It is the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This past year, I've been shocked at how little has been in the news about this anniversary. I have heard an occasional "shout-out" or someone acknowledged it more as a footnote rather than a major milestone. We often forget that the world we live in is the product of all those who came before.
One such person who helped bring this monumental achievement was Robert F. Kennedy. "Bobby" is often marginalized due to the popularity of his older brother and fallen president John F. Kennedy. RFK did a lot to push civil rights in this nation. That is the subject of my book Robert F. Kennedy and the Shaping of Civil Rights, 1960-1964.
Of course, Bobby Kennedy would not have had the opportunity to affect history without his older brother. At a mere thirty-five years old Kennedy was thrust into the office at the behest of his brother and his father. He wasn't sure what he was going to do after the election of 1960, but finally accepted the position that would catapult him into the history books.
In the end, Bobby Kennedy was a civil rights warrior, but it did not happen over night. In fact, he said that civil rights did not "keep me up at nights," when he was contemplating America's greatest issues that he felt needed to be addressed. Many civil rights leaders questioned he and his brother's devotion to the cause despite the fact that they were the only politicians to intervene on behalf of Martin Luther King when he was jailed for a traffic violation during the sit-in movement. In his time at attorney general Kennedy dealt with the Freedom Rides, James Meredith and Ole Miss, the Birmingham riots, the integration of the University of Alabama, the proposal and passage of the Civil Rights Act and the March on Washington, to name a few.
The almost four years that Kennedy was attorney general there was an explosion of activity in the civil rights movement. Many historians credit Dr. King, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and other groups as well as the hope that World War II gave to African Americans in this nation after fighting totalitarianism abroad. Indeed, they were all factors.
John F. Kennedy gets credit for giving the speech on June 11, 1963 that moved civil rights from a political to a moral issue in this country. His rhetoric was clear and set the tone for the Civil Rights Act on the Hill. Few people know that it was in fact Robert Kennedy that pushed his brother to make that speech and support the Civil Rights Act. The once pragmatic and calculated Kennedy brother saw the injustice of segregation in those years as attorney general and encouraged his older brother to take a stand on the right side of history.
Eight days before JFK's speech in June 1963 RFK said "Not because it is legally the thing that you should do, but because it is morally the right thing to do, and that we are all brothers and that we have to live as brothers." We rarely see that type of rhetoric in politics today. Indeed, it had an impact then and still resonates today.
Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King and many others get much deserved credit for the March on Washington in 1963. Few realize that it was Robert Kennedy and Burke Marshall, his assistant, made sure that certain logistics such as toilets and food were taken care of, which contributed to the success of that historic day. In an effort to keep the crowd controlled it was Bobby Kennedy who favored Lincoln Memorial instead of the Capitol. John Lewis, the newly elected leader of the SNCC, made a speech that day. He was also present in Chicago in 2008 when Barack Obama gave his victory speech as President-Elect of the United States.
We live in a different world because of people like Bobby Kennedy. It was 50 years ago next month that Bobby Kennedy was elected as Senator of New York. In the wake of his brother's death, he evolved even further on his stance for civil rights, helping the disadvantaged in New York until his death by an assassin's bullet in 1968. While Lyndon Johnson deserves credit for getting the bill through congress in 1964, Bobby Kennedy should get the credit for pushing the idea with his brother. Without the moral persuasion of RFK it may have taken even more time to develop. Instead the Kennedy brothers contributed to a chapter of the cause to end racism. That cause continues into the 21st century.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 & 2014
It is inspiring to see Malala Yousafzai win the Nobel Peace Prize. The young activist stood up to the Taliban and as a result was shot in the head, only to survive, despite their hate, and inspire people with her message of peace. This is a prize that had eluded one of the greatest peace advocates (Mahatma Gandhi), signified the emergence of a new power in the world (President Teddy Roosevelt) and commented on the role that the United States should play in world affairs (President Barack Obama). Yousafzai is especially great as she is, at seventeen years old, the youngest person to ever to receive the prize. She shares the prize with Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, who is also a courageous fighter for children's rights.
The Nobel Peace Prize has attempted for years to influence international rhetoric and it is important to see who they recognize. Prior to Ms. Yousafzai the youngest person to the win the Nobel Peace Prize was an American. Fifty years ago, in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. won the prize. The thirty-five year old King said in his acceptance speech "Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood." King was reflective, hoping with the world watching that the true message of the civil rights movement, which confronted the bitter racism that plagued this nation, was front and center. "If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
King and Yousafzai were both attacked for expressing ideals that they believed were righteous. King had been arrested, stabbed and his house bombed prior to the Nobel Peace Prize. Inevitably he would pay the ultimate sacrifice for his cause on April 4, 1968 when a gunman silenced him - yet his dream lives and continues to influence future generations.
History has been an indicator that in some cases the Nobel Peace Prize signified that change was on the horizon. I hope that this year's selection continues to elicit similar results. My dream, and I am sure it is the same for many others, is for my own children to grow up in world without hate - in a world that King dreamt of at the foot of Lincoln in 1963. A dream he shared with John and Robert Kennedy later that day.
King's message in 1964 is still relevant today. Love was at the heart of his philosophy of change through non-violence. He said in that same speech that "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Indeed, we will hopefully see in the coming years that our dream becomes reality. I am hopeful as Yousafzai and Satyarthi, whose messages have peace at their core, accept the same award that one of the greatest Americans received fifty years ago.
The Nobel Peace Prize has attempted for years to influence international rhetoric and it is important to see who they recognize. Prior to Ms. Yousafzai the youngest person to the win the Nobel Peace Prize was an American. Fifty years ago, in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. won the prize. The thirty-five year old King said in his acceptance speech "Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood." King was reflective, hoping with the world watching that the true message of the civil rights movement, which confronted the bitter racism that plagued this nation, was front and center. "If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
King and Yousafzai were both attacked for expressing ideals that they believed were righteous. King had been arrested, stabbed and his house bombed prior to the Nobel Peace Prize. Inevitably he would pay the ultimate sacrifice for his cause on April 4, 1968 when a gunman silenced him - yet his dream lives and continues to influence future generations.
History has been an indicator that in some cases the Nobel Peace Prize signified that change was on the horizon. I hope that this year's selection continues to elicit similar results. My dream, and I am sure it is the same for many others, is for my own children to grow up in world without hate - in a world that King dreamt of at the foot of Lincoln in 1963. A dream he shared with John and Robert Kennedy later that day.
King's message in 1964 is still relevant today. Love was at the heart of his philosophy of change through non-violence. He said in that same speech that "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Indeed, we will hopefully see in the coming years that our dream becomes reality. I am hopeful as Yousafzai and Satyarthi, whose messages have peace at their core, accept the same award that one of the greatest Americans received fifty years ago.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Baseball
I only played baseball as a kid. I never knew any other sport for a long time. I have childhood memories of Yaz playing first base, as he finished his career, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice in the outfield and even, for a moment, "Pudge" Fisk behind home plate. Yes, I am a Red Sox fan, but I appreciate the sport enough to understand that every once in a while a player comes along that is special and transcends fandom in the game. Last weekend I was at my beloved Fenway Park when Derek Jeter played in his last series and it was something that I will remember. It put into sharp focus just how historic and special Baseball is.
I do not hate the Yankees. As a historian you have to appreciate what that team did for the game in the 1920s. Indeed, the 1927 Yankees are considered the greatest team ever to take the field - even by today's standards. The first six in the line-up were called "Murderer's Row" and included names such as Ruth and Gehrig. I thought that the 2011 Red Sox, before their collapse, would be on par with this team so I followed the stats at the beginning of the season. Not even close.
When Jeter came to the plate last Saturday, Fenway Park got to their feet and applauded the Yankee player that had been a part of our team's struggles in the 1999 and 2003 ALCS playoffs. The crowd chanted "Derek Jeter." He went 1 for 2 in that game and did the same thing on Sunday, his last game of his career. That brings me back to the history of the game and why this is so important. Jeter is a baseball legend and the crowd at Fenway (though there were a lot of Yankee fans there) acknowledged his contributions and recognized that baseball is bigger than rivalries.
Fenway park is one of the oldest parks in the major leagues. Since it was built in 1912 it has witnessed many historic events beginning with America on the precipice of a new role in the world and moving through world wars, depressions, smaller conflicts and even national tragedies. I recently saw a picture of John F. Kennedy, a young congressman from the eleventh district at the time, with Ted Williams, Eddie Pelagrini and Hank Greenberg (of Detroit) in the dugout. The image of this young leader in the late forties, who would someday inspire so many, brought into sharp focus that Baseball tends to capture all that is good in America. The integration of the sport with the immortal Jackie Robinson is yet another example where America grew up a little. Indeed, it was arguably the first time the nation was rooting for an African American to succeed - and the world was watching.
Baseball has always been there, for the momentous events and terrible crises that this nation has endured over the years. It is linked to our own history in ways that other celebrated sports in this country is not. For many years it was believed that Abner Doubleday, a Civil War hero who fought at Gettysburg, was it's founder. Last Saturday, I witnessed history again when Derek Jeter played in his second to last game. The next day, watching from my living room, I saw him take his last trot from first base to the dugout, as he was taken out of the game after his last hit. It occurred to me that a Yankee great was making his exit from the game on the same field that a former Yankee great made his debut in 1914 at the age of 19. The former Yankee stadium may have been the "House That Ruth Built" but Babe Ruth took his first major league swing at Fenway Park - and Jeter took his last there.
I do not hate the Yankees. As a historian you have to appreciate what that team did for the game in the 1920s. Indeed, the 1927 Yankees are considered the greatest team ever to take the field - even by today's standards. The first six in the line-up were called "Murderer's Row" and included names such as Ruth and Gehrig. I thought that the 2011 Red Sox, before their collapse, would be on par with this team so I followed the stats at the beginning of the season. Not even close.
When Jeter came to the plate last Saturday, Fenway Park got to their feet and applauded the Yankee player that had been a part of our team's struggles in the 1999 and 2003 ALCS playoffs. The crowd chanted "Derek Jeter." He went 1 for 2 in that game and did the same thing on Sunday, his last game of his career. That brings me back to the history of the game and why this is so important. Jeter is a baseball legend and the crowd at Fenway (though there were a lot of Yankee fans there) acknowledged his contributions and recognized that baseball is bigger than rivalries.
Fenway park is one of the oldest parks in the major leagues. Since it was built in 1912 it has witnessed many historic events beginning with America on the precipice of a new role in the world and moving through world wars, depressions, smaller conflicts and even national tragedies. I recently saw a picture of John F. Kennedy, a young congressman from the eleventh district at the time, with Ted Williams, Eddie Pelagrini and Hank Greenberg (of Detroit) in the dugout. The image of this young leader in the late forties, who would someday inspire so many, brought into sharp focus that Baseball tends to capture all that is good in America. The integration of the sport with the immortal Jackie Robinson is yet another example where America grew up a little. Indeed, it was arguably the first time the nation was rooting for an African American to succeed - and the world was watching.
Baseball has always been there, for the momentous events and terrible crises that this nation has endured over the years. It is linked to our own history in ways that other celebrated sports in this country is not. For many years it was believed that Abner Doubleday, a Civil War hero who fought at Gettysburg, was it's founder. Last Saturday, I witnessed history again when Derek Jeter played in his second to last game. The next day, watching from my living room, I saw him take his last trot from first base to the dugout, as he was taken out of the game after his last hit. It occurred to me that a Yankee great was making his exit from the game on the same field that a former Yankee great made his debut in 1914 at the age of 19. The former Yankee stadium may have been the "House That Ruth Built" but Babe Ruth took his first major league swing at Fenway Park - and Jeter took his last there.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
The Importance of The Catcher in the Rye
This summer I was inspired to re-read The Catcher in the Rye after watching a recent documentary on JD Salinger entitled "Salinger." While I always knew that this was an important book, it was an experience to rediscover it as an adult. We are told by teachers that if we look at books that we read in high school or college later in life they will mean something different. In the case of The Catcher in the Rye, they are absolutely correct.
As a matter of background, I want to set up how I was reading this book. We were going to Disney World this past August, and I told myself I would spend time reading it on the plane. I was on a Hemingway kick just prior to the trip and wanted something different to sink my teeth into. On the plane ride we experienced a great deal of turbulence and I found myself not only reading the book as a way to discover it anew, but also as something I clung to as a safety net amidst the up and downs of a "bumpy ride" to the "most magical place on earth." Through that experience I became even more invested in Holden Caulfield as I tried to shut out the two hour-plus ride to florida.
The book is a wonderful journey into adolescence, which I didn't see the first time I read it in high school so many years ago, probably because I was going through it myself. More importantly, as a teacher myself, I realized that the issues students deal with everyday are not that different that what was important sixty years ago. They are just dressed up differently. Instead of a red hunting hat, we have kids with iPhones and sports teams hats. While there were some phrases that are outdated, at its core, The Catcher in the Rye is timeless and can help teachers and even parents understand a generation that we may think is so different than ours, yet they all crave the same things. Of course, many people already know this, but it was fun to experience it rather than being told by someone what to think about a piece of art.
On a larger, historical note, I see this book as an example of the same transition that the nation was going through in the wake of World War II. The post-war world was in a period of adolescence and it was a coming of age for the United States. We were experiencing our own maturity into foreign affairs. The vacuum that the war created was something that the United States capitalized on without knowing how to do it. Indeed, it was a time where few leaders understood their new place in the world, much like the young Holden Caulfield. The journey he embarks on in NYC is similar to America's position in the world. The nation navigated through geopolitics in the late forties and early fifties - a time where America was trying to stave off a growing Soviet threat throughout the world while also maintain the economic abundance that was the product of the war.
Finally, The Catcher in the Rye is just plain fun and a special book. If you've read it, try again. If you have not read it or read the spark notes in school, give it a true shot. It truly spans generations. On the plane ride home, a couple in the row behind me noticed that I was reading it. "I had to comment on the book you are reading," one of them said. "It's my favorite."
As a matter of background, I want to set up how I was reading this book. We were going to Disney World this past August, and I told myself I would spend time reading it on the plane. I was on a Hemingway kick just prior to the trip and wanted something different to sink my teeth into. On the plane ride we experienced a great deal of turbulence and I found myself not only reading the book as a way to discover it anew, but also as something I clung to as a safety net amidst the up and downs of a "bumpy ride" to the "most magical place on earth." Through that experience I became even more invested in Holden Caulfield as I tried to shut out the two hour-plus ride to florida.
The book is a wonderful journey into adolescence, which I didn't see the first time I read it in high school so many years ago, probably because I was going through it myself. More importantly, as a teacher myself, I realized that the issues students deal with everyday are not that different that what was important sixty years ago. They are just dressed up differently. Instead of a red hunting hat, we have kids with iPhones and sports teams hats. While there were some phrases that are outdated, at its core, The Catcher in the Rye is timeless and can help teachers and even parents understand a generation that we may think is so different than ours, yet they all crave the same things. Of course, many people already know this, but it was fun to experience it rather than being told by someone what to think about a piece of art.
On a larger, historical note, I see this book as an example of the same transition that the nation was going through in the wake of World War II. The post-war world was in a period of adolescence and it was a coming of age for the United States. We were experiencing our own maturity into foreign affairs. The vacuum that the war created was something that the United States capitalized on without knowing how to do it. Indeed, it was a time where few leaders understood their new place in the world, much like the young Holden Caulfield. The journey he embarks on in NYC is similar to America's position in the world. The nation navigated through geopolitics in the late forties and early fifties - a time where America was trying to stave off a growing Soviet threat throughout the world while also maintain the economic abundance that was the product of the war.
Finally, The Catcher in the Rye is just plain fun and a special book. If you've read it, try again. If you have not read it or read the spark notes in school, give it a true shot. It truly spans generations. On the plane ride home, a couple in the row behind me noticed that I was reading it. "I had to comment on the book you are reading," one of them said. "It's my favorite."
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Roosevelts and History
The recent documentary by Ken Burns that covers the Roosevelts is masterful and deserving of all the accolades it has been given thus far. Burns crafts a wonderful narrative where he lays out not only the importance of this famous family, but also how their paths were entwined. The most compelling piece is how these extraordinary individuals overcame hardships, both emotional and physical.
Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from this story is that true leadership comes from hardship, which ultimately leads to deeper understanding of others. Despite their wealth and power, the Roosevelts had to overcome adversity. Teddy Roosevelt lost his mother and wife on the same day, in the same house. Franklin Roosevelt endured polio, losing his ability to walk and maintain his active lifestyle. Eleanor Roosevelt was secondary to FDR's mother in those early years and had difficulty finding herself amidst the grand shadow that FDR cast. In all those circumstances, the Roosevelts took what life gave them, utilized their talents and made history.
These three extraordinary individuals occupied leadership roles for a majority of the twentieth century, laying a foundation in American history that is unprecedented. Their experiences gave them insight into the plight of others, which led to a deeper understanding of other people's anguish. There are other families that play a role in American history, but none of them compare to what the Roosevelt's leave as their legacy.
Check out "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" if you have a chance.
Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from this story is that true leadership comes from hardship, which ultimately leads to deeper understanding of others. Despite their wealth and power, the Roosevelts had to overcome adversity. Teddy Roosevelt lost his mother and wife on the same day, in the same house. Franklin Roosevelt endured polio, losing his ability to walk and maintain his active lifestyle. Eleanor Roosevelt was secondary to FDR's mother in those early years and had difficulty finding herself amidst the grand shadow that FDR cast. In all those circumstances, the Roosevelts took what life gave them, utilized their talents and made history.
These three extraordinary individuals occupied leadership roles for a majority of the twentieth century, laying a foundation in American history that is unprecedented. Their experiences gave them insight into the plight of others, which led to a deeper understanding of other people's anguish. There are other families that play a role in American history, but none of them compare to what the Roosevelt's leave as their legacy.
Check out "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" if you have a chance.
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