“Wyatt Tee Walker worked closely with King and was the chief strategist for the 1963 Birmingham campaign, which turned out to be one the most influential moments for the civil rights struggle,” Taylor McNeilly writes.
Leslie McLemore II reflects on the realities of death and legacy after having a “next steps” conversation with his father, Dr. Leslie Burl McLemore.
“I believe there is a larger story beyond King’s stance on Israel and Palestinians,” Hajar Yazdiha writes. “That story is on King’s views of war—and his courage to stand for peace.”
C. Liegh McInnis shares his thoughts on Bruce Dixon’s recent article, “Why I Can’t Celebrate Kwanzaa,” and the controversy surrounding Malanga Karenga.
Hollis Watkins Muhammad was also a Civil Rights Movement singer who inspired people to risk their jobs and lives to change the ugly world in which they lived. He learned freedom songs as a teen and intentionally passed these songs on to many.
Visit Jackson has organized a weekend of events that memorialize the life and legacy of Emmett Till on the 68th anniversary of his historic murder.
“As a sociologist who studies race and ethnicity, I have closely followed these moves by the states,” Rodney Coates writes. “Throughout U.S. history, I see three main periods of legislative disenfranchisement in which legislative bodies have voted to expel members.”
Laurel, Miss., native and author Jonathan Odell reflects on the summer of 1971 when he was a door-to-door salesman of the Ebony Pictorial History of Black America. As a young, white man brought up in white supremacy, Odell learned later that summer that Black history is for everyone. “You can’t understand Black history without reflecting on white history,” he writes. “We created this history together.”
Duvalier Malone reflects on the recent death of Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusations led to the kidnapping, beating and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Miss., in August 1955, writing that “her death reopens old wounds for the family and all of Black America simply because justice never came.”
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