Showing posts with label SNCC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SNCC. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What if the Greensboro Four Had Twitter?
The use of social media in support of Kelley Williams-Bolar recalls the spirit of the Greensboro sit-ins 51 years ago.
What if the Greensboro Four Had Twitter?
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
February 1st marks the anniversary of what I like to refer to as one of the greatest days in American History. On that day in 1960, four young Black men—Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond—all first year students at HBCU North Carolina A&T, sat at a Whites only lunch counter at a Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, N.C.
This protest—formally known as a sit-in—began weeks of similar protests, that went viral throughout the American South in ways that mirror the functions of today’s social media. The Greensboro sit-ins are widely remembered as the moment of activism that gave renewed energy and vigor to a Civil Rights Movement that was sputtering after the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Greensboro Four, of course, did not have access to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but nevertheless utilized what would have been the accessible technology of the days like land-lines and good-old fashion word of mouth. For those young folk, who would months after Greensboro, go on to create the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), under the watchful eye of Ella Jo Baker, understood technology, including television, as simply one of the tools they employed to make their case.
Civil Rights activists brilliantly exploited television cameras, helping to bring the marches in the streets straight into the living rooms of average Americans, whether they wanted to see it or not. Many activists from the era point to the role that televised footage of young Black Americans being hosed down and attacked by police dogs played in generating sympathy for a nation that had been largely indifferent.
The spirit of the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960s and the role that technology played during that time have been recalled in recent weeks with regards to the Georgia Prison Strike, the senseless conviction of Kelley Williams-Bolar, and the widespread protests taking place in Tunisia and Egypt.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21
What if the Greensboro Four Had Twitter?
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
February 1st marks the anniversary of what I like to refer to as one of the greatest days in American History. On that day in 1960, four young Black men—Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond—all first year students at HBCU North Carolina A&T, sat at a Whites only lunch counter at a Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, N.C.
This protest—formally known as a sit-in—began weeks of similar protests, that went viral throughout the American South in ways that mirror the functions of today’s social media. The Greensboro sit-ins are widely remembered as the moment of activism that gave renewed energy and vigor to a Civil Rights Movement that was sputtering after the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Greensboro Four, of course, did not have access to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but nevertheless utilized what would have been the accessible technology of the days like land-lines and good-old fashion word of mouth. For those young folk, who would months after Greensboro, go on to create the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), under the watchful eye of Ella Jo Baker, understood technology, including television, as simply one of the tools they employed to make their case.
Civil Rights activists brilliantly exploited television cameras, helping to bring the marches in the streets straight into the living rooms of average Americans, whether they wanted to see it or not. Many activists from the era point to the role that televised footage of young Black Americans being hosed down and attacked by police dogs played in generating sympathy for a nation that had been largely indifferent.
The spirit of the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960s and the role that technology played during that time have been recalled in recent weeks with regards to the Georgia Prison Strike, the senseless conviction of Kelley Williams-Bolar, and the widespread protests taking place in Tunisia and Egypt.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Voices of SNCC
WUNC
The State of Things w/Frank Stasio
Voices of SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded at Shaw University in April of 1960. Hoping to harness the enthusiasm and willpower of young people to end segregation, founders Ella Baker, James Lawson and Julian Bond organized protests and actions across the south. SNCC was vital to the impact of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This Wednesday through Sunday, SNCC celebrates its 50th anniversary with a conference at Shaw. "The State of Things" will broadcast live from the campus in Raleigh on Friday, April 16 with a panel of SNCC activists. But first, historians Seth Kotch, of the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke Distinguished Professor of History Bill Chafe join host Frank Stasio to listen to archival tape of Ella Baker and Julian Bond discussing SNCC's founding and its legacy.
Listen HERE
The State of Things w/Frank Stasio
Voices of SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded at Shaw University in April of 1960. Hoping to harness the enthusiasm and willpower of young people to end segregation, founders Ella Baker, James Lawson and Julian Bond organized protests and actions across the south. SNCC was vital to the impact of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This Wednesday through Sunday, SNCC celebrates its 50th anniversary with a conference at Shaw. "The State of Things" will broadcast live from the campus in Raleigh on Friday, April 16 with a panel of SNCC activists. But first, historians Seth Kotch, of the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke Distinguished Professor of History Bill Chafe join host Frank Stasio to listen to archival tape of Ella Baker and Julian Bond discussing SNCC's founding and its legacy.
Listen HERE
Monday, January 18, 2010
Ella Baker: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Duke University Professor William Chafe says Ella Baker nurtured the movement alongside Martin Luther King.
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