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pre civil rights movement.....

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two-four-six-eight we want love no more hate non-violent protesting is [Woman protesting]

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one of many ways that groups of people can express their frustrations or

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discomfort with what's going on in the world around them one of the most

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effective and well known eras protest was the civil rights movement the era

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unlike the civil left's movement which was all about pencils and desk for South [Man scribbling on paper with a pen]

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paws the civil rights movement was a push from people who believed that

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everyone was entitled to basic human liberties you know stuff like voting and

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being able to sit wherever you want on a bus you may know a little something [Woman takes seat on a bus]

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something about the civil rights movement but do you know what happened

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to kick start it into motion well to be fair it wasn't just one thing that

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happened it was several decades of stuff so slavery was abolished done away with

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in 1865 with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US [13th Amendment appears]

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Constitution neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a

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punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall

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exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction

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woohoo party time everyone's free...Not so fast as soon as slavery was given the

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boot all of the former slaves immediately went into practicing law and

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medicine and wait that didn't happen in reality a lot of people particularly [Doctor appears with a patient]

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southerners weren't all that stoked that slavery had left the building and they

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took this out on former slaves in some seriously nasty ways they basically used

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scare tactics like the threat of being lynched or even burned alive to keep

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former slaves from owning properties becoming involved in government or even

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attempting to challenge segregation as it had been for years

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in the 1880s southern states came up with what are known as Jim Crow laws [Jim Crow laws meaning appears]

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which effectively kept segregation between black and white people in most

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every walk of life alive and thriving by the time 1900 rolled around 35 years

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after the 13th amendment went into effect, things were

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still really bad for african-americans about 90% of them

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still lived in the south where living conditions were the worst but things in

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the north weren't a whole heck of a lot better [African-american eating dinner in a poor home]

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northerners still treated african-americans as second-class

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citizens who didn't have any basic rights like voting and access to equal

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housing and employment opportunities the great migration of african-americans

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happened around the time World War one was getting hot and heavy huge numbers

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of former slaves rushed into the cities to take factory jobs opened up by white [Former slave appears at factory]

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men going off to the war when the war was over though African Americans were

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sent to the back of the bus once more so to speak World War two actually enacted

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some positive changes for racial relations in America Adolf Hitler's

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intense racism against the Jewish population to Germany and Europe

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resulted in roughly 6 million Jewish people being murdered during the Second [Jewish dead bodies appear]

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World War it doesn't get a whole lot worse than that

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Hitler was known around the world as the Time Magazine's most vile human being in

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existence and believe it or not his racist views weren't all that popular [Hitler telling jokes on a stage]

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this translated into civilised Americans also coming to terms with the idea that

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racism on the homefront wasn't such a good thing either in the 1940s through

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the 60s many formerly colonized African and Asian countries were gaining their [African and Asian woman walk out of their prison cell]

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independence this spurred African Americans into action in the US and got

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people thinking about what true freedom and independence might look like for all

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races in the nation the Cold War a non-violent war that was actually more

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of a competitive relationship between America and the former Soviet Union to

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have the most weapons be the first nation to walk on the moon etc also

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helped Americans become more accepting of minority races politicians understood

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that it would look better if America appeared to be racially tolerant America [Group of people chanting]

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would be able to get more nations on her side if she was a place of tolerance and

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acceptance yeah that is totally superficial but that's just kind of how

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politics works in 1954 the monumental Brown versus Board of Education case

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effectively desegregated American schools by law a previous case Plessy

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versus Ferguson had allowed segregation in schools based on the concept that the

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schools were separate but equal Shaw the court said when reviewing these facts [Judge appears]

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during Brown separate is not equal and this ruling

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is bunk the new ruling is that kids of all colors can go to the same schools [Judge bangs gavel]

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case closed we talked about this case as being

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monumental because it changed the way both white and black people in America

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thought about race after brown and all the way up through the late 1960s

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proponents for equal rights among races in America came together to protest [People protesting]

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injustice and challenge the current system of politics and social relations

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in the nation african-americans and white civil rights activists alike saw

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that major change could be possible and they began mobilizing

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in great numbers they fought for the right to vote equal access to public

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facilities like lunch counters water fountains and movie theaters equal [People walking into movie theater]

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opportunities in schools housing options and employment opportunities above all

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though the civil rights activists fought for freedom from discrimination based on

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a person's skin color while this notion seems simple in theory it's an issue

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that's still a huge deal today all people over the age of 18 may have the

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right to vote in America but the debate about whether or not rights are actually

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equal for everyone is still a hot item on many people's minds as you might [Man's head open and inequality appears on brain]

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imagine there are some super amazing literature music and art that came out

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of the civil rights era there's something about social unrest that seems

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to make people quite creative James Baldwin was an amazing figure associated

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with the civil rights he was an African American author who wrote poetry novels

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plays essays and more more importantly he was active in the civil rights [Baldwin protesting]

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movement in his own ways James Baldwin born in Harlem in 1924 was the grandson

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of a slave and the son of a single mom mom remarried a Baptist minister who

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helped teenage James get a job as a youth minister and a church he wasn't [Baldwin appears as a church minister]

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interested in pursuing a career in the church but James did say those three

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years in the pulpit I didn't realize it then that is what turned me into a

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writer really dealing with all that anguish and that despair and that beauty

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in high school James showed off his writing skills by publishing a whole [James writing a play]

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bunch of poems plays and short stories in the school's magazine his writing

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career didn't immediately take off though since James had to go right to

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work after graduation in order to help support his huge family while working [James appears at fast food restaurant window]

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for the US Army laying railroad tracks James tasted discrimination for real he

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was often not allowed to go into bars or restaurants with his coworkers yes because

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he was black he moved to Greenwich Village and landed a writing fellowship

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that allowed him to just write even though James was pursuing his passion

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life as a gay black man in the 1940s and 50s was not all that much fun he got hit [James walking with white man]

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with double discrimination everywhere he went

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James worked on getting some short stories and essays published before he

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won another fellowship and hightailed it off to Paris during his time in the city [James by the Eiffel Tower]

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of love James was able to view his personal history and that of African

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Americans in a different way since he was separated from it he said once I

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found myself on the other side of the ocean

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I see where I came from very clearly I am the grandson of a slave and I am a

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writer I must deal with both in 1953 James semi autobiography go tell it on [Go Tell it on the Mountain book appears]

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the mountain was published and people ate it up he wrote about the real

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struggle of growing up in Harlem in a way that no other author had done

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Baldwin won even more Awards that funded more writing projects like

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Giovanni's Room a story that focused on the topics of race and homosexuality in

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1955 when the book was published people were not used to reading about such [Person picks up book]

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topics and the book received mixed reviews James essay work also helped to

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secure him a spot as a notable name in the civil rights movement

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James writing in all forms gave him a powerful voice of protest and activism

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why don't we take a closer look at one of Baldwin's books Sonny's blues it's a

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really dark story but an important one that you're not likely to forget after [Person picks up Sonny's Blues book]

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reading it Sonny is a heroin addict from Harlem who gets busted for selling drugs

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and ends up doing time his older brother the narrator of the story reads about

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Sonny's arrests in the paper and feels bad but doesn't do anything about it [Sonny arrested on front of newspaper]

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the narrator loses his little girl and contacts Sonny who moves in with his

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brother and family Sonny is a gifted piano player and his brother credits his

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wild musician lifestyle and other musicians we're getting Sonny into [Sonny partying with musician]

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drugs in the first place which Sonny argues is ridiculous

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the two come to terms with each other and life when Sonny plays a show at a club

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and the narrator has an aha moment of getting what Sonny was telling him about

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life being tough and all... one of the things that makes this such an awesome

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story about race is that Baldwin never comes out and whacks us over the head [Hand with hammer whacks girl on the head]

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with it all of the major themes addiction family suffering have ties to

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race or racism Sonny admittedly feels out of control in his own life he doesn't

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have a lot of hope for a positive future as a young poor black man in Harlem and

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he turns to heroin it makes you feel in control sometimes you've got to have

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that feeling Sonny saw drugs as his only coping mechanism and it's not like he [Sonny with a syringe and man hands him a spoon]

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was alone lots of people in desperate situations

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find solace in using drugs and alcohol the way Baldwin writes about Sonny

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situation makes the reader understand that life for black people in 1950s

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Harlem is no picnic he personifies the setting of busted up housing projects

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and hopeless people showing us how segregation tears down the black [Page turns over from book]

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community we hit a hundred and tenth Street and started rolling up Lenox

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Avenue and I known this Avenue all my life but it seemed to me again as it had

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seemed on the day I'd first heard about Sonny's trouble filled with a hidden

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Menace which was its very breath of life yeah Harlem doesn't exactly sound

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inviting the racism becomes more blatant when the narrator's mother tells him the [Narrator and Mum appear together]

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story about how a car full of white men killed her brother her sadness and

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terror are obvious when she explains how her husband handled the situation till

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the day he died he weren't sure but that every white man he saw was the man that

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killed his brother boom this murder only perpetuated the existing culture of fear

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that African Americans in the early 1950s were living in and while Sonny's

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blues might be fictional work the parallels to real life are all too real

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this passage also connects family to the overarching concept of race there is a [Passage in novel appears]

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personal history of violence against the family by white people this cuts even

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deeper than the bigger picture of racism that happened against black people as an [Scissors cuts a picture of African-American family]

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entire race because of the incident with her brother-in-law the narrator's mom

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tells him you've got to hold on to your brother and don't let him fall no matter

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what it looks like is happening and no matter how evil you gets with him she

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might not come right out and say it but Ma expects the narrator to protect her

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baby Sonny from the evils white men cause because that's what mothers do [Mum appears with bright shining light behind her]

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the theme of suffering is tied back to race as well every single character in

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this story suffers in some way and a lot of it has to do with their race the

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narrator sees his young students suffering in the same way he and his

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brother did these boys now were living as we'd been living then they were

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growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling

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of their actual possibilities for young men in Harlem in the 50s there weren't a [Young men together in a street in Harlem]

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ton of options they were broke black and held down by society who didn't want

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them Sonny expresses not just his own suffering but is the voice of pain for

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many you don't know how much I needed to hear from you I wanted to write you many

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a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you us and so I didn't write but

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now I feel like a man who's been trying to climb out of some deep real deep and

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funky hole and just saw the sun up there outside I got to get outside it's a

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vicious cycle Sonny was suffering so he turned to drugs the drugs got him locked [Sonny running down a street and police car appears]

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up which caused his family grief and Sonny was too ashamed to get into touch with

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his family when he needed them the most seriously heavy stuff and Baldwin really [Baldwin typing at his desk]

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knew how to take real-life suffering and turn it into fiction while keeping the

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important essence of realism in place this was how he could be an activist

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just by evoking the power of words words can be weapons of change if you know how [Man holding dictionary protesting]

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to wield them properly and James Baldwin sure had the gift of word wielding at his

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fingertips with words no one has to get physically hurt though their effects can

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be even stronger than guns or knives or bazookas though the civil rights [Soldier fires bazooka]

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movement has changed we still see remnants of it in modern society as long

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as people feel oppressed by society there will be struggle and not that fun

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hey I think I might like you do you like me how do we do this kind of struggle

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though heartbreak is certainly no laughing matter [Man in bed crying]

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sorry just got dumped not everyone can handle a strong independent protester

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