Gandhi, Mississippi Burning, and Malcolm X

We finished Mississippi Burning and discussed the Civil Rights movement. This movie, while having excellent action, did not really give you an overview of the whole movement. This movie was based on the murder of three civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. A link to the complete story is below:

http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/spring00humanrights/chaney.html

In our Civil Rights Trio, traced the origin of the philosophy of passive nonresistance as used by Gandhi to help free India from British colonization. This philosophy, satyagraha, was used by Martin Luther King to organize boycotts and demonstrations that were instrumental in the American Civil Rights movement. The work of Gandhi inspired movements all over the world, from Africa, to Ireland, and the United States. However, there came a point in the American movement where nonviolence was not accepted by everyone. This point is generally considered to be 1965, where the Civil Rights movement splits into a violent direction.

The following link is footage of the Watts riots in Los Angeles. Damage occurring during these riots exceeded 200 million dollars.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&q=watts+riots&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Because of racial tensions, violence in cities, and Klan violence in response to voter registration drives in the South, many people rejected the idea of peaceful noncooperation as promoted by Martin Luther King. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Riders, and SNCC/CORE/COFO campaigns had not cured the system, and many people expected race riots.

A year later, in 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. This group used grass-roots organizing techniques and paramilitary features to organize blacks in the event that race relations continued to break down.

http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1966/10/15.htm

Malcom X began his reformation through the Nation of Islam, also a black separatist group. Throughout his life, he crusaded for separation of blacks and whites. After his hajj to Mecca, his philosophy changed abruptly. We have discussed this and will continue to discuss this philosophy.



Read more on the following issues and people:

Marcus Garvey:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm

W.E.B. Dubois:
http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html

SNCC/CORE/COFO:
http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/
http://www.core-online.org/History/history.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C004391F/cofo.htm

Critical Questions:
1. How did Gandhi influence Civil Rights and decolonization throughout the world?
2. What two philosophies about Civil Rights existed in America post 1965? Which organizations and people aligned with non-violent philosophies, and which aligned with philosophies that permitted militarism and violence?
3. How did the evolution in Malcolm X's thinking about Civil Rights affect the United States? Explain his thinking about Islam both before and after his hajj?
4. What role did the student organizations play in Civil Rights? How prepared for the situation were these students? What actions did they take to help others secure rights?
5. Explain how the role of women in the Civil Rights movement affected the women's rights movements of the 1970's.

Civil Rights

We will discuss how Gandhi's freedom movement affected people in the United States by watching Mississippi Burning and Malcolm X. You will be asked to compare and contrast the movies and to decide which one better represents the issue in your mind.

After watching Mississippi Burning, you will research one person, issue, or organization pertaining to Civil Rights. You will hand in your research or present it to the class.

After Malcolm X, we will discuss the two branches of resistance that emerge in the mid to late 60s in response to the Vietnam War, riots, and the delay of civil rights. We will discuss Malcolm X's role in this resistance and watch how his philosophies change over time. We will then take a look at groups that promote peace as well as separatist groups.

For those of you looking to get ahead, research the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a hatewatch group. They keep track of hate in the United States, expose it where possible, and lend legal services to those affected by hate crimes.

Gandhi projects

Of the Gandhi projects that were presented, most of them were good. Our presentations are moving in the right direction--facts, backed up, with notecards used. There were a few papers, that were also good.

We will be moving toward Civil Rights in the United States...