The Civil Rights Trail: Selma & Voting Rights

After departing from the sugar-white sands of the Alabama gulf coast, our next stop was the town of Selma, AL.

Selma was the recent topic of a major motion picture by the same name. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I definitely recommend it! It's out on DVD now. We actually just watched it last night. It's pretty powerful. It tells the story of how people advocated for the right to vote in the 60s, a time when African-Americans had the Constitutional right to vote but were effectively barred from registering due to oppressive and racist policies and procedures. For example, if a black person tried to register to vote, they'd have to pay a poll tax or pass a (purposely impossible) literacy test. In the movie, one character is asked to name all 67 county judges in Alabama, and when she can't, her voter registration application is denied.

Civil Rights leaders strategically chose Selma as the site of protest because there was a defined goal (registering to vote) and a defined opponent (the town sheriff). When they started, less than 2% of blacks in Selma were registered to vote, and in a neighboring county, where the blacks made up almost 50% of the population, there were a total of 0 registered to vote. Zero. That shocked me!!

The point of marching from Selma to Montgomery was to raise awareness about the issue of voter registration and demand legislation that would end discrimination in the registration and voting process in Alabama. (When African-Americans had no voice in electing their public officials, it was no surprise that those officials didn't represent their interests. Also, black people couldn't serve on a jury because jury pools were pulled from the voter rolls.) As you probably know, the peaceful march was initially met with a violent response from local law enforcement. Eventually the march did happen and it achieved its desired result! The Voting Rights Act was passed a few months later.

On our trip, we visited this great little interpretive center along the road before actually arriving in Selma. We saw the churches where the activists gathered, the streets they walked, the bridge they crossed, and drove the highway they eventually marched on all the way to Montgomery.

Selma itself is a fairly small town, and we just spent a couple hours there since there wasn't really too much to do. I'm glad we were able to witness this important historical location, though!

If you'll allow me a slight political rant now, I was dismayed that the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the VRA as unconstitutional in 2013. I would summarize the justices' opinion, briefly, as "it's been 50 years and the law worked. We don't have that bad of discrimination anymore, so this law is now an overreach of power by the federal government." Um, what??? Maybe we weren't seeing evidence of severe discrimination anymore because the law was in place and working!! If I had been a person who marched over that bridge and got beaten up in the name of voting rights, I think I would have felt like I was getting whacked upside the head all over again when I heard that decision come down from the Court.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, several states moved quickly to enact more restrictive voter laws, including photo ID requirements, a reduction of early voting times, and more. If the VRA were still in effect, these changes would have gone through a review process to ensure that they didn't unnecessarily disenfranchise minorities. But now, there is no oversight, and I'm not sure who is protecting minority rights.

Now lest this all be doom and gloom, let me give a shout-out to my home state of Oregon, which recently announced that citizens in the state will be registered to vote automatically as part of the driver's licensing process, with an opt-out process available if someone doesn't want to be registered. Way to increase the voter rolls, Oregon! The "discrimination watcher" in me feels compelled to point out that not everyone has a driver's license, though, so I hope they have other systems in place to keep actively registering those people as well. All elections in Oregon are conducted by mail, so I think that's also a good way to increase participation - since people can vote on their own time and don't have to appear in person at a polling place.

Chapter 3: Montgomery will be coming next!

The Civil Rights Trail: Birmingham

Every year for our anniversary, DF and I like to take a trip together to celebrate. (We're more into experiences than actual gifts.) Usually we go somewhere a little farther away, but given my current status we decided to do a road trip and stay relatively close to home. We visited several spots around Alabama on what I'd say was our most educational vacation yet!

We spent a relaxing week down at Orange Beach, AL. Since school wasn't out yet, the town was quite tranquil. I hear the whole Gulf Shores area becomes a madhouse in the summer. Guess we picked the right time to go!

While I enjoyed being on the beach, I'd say the more memorable parts of the trip were the two weekends that we spent taking in the key spots of the Civil Rights Trail. Alabama was one of the major settings where the Civil Rights movement took shape. Clashes over changing ideas even turned violent there. Important historical sites have been preserved, and now visitors are invited in to remember what happened, I believe with the hope that we'll all keep the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement alive today (rather than relegating it to a back-patting-look-how-far-we've-come corner of a museum).

Since we've been living in Memphis, I've been trying to educate myself more about this era of our nation's history - it's not something I remember learning a whole lot about in school. Or maybe I did, but as a kid it didn't seem as real to me as Lewis & Clark and hardtack and wagons and all that Oregon history we learned about on field trips.

First Stop: Birmingham

Birmingham in the late 50s-early 60s became known as "Bomingham" because of the frequency with which bombs went off around the city, targeting African Americans or whites who supported them. The city had an intense KKK presence and was extremely segregated. The most infamous incident was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church one Sunday morning, in which 4 girls were killed during Sunday School. It shocked the nation. But no one was caught or prosecuted for the crime until more than a decade later. 

We attended this church on Sunday morning and it was a unique and memorable experience. It was Mother's Day. The pastor's sermon was taken from the story in Exodus of Moses's mother hiding her infant son from the authorities who sought to kill him, then setting him in a basket in the river. It totally reminded me of what I learned in Central America about liberation theology. In this sermon, Moses's mother becomes the example for all mothers, especially African-American mothers, in that she did not accept what society told her about her son. Egyptian society told her that her child was not important-in fact, that he should die. She subverted that paradigm and instead accepted what God told her about her child, that his life mattered. Then she acted with faith, believing God's promises. The pastor related his own personal story of growing up in a poor family, in a high-crime area, and his mother was told he would be in jail or dead by the time he was 25. The pastor (who is well over age 25) testified that God had other plans for his life, and he was not held to those negative ideas that society wanted to perpetuate.

It's hard to capture this experience fully in words. Suffice it to say, if you're ever in Birmingham on a Sunday morning, I recommend you visit this church! Don't be intimidated if you are not black. Yes, almost everyone at the church was black on the day we were there, but you know what? It's good for you (if you're a white person) to be the minority sometimes! Just be friendly and treat others like you'd want to be treated, and I'm sure you'll have a lovely time. We sure did!

We went to several other places around town, including the Civil Rights Institute and the site of the historical marker for MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail. If you've never read that letter or the story behind it, you should click on that link right now. Here's a summary: in April 1963, MLK and others were involved in several acts of non-violent protest against racism and segregation in the city. They were doing things like picketing, marching, sit-ins, etc. They were barred by a judge from demonstrating, but several people violated the ban and got arrested.

After this happened, a group of white religious leaders wrote an "open letter" to the protesters urging them to be patient, seek reforms through established channels, and basically stop causing a ruckus. It was published in the newspaper. MLK wrote an impassioned and eloquent response from his jail cell explaining that now was the time for action, as justice too long delayed is justice denied. This letter is credited as one of the most important documents of the Civil Rights Era as it crystallized the issues in the minds of those who perhaps were on the fence about where exactly they stood on the whole question of "justice for all."

I have lots more thoughts on all these issues, plus Selma and Montgomery to report about, but this post is long enough already. Stay tuned for more updates when I have time!

Pronunciation Practice

This past year, I've been teaching ESL once a week here in Memphis with an organization that works primarily with the Latino community. It's been a really great volunteer experience! I've taught ESL in lots of different venues before - it's nice to be back in the saddle again.

(Now I feel I should explain the idiom "back in the saddle" for any non-native English speaking readers...)

Last week was our final review session for the semester. I was going over vocabulary with my class in preparation for their upcoming exam. One of the words was "paint," which some of them couldn't remember how to say. So, I pronounced it clearly for them as "PAY-nt" (with a long "a" sound, sorry, can't really do phonetic symbols here). They tried to say it, but it didn't really sound right, so I again said "PAY-nt" and had them copy me. Then I thought, hmm, maybe the problem is that they are speaking with a Spanish+Memphis accent, and they don't understand my West Coast pronunciation!

In this part of the country, you'd pronounce "paint" differently. I think it's like "PIE-ent." It is certanly not a long "a" sound.

What's my duty as an ESL teacher living in the South? I can't adopt a drawl very effectively. I have mentioned "y'all," and "ma'am/sir" to them before. Probably the best I can do is try to teach some kind of generic English and let them pick up the local accent from native Memphians.

Hopefully I'm not confusing them too badly with my Pacific Northwest accent! And apparently exposure to a variety of American accents is part of the socio-cultural aspect of ESL instruction, so I've got that going for me.