A NICE SURPRISE

July 23, 2006

Towards the end of the summer training, rarely did I know what we would be doing from session to session. I basically just started showing up to class at the designated time and finding out once I got there what we would be discussing. Last week, one of the sessions was a refreshing "surprise" for me. Susan Glisson, from the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, gave a great presentation that reiterated the importance of integrating civil rights history and current events into curricula.

When I was younger, my father recognized that civil rights history and the history of race relations in the United States were not adequately addressed in public schools. Therefore, he would encourage me to read books like Autobiography of Malcolm X, Soul on Ice, Eyes on the Prize, etc. I also remember reading books like Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Middle-Class Blacks Are Angry; Why America Should Care. Some of the most valuable experiences I've had include listening to my my parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, and family friends discuss what it was like to grow up as black people in Mississippi decades ago. While I remember some things mentioned during those conversations, unfortunately, no record of those things were made. I regret that as a child and young adult, I never systematically and continuously studied black history and civil rights history.

Dr. Glisson's presentation reminded me that I need to study civil rights history/current events much more. While I was aware of most of the civil rights events that my classmates listed during the introduction, I have not yet made it a point to remember dates. I need to read upon on literature regarding the "unknown" civil rights champions of Mississippi. I also need to tape the historical information that I receive from the older people around me.

The most exciting part of the presentation for me was the 1963 video regarding the struggle to register black voters in Mississippi during the early 1960s. According to Dr. Glisson, the video was made to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee with the understanding that the film would not be showed in Mississippi (due to safety concerns for those people who were included in the film).

My mother is from Liberty, MS (Amite County), one of the towns that was focused on during the film. When the film first mentioned Amite County, I became excited because my mother always told me about one of her family members that was killed by white people during the '60s because he was assisting black people with voter registration. I was hoping that I would be able to see Herbert Lee's image during the film, but I later learned that he had already been killed by the time the film was made. However, having the opportunity to see images of his family from 1963 was ten times better than finding an old family photo. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to call my mother after the session concluded. While she mentioned that a documentary about Herbert Lee was made several years ago, she never knew that the 1963 video existed.