Civil Rights Seminar Sources

Instead of a test for this Unit, we will be having a large group Seminar during Live
Class during Week 13 (Wednesday, April 10). Attendance is mandatory. If you are
going to miss the Seminar, you must email Mr. Gilbert immediately and get a
make-up assignment.

Use the following Sources to help you complete your planning doc.
- As you examine each source, try to think of ideas, questions, or
quotes to bring to the Seminar.
- Complete your Planning Doc using the sources provided and
your textbook by Seminar Day.
- You will be responsible for bringing at least three thoughts or
questions about each of the movements discussed to the
Seminar.

What’s our purpose?

● To participate in a thoughtful discussion on topics, issues and connections based on
Historical themes and concepts, more specifically on the topic of Civil Rights
Movements.
● Every student will speak at least twice (minimum expectation). To earn more points,
students will be able to speak more, tap out and take turns speaking, and respond in
their notebooks during the discussion. This is a student led discussion.
● Points will also be earned through preparation before the discussion, active participation,
and speaking/discussing/writing.
● There will be teacher-posed questions and questions that students bring to the
discussion. You should review and spend some time thinking about the questions that
are most interesting to you.
Note: This is not a debate.
 Desegregation and Civil Rights Sources
Source A

Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent
demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in longhand the letter
which follows. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight
white religious leaders of the South.

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement
calling our present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer
criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my
secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for
constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are
sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and
reasonable terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been
influenced by the argument of "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern
state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all
across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Whenever
necessary and possible, we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates.
Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a
nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and
when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of
my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties
here.
Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century
prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries
of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the
gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am
compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must
constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot
sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who
lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.
You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am
sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the
demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial
social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would
not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in
Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate
that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.
 Source B
Martin Luther King, Jr. “A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area
of Race Relations” (Address at a Freedom Rally)
…There are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of
progress in the area of race relations. And the first attitude that can be taken is that of
extreme optimism. Now the extreme optimist would argue that we have come a long,
long way in the area of race relations. He would point proudly to the marvelous strides
that have been made in the area of civil rights over the last few decades. From this he
would conclude that the problem is just about solved and that we can sit comfortably by
the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.
The second attitude that one can take toward the question of progress in the
area of race relations is that of extreme pessimism. The extreme pessimist would argue
that we have made only minor strides in the area of race relations. He would argue that
the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent that we hear from the Southland
today is indicative of the fact that we have created more problems than we have solved.
He would say that we are retrogressing instead of progressing. He might even turn to
the realms of an orthodox theology and argue that hovering over every man is the tragic
taint of original sin and that at bottom human nature cannot be changed. He might even
turn to the realms of modern psychology and seek to show the determinative effects of
habit structures and the inflexibility of certain attitudes that once become molded in
one's being. (Yes) From all of this he would conclude that there can be no progress in
the area of race relations. (Alright, Alright)
Now you will notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at
least one thing in common: they both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the
area of race relations. (Yes) The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration
is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible.
But there is a third position that is another attitude that can be taken, and it is what I
would like to call the realistic position. The realist in the area of race relations seeks to
reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both. (Yeah) So the
realist would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way. But, he would
go on to balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to
go. (Amen) And it is this basic theme that I would like to set forth this evening. We have
come a long, long way (Yes) but we have a long, long way to go. (Amen)
 Black Power Movement Sources
Source A
Malcolm X Speech: “The Black Revolution” (June, 1963)
In June, 1963, the revolutionary Black nationalist Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)
gave a powerful speech directed to a predominantly African American audience in
Detroit. Entitled “The Black Revolution”, which focused on different forms of revolution.
This was almost two years before the United States widened its military presence in
Vietnam and Southeast Asia and also before Malcolm's historic 1964 trip to Mecca and
Africa. Later, on his return to the United States, Malcolm began to develop a worldwide
class view toward racism and imperialism, but he was assassinated in 1965.

…God wants us to separate ourselves from this wicked white race here in
America because this American House of Bondage is number one on God's list for
divine destruction today… He warns us to remember Noah never taught integration,
Noah taught separation; Moses never taught integration, Moses taught separation. The
innocent must always be given a chance to separate themselves from the guilty before
the guilty are executed. No one is more innocent than the poor, blind American so-called
Negro who has been led astray by blind Negro leaders, and no one on earth is more
guilty than the blue-eyed white man who has used his control and influence over the
Negro leader to lead the rest of our people astray…
America herself is now facing her day of judgment, and she can't escape
because God Himself is the judge. If America can't atone for the crimes she has
committed against the twenty million so-called Negroes, if she can't undo the evils that
she has brutally and mercilessly heaped upon our people these past four hundred
years…America has signed her own doom. And you, our people, would be foolish to
accept her deceitful offers of integration at this late date into her doomed society.
Can America escape? Can America atone? And if so how can she atone for
these crimes? In my conclusion I must point out that… a desegregated theater; a
desegregated lunch counter won't solve our problem. Better jobs won't even solve our
problems. An integrated cup of coffee isn't sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave
labor. He also says that a better job, a better job in the white man's factory, or a better
job in the white man's business, or a better job in the white man's industry or economy
is, at best, only a temporary solution…the only lasting and permanent solution is
complete separation on some land that we can call our own. Therefore, this problem
can be solved and solved forever just by sending our people back to our own homeland
or back to our own people, but that this government should provide the transportation
plus everything else we need to get started again in our own country. This government
should give us everything we need in the form of machinery, material, and finance-
enough to last for twenty to twenty-five years until we can become an independent
people and an independent nation in our own land… if the American government is
afraid to send us back to our own country and to our own people, then America should
set aside some separated territory right here in the Western hemisphere where the two
races can live apart from each other, since we certainly don't get along peacefully while
we are together.
… The size of the territory can be judged according to our population. If a
seventh of the population of this country is black, then give us a seventh of the territory,
a seventh part of the country. And that is not asking too much because we already
worked for the man for four hundred years.
…it must not be in the desert, but where there is plenty of rain and much mineral
wealth. We want fertile, productive land on which we can farm and provide our own
people with food, clothing, and shelter.
... And in my conclusion I repeat: We want no part of integration with this wicked
race of devils. But… we should not be expected to leave America empty-handed. After
four hundred years of slave labor, we have some back pay coming; a bill that is owed to
us and must be collected. If the government of America truly repents of its sins against
our people and atones by giving us our true share of the land and the wealth, then
America can save herself. But if America waits for God to step in and force her to make
a just settlement, God will take this entire continent away from the white man. And the
Bible says that God can then give the kingdom to whomsoever he pleases. I thank you.
 Source B
Black Liberation Front Newsletter
 Women’s Rights Sources

Source A
No More Miss America!
The 1968 Miss America Pageant was the scene of one of the first public protests by a women's
liberation group. In 1968 a group of feminists went to Atlantic City to protest the Miss America
pageant. They originally intended to burn symbols of oppression in a "Freedom Trashcan" but
were unable to secure a fire permit. The objects were simply deposited in the trashcan instead.
Several members of the group managed to display a large protest banner inside the pageant.

On September 7th in Atlantic City, the Annual Miss America Pageant will again
crown "your ideal." But this year, reality will liberate the contest auction-block in the
guise of "genyooine" de-plasticized, breathing women. Women's Liberation Groups,
black women, high-school and college women, women’s peace groups, women's
welfare and social-work groups, women's job-equality groups, pro-birth control and pro-
abortion groups - women of every political persuasion - all are invited to join us in a day-
long boardwalk-theater event, starting at 1:00 p.m. on the Boardwalk in front of Atlantic
City's Convention Hall. We will protest the image of Miss America, an image that
oppresses women in every area in which it purports to represent us.
There will be: Picket Lines; Guerrilla Theater; Leafleting; Lobbying Visits to the
contestants urging our sisters to reject the Pageant Farce and join us; a huge Freedom
Trash Can (into which we will throw bras, girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, wigs, and
representative issues of Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home ]ournal, Family Circle, etc.- bring
any such woman-garbage you have around the house); we will also announce a Boycott
of all those commercial products related to the Pageant, and the day will end with a
Women's Liberation rally at midnight when Miss America is crowned on live television.
Lots of other surprises are being planned (come and add your own!) but we do not plan
heavy disruptive tactics and so do not expect a bad police scene. It should be a groovy
day on the Boardwalk in the sun with our sisters. In case of arrests, however, we plan to
reject all male authority and demand to be busted by policewomen only. (In Atlantic City,
women cops are not permitted to make arrests- dig that!)
Male chauvinist-reactionaries on this issue had best stay away, nor are male
liberals welcome in the demonstrations. But sympathetic men can donate money as well
as cars and drivers.
Male reporters will be refused interviews. We reject patronizing reportage. Only
newswomen will be recognized.

THE TEN POINTS WE PROTEST:

1. The Degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol.
The Pageant contestants epitomize the roles we are all forced to play as women.
The parade down the runway blares the metaphor of the 4-H Club county fair,
where the nervous animals are judged for teeth, fleece, etc., and where the best
"Specimen" gets the blue ribbon. So are women in our society forced daily to
compete for male approval, enslaved by ludicrous "beauty" standards we
ourselves are conditioned to take seriously.
2. Racism with Roses.
Since its inception in 1921, the Pageant has not had one Black finalist, and this
has not been for a lack of test-case contestants. There has never been a Puerto
Rican, Alaskan, Hawaiian, or Mexican-American winner. Nor has there ever been
a true Miss America - an American Indian.
3. Miss America as Military Death Mascot.
The highlight of her reign each year is a cheerleader-tour of American troops
abroad- last year she went to Vietnam to pep-talk our husbands, fathers, sons
and boyfriends into dying and killing with a better spirit. She personifies the
"unstained patriotic American womanhood our boys are fighting for." The Living
Bra and the Dead Soldier. We refuse to be used as Mascots for Murder.
4. The Consumer Con-Game.
Miss America is a walking commercial for the Pageant's sponsors. Wind her up
and she plugs your product on promotion tours and TV-all in an "honest,
objective" endorsement. What a shill.
5. Competition Rigged and Unrigged.
We deplore the encouragement of an American myth that oppresses men as well
as women: the win-or-you’re-worthless competitive disease. The "beauty contest"
creates only one winner to be "used" and forty-nine losers who are "useless."
6. The Woman as Pop Culture Obsolescent Theme.
Spindle, mutilate, and then discard tomorrow. What is so ignored as last year's
Miss America? This only reflects the gospel of our Society, according to Saint
Male: women must be young, juicy, malleable-hence age discrimination and the
cult of youth. And we women are brainwashed into believing this ourselves!
7. The Unbeatable Madonna-Whore Combination.
Miss America and Playboy's centerfold are sisters over the skin. To win approval,
we must be both sexy and wholesome, delicate but able to cope, demure yet
titillatingly b----y. Deviation of any sort brings, we are told, disaster: "You won't get
a man!!"
8. The Irrelevant Crown on the Throne of Mediocrity.
Miss America represents what women are supposed to be: inoffensive, bland,
apolitical. If you are tall, short, over or under what weight The Man prescribes
you should be, forget it. Personality, articulateness, intelligence, and
 commitment- unwise. Conformity is the key to the crown - and, by extension, to
success in our Society.
9. Miss America as Dream Equivalent To - ?
In this reputedly democratic society, where every little boy supposedly can grow
up to be President, what can every little girl hope to grow to be? Miss America.
That's where it's at. Real power to control our own lives is restricted to men, while
women get patronizing pseudo-power, an ermine clock and a bunch of flowers;
men are judged by their actions, women by appearance.
10. Miss America as Big Sister Watching You.
The pageant exercises Thought Control, attempts to sear the Image onto our
minds, to further make women oppressed and men oppressors; to enslave us all
the more in high-heeled, low-status roles; to inculcate false values in young girls;
women as beasts of buying; to seduce us to ourselves before our own
oppression.

NO MORE MISS AMERICA

 American Indian Movement Sources

Source A
An excerpt from an interview with Earl Livermore about the Indians of All Tribes
(IOAT) occupation of Alcatraz, 1970.
In this interview, Earl Livermore discusses the IOAT occupation of Alcatraz Island in the
San Francisco Bay, which lasted from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, when it was
forcibly ended by the US government.

I am going to try to be as brief as possible, primarily, because before I came here

I thought perhaps, I had a little bit more time. It seems they have assigned the Indians
one hour capiece between three people so, I'll have to go as rapidly as possible to tell
you a little bit about the inhabitants on the Island of Alcatraz. The occupation of Alcatraz
is brought on, not only by dry tension, there are many problems forcing the American
Indians both on and off their reservation. But to offer them a culture and educational
complex on the island which has been declared surplus property prior to the occupation,
one of these things that brought about the idea of Alcatraz is the fact that the American
Indians have been so run down.
At that time I was director of the Indian Center and we had a number of
gatherings in which the students came upon the idea of occupying Alcatraz, and
primarily, because it was occupied at one time in '63 by the students. This was under a
of surplus property. One of the first things that we did was to draw up a proclamation of
what should be made of Alcatraz. The things that were finally decided upon were: A
center for Native American Studies, and an Indian Spiritual Center, an Indian Canter of
Ecology and an American Indian Museum and I think that I'll read briefly the
proclamation.
The Proclamation states, "To the Great White Father and all his people: We, the
Native Americans, reclaim this land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all
American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings
with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land and hereby offer the following treaty: We will
purchase said Alcatraz Island for $24 in glass beads, a precedent set by White Man's
purchase of a single island about three hundred years ago.
We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid for
which Manhattan Island was sold. But we know that land values has risen up over the
years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is greater than the 47 cents per acre that whiteman
are now paying the California Indians for their land. We will give the inhabitants of this
land a portion of the land for their own to be held in trust by the American Indian Affairs
and by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs.
 "In perpetuity, for as long as the sun shall rise,and the rivers go down to the sea,
we will further guide the youth inhabitants of the proper way of living. We will offer them
our religion, our education, our right ways, in order to help them to achieve our level of
civilization, and thus with them and all their white brothers help them to establish a
happy state. And: so this treaty, in good faith, in which to be fair and honorable in our
dealings with all white man."
 LGBTQ Rights Sources

Source A
Sylvia Rivera, speech to the Latino Gay Men of New York, June 2001. Reprinted in Centro
Journal, Spring 2007.
Born and raised in New York City, Sylvia Rivera participated in the Stonewall Riots as a
teenager. Throughout her life, she fought for equal rights for LGBT people. This is an excerpt of
a speech she gave at a meeting of the Latino Gay Men of New York, a community organization.

We were all involved in different struggles, including myself and many other
transgender people. But in these struggles, in the civil rights movement, in the war
movement, in the women’s movement, we were still outcasts. The only reason they
tolerated the transgender community in some of these movements was because we
were gung-ho. . . . We had nothing to lose. . . .
We were all in the bar, having a good time. Lights flashed on, we knew what was
coming; it’s a raid. . . . The routine was that the cops get their payoff, they confiscate the
liquor . . . a padlock would go on the door. What we did, back then, was disappear to a
coffee shop or any place in the neighborhood for fifteen minutes. You come back, the
Mafia was there cutting the padlock off, bringing in more liquor, and back to business as
usual. . . .
The confrontation started outside by throwing change at the police. We started
with the pennies, the nickels, the quarters, and the dimes. “Here’s your payoff, you
pigs!” . . .
Once word of mouth got around that the Stonewall had gotten raided, and that
there’s a confrontation going on, people came from the clubs. But we have to remember
one thing: that it was not just the gay community and the street queens that really
escalated this riot; it was also the help of the many radical straight men and women that
lived in the Village at that time, that knew the struggle of the gay community and the
trans community. . . .
So then the tactical police force came and heads were being bashed left and
right. But what I found very impressive that evening, was that the more that they beat
us, the more we went back for. We were determined that evening that we were going to
be a liberated, free community.
 Source B
Dick Leitsch, “The Stonewall Riots: The Gay View," from the Mattachine Society
of New York Newsletter, August 1969.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Dick Leitsch, a founder of the Mattachine
Society of New York, an early gay rights organization. Leitsch wasn’t present at the
Stonewall Inn when the riot began, but he came to the scene when he heard a report of
the conflict on the radio.

Coming on the heels of the raids of the Snake Pit and the Sewer, and the closing
of . . . other clubs, the Stonewall raid looked to many like part of an effort to close all gay
bars and clubs in the Village. . . . Since 1965 the homosexual community of New York
has been treated quite well by the City Administration. . . . Now we've walked in the
open and know how pleasant it is to have self-respect and to be treated as citizens and
human beings. . . . Efforts to force us back in the closet could be disastrous for all
concerned.
The above, while a true evaluation of the situation, does not explain why the raid
on the Stonewall caused such a strong reaction. . . . The answer lies, we believe, in the
unique nature of the Stonewall. This club was more than a dance bar, more than just a
gay gathering place. It catered largely to a group of people who are not welcome in, or
cannot afford, other places of homosexual social gathering. The “drags” and the
“queens,” two groups which would find a chilly reception or a barred door at most of the
other gay bars and clubs, formed the "regulars" at the Stonewall. To a large extent, the
club was for them. . . .
Another group was even more dependent on the Stonewall: the very young
homosexuals and those with no other homes. . . . There are hundreds of young
homosexuals in New York who literally have no home. . . . They live in the streets,
panhandling or shoplifting for the price of admission to the Stonewall. That was the one
advantage to the place—for $3.00 admission, one could stay inside, out of the winter's
cold or the summer heat, all night long. . . . The Stonewall became “home” to these kids.
When it was raided, they fought for it. That, and the fact that they had nothing to lose
other than the most tolerant and broadminded gay place in town, explains why the
Stonewall riots were begun, led and spearheaded by “queens.”