first sit-in. Inspired by a similar demonstration in North Carolina, Nash and a group of black and white students sat down together at an all-white lunch counter, asked for food, and refused to leave when they were denied service. The sit-ins marked an important shift in the Civil Rights movement -- the organization and mobilization of students. Over the next three months, hundreds of Nashville students participated in sit-ins throughout the city. Many of the students were arrested; some were also beaten. On May 10, 1960, Nash's confrontation with Mayor Ben West resulted in the desegregation of Nashville's lunch counters and began the desegregation of other public facilities.

Motivated by success, Nash helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick"). SNCC attracted students from across the country to attend nonviolent workshops and participate in demonstrations that put them on the frontlines of the Civil Rights movement.

Continued @ http://www.teachersdomain.org/9-12/soc/ush/civil/nash/

[OhioBlue]

10. kick

another great post. :)

[Sapphire Blue]

13. Thanks, OhioBlue!

:hi:

[OhioBlue]

16. sure!

another kick! :hi:

[upi402]

11. I can do all I can do. k/r

:hi:

[Sapphire Blue]

12. And that's what it takes!

:hi:

:toast:

[Sapphire Blue]

14. ...

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

15. Sunday kick

:kick: