Black History
Times change, but the objective of the demonstrations shouldn’t
THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES — Civil Rights Movement tactics may change, but the objectives shouldn’t.
By Ameera Steward
Civil Rights Movement tactics may change, but the objectives shouldn’t, said Doris Gary, 85, who participated in the marches of the 1960s and lived in Collegeville when the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth was pastor of historic Bethel Baptist Church.

[/media-credit] Doris Gary participated in the marches in the ’60s and lived in Collegeville when the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth was pastor of historic Bethel Baptist Church.
“We’ve got so many people now that have so many different opinions about how things should be. We need to come together and be on one accord,” said Gary, who was a member of Shuttlesworth’s Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.
“Now, you’ve got demonstrations all over the world, but they’ve got different issues. Ours was a collective effort to end segregation, and that’s what we accomplished at that time. New laws were passed.”
Iva Williams, 49, vice president of the Outcast Voter’s League, said he sees a younger generation that’s “fed up” but in a different way than in the past.
“Millennials have a different outlook,” he said. “It’s a different level of fed up, I think. They just refuse to be held back, if you will. … That’s why it’s incumbent upon guys like myself and … other people … to provide them some boundaries. We have to give them some things to think about. We have to hold them back because … these young people protest a lot differently.”
Some recent demonstrations have involved protests like the one Tuesday evening outside Hoover City Hall after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said a Hoover police officer took justifiable action in the shooting and killing of 21-year-old Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr. at the Riverchase Galleria mall on Thanksgiving night.
Protesters have also made visits to the home of Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato and the Montgomery neighborhood of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall; and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) after its board rescinded a decision to present the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, to renowned activist and Birmingham native Angela Davis, PhD—a decision the BCRI has since reversed.
The Rev. Arthur Price, 53, pastor of downtown Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, said the objective of protests remains to shine a light on injustices and inequity, so “the community at large might be able to see what this small segment of the population sees [and] to make sure they understand the blight that’s going on in the community.
Martez Files, a 27-year-old organizer for the Black Lives Matter movement and an African-American studies professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), said some often forget the goals of the marches, “why we were doing this in the first place,” he said, before Marshall announced his decision on the Bradford, Jr. shooting. “I know you get so caught up in, … ‘I gotta fight.’ ‘I gotta resist.’ ‘I gotta protest.’ ‘I gotta show up.’ … Then we lose [sight of] why we were doing it.”
“Hateful Acts”
In Birmingham 55 years ago, there was no doubt why the protesters marched.
“The enemy in 1963 was very obvious: [Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Theophilus “Bull” Connor] and the white establishment. They were the enemy, and they were very vocal and very pronounced in their determination to keep blacks in their place,” said the Rev. Dr. Christopher Hamlin, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in West Birmingham. “Now, the enemies … are not as well-known and obvious as they were in 1963. Those attitudes that were very obvious in 1963 may not be as obvious today, with the exception of the number of African-Americans that have been shot, killed, or gunned down by law enforcement officers.”
In addition to Bradford being shot and killed last year by a Hoover police officer, several other young black men have been killed under suspicious circumstances that generated national attention and outrage, including 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla.; 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot and killed in 2014 by a police officer in Ferguson, Miss.; 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed in 2014 by a law enforcement officer in Cleveland, Ohio; and 32-year-old Philando Castile, who was shot in front of his girlfriend and her daughter in 2016 after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, Minn.
“In terms of beatings or violence, … especially upon African-Americans, they did it then, and we see in some of these cases now that this stuff continues to happen today,” Hamlin said. “In many of these situations, it’s all … racism. Racism breeds, produces, stimulates hateful acts. So, if someone exhibits racism or is a racist, that can come out in multiple ways.
“If you’re a police officer, it could very well be mistreatment of blacks or Hispanics. If you’re a loan officer, it could be to give someone a harder time to try to secure a loan for a home or a car. If you’re a realtor, you might put up a lot of roadblocks if someone wants to move into a certain neighborhood. That stuff continues to happen, unfortunately.”

[/media-credit] Martez Files, a 27-year-old organizer for the Black Lives Matter Movement and an African-American studies professor at UAB.
Lessons Learned
Williams said the younger generation should be careful not to abandon all the principles of the past.
“Sometimes young people almost run away from anything that has been done in the past,” he said. “If our elders did a sit in at a lunch counter, [today’s young people] want to go in and take over the whole lunchroom. … It just seems like they want to take things a step further. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes that’s very dangerous because their wanting to take things a step further can sometimes challenge the law, and that’s something we are so intent on not doing. … We just want to exercise civil disobedience.”
Gary said there are lessons to be learned from what happened 55 years ago.
The Civil Rights Movement “accomplished what we wanted to accomplish,” she said.
“We were demonstrating against the injustice of segregation, and laws were passed during the times that we demonstrated. … They removed the [separate] water fountains. They removed the … ‘Colored’ and ‘White’ boards from the school buses. They integrated the school systems. [We] were able to get jobs. [We] were able to vote.”
This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023

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Black History
UC Berkeley Professor Wins World-Renowned Prize for Research on Women and U.S. Slavery
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley’s chancellor’s professor of history, recently won the prestigious Dan David Prize for her research that focuses on women and slavery. This global recognition for outstanding work in the study of the human past is given annually to up to nine recipients and recognizes emerging scholars whose work “illuminates the past in bold and creative ways.”

By Ivan Natividad
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley’s chancellor’s professor of history, recently won the prestigious Dan David Prize for her research that focuses on women and slavery.
This global recognition for outstanding work in the study of the human past is given annually to up to nine recipients and recognizes emerging scholars whose work “illuminates the past in bold and creative ways.”
“Our winners represent a new generation of historians,” said Ariel David, a Dan David Prize board member. “They are changing our understanding of the past by asking new questions, targeting under-researched topics and using innovative methods … they have already challenged how we think about history.”
Recognized for her 2019 book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South,” Jones-Rogers has researched the issues of gender and economics in American slavery for more than 15 years and also won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South” was published in 2019.
Each winner of the Dan David Prize receives $300,000 to support the scholar’s future endeavors. For Jones-Rogers, that funding will allow her to delve deeper into her new project, “Women of the Trade,” a book focused on European, West African and North American archives that depicts the British transatlantic slave trade through the eyes of women.
“This prize also means a great deal to me, personally,” Jones-Rogers said in an interview with Rutgers University, her alma mater. “I’m the descendant of enslaved people, the granddaughter of North Carolina sharecroppers, and the daughter of a single New Jersey mother. I’ve been very poor for most of my life. So, I never dreamed of being honored in this way. This prize is something my ancestors could never dream of. It feels wonderful.”
Alameda County
Niagara Movement Democratic Club Celebrates 50th Anniversary
The Niagara Movement Democratic Club (NMDC) celebrated their 50th Anniversary at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle on Saturday, March 18. The event raised funds for the newly created non-bipartisan Niagara Movement Foundation co-founded by lobbyist-author Virtual T. Murrell the Honorable Elihu Harris, former Oakland mayor, and founding members Sandra Simpson Fontaine, the Honorable Leo Bazile, Anita Williams, Geoffrey Pete and Robert L. Harris.

By Carla Thomas
The Niagara Movement Democratic Club (NMDC) celebrated their 50th Anniversary at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle on Saturday, March 18. The event raised funds for the newly created non-bipartisan Niagara Movement Foundation co-founded by lobbyist-author Virtual T. Murrell the Honorable Elihu Harris, former Oakland mayor, and founding members Sandra Simpson Fontaine, the Honorable Leo Bazile, Anita Williams, Geoffrey Pete and Robert L. Harris.
Bishop Grady L. Harris provided the invocation and the Honorable Donald R. White served as master of ceremonies. The Honorable Dezie Woods-Jones provided a posthumous tribute to Anita Williams, a founding member of the NMDC, whose memorial was held earlier in that day. Founding member of the NMDC Attorney Sandra Simpson-Fontaine also spoke of Anita Williams’ dedication and commitment. “She worked tirelessly to move our agenda forward,” said Simpson-Fontaine.
The event also celebrated the Honorable Willie L. Brown’s 89th birthday. Brown was unable to attend due to covid, but his daughter Susan Brown accepted an award for him. Brown’s daughter also led the audience in singing the Stevie Wonder version of “Happy Birthday.”
Celebrity guests included the legendary Black Panther Party leader, Bobby Seale and actor Richard Gant.

Mayor Sheng Thao congratulated Geoffrey Pete for his years of service as President of the Niagara Movement Democratic Club and as longtime business owner that deserves Oakland’s support. Photo by jonathanfitnessjones.
Virtual Murrell, founder and founding president of the NMDC, provided the organization’s rich history of advocacy, comradery and being a training ground for over a dozen elected officials. Murrell explained how he, in 1973, along with his friends Leo Bazile, AC Taylor and Johnnie S. Harrison formed the organization in honor of W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter’s “Niagara Movement” that began in 1905 to end racial discrimination, segregation and establish voting rights, and equal economic and educational opportunities for African Americans.
“You’re standing on the shoulders of those that came before you,” said Murrell, founder and founding president of the Niagara Movement Democratic Club. Murrell went on to explain that Black people were one-third of Oakland’s population, yet not one elected official of Oakland or Alameda County was Black. Murrell’s club made it their mission to encourage, support, and produce Black candidates to run for office. Their movement transformed the landscape of the city and county’s politics, resulting in the elected official representation of Black people in the region’s politics for the next 50 years. Out of the NMDC came political legends like Congresswoman Barbara Lee and the Honorable Elihu Harris, former mayor of Oakland. Harris joked that he trumped the Honorable Willie Brown by becoming a mayor first.
Historically, the NMDC was created at a time when political power and influence were wielded by conservative Republican William F. Knowland, publisher of the Oakland Tribune, and the former Senate Majority Leader. With the NMDC declaring political warfare on the status quo, the organization produced Oakland City Councilmembers; Wilson Riles Jr., Leo Bazile, and Dezie Woods-Jones, Elihu Harris, Mayor of Oakland and State Legislature, Alameda County Board of Supervisors; Mary King and Keith Carson, Alameda County Treasurer Don White, Oakland School Board representatives Sylvester Hodges, Alfreda Abbott, and Carol Tolbert, California Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Judge Magistrate Geoffrey Carter, BART Board member, Margaret Pryor, and Peralta Community College Trustee William “Bill” Riley.
In addition to the founder and co-founders, founding members of the NMDC included Shirley Douglass, Edmund Atkins, Art Scott, Irene Scott-Murrell, Anita Wiliams, Al Roger’s, Wilson Riles Jr., Edna Tidwell, Esther Tidwell, Walter Edwards, Sandra Simpson Fontaine, Beverly Brown Spelman, Joyce Wilkerson, Barbara Lee, Michael Penn, William “Bill” Riley, Geoffrey Carter, and Elihu Harris.
Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nate Miley commended the NMDC with a resolution from the Board of Supervisors, and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao presented a “Niagara Day” Resolution.
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