Stories like this are a reminder of how ferociously and violently white people fought to maintain the status quo of white supremacy. Over 33 million Americans today were adults at the time of Evers' assassination, and a third of Americans today lived at a time when Jim Crow laws were in place. Even math exposes as a lie the statement that the history of racial strife in America is meaningless to today's culture. As William Faulkner famously wrote, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Acknowledging the past is essential to creating hope for the future. Thanks for not letting us forget.
Living in the Deep South for so long, I was constantly reminded of the nearness of the history we think happened so long ago. Residing in the land of Civil War battles and Civil Rights struggles make the past tangible in ways I had not experienced growing up in the Midwest.
Indeed! I grew up primarily on military bases, some far away from the strife of the 1960s, and as a veteran myself and a defense contractor, my family traveled the world and never witnessed the intensity of the Lost Cause and its hold on the South and its sympathizers.
We lived in southern Maryland for ten years, and some of the history is evident there, but it's very apparent in central Virginia, where we've lived for almost twelve years. Charlottesville is just up the road from us, and we were here when the protests over the Lee statue turned violent and then deadly. Richmond, the last capital of the Confederacy, is two hours away, and we watched the news as the statues came down, not without significant resistance. Driving south toward North Carolina, there is a huge Confederate flag flying on private property but high enough to be seen by everyone who travels that road.
It's unique; the old adage is that history is written by the victors, but the United States may be the only nation to erect statues, name military installations, and craft a mythology masquerading as history in honor of a failed insurrection that sought to rip the United States apart so they could continue to enslave other human beings in contravention to the nation's creed of equality under God and the law.
Thank you for this. Each time I go back to "I Am Not Your Negro", I learn something new, I see something I missed or understand some element of the story in a deeper way. Today, I'll watch it for the 10th time.
Incredible article. Thanks! What’s so crazy though is that there are likely many people out there in 2023 that would criticize this piece as nothing but Woke CRT rhetoric.
It’s impossible for me to estimate how much Black people and Black culture have positively impacted my life. That fact alone often makes me feel like I’m a failure if I don’t push hard against the limits of personal safety. It’s a weird narcissistic version of survivors’ guilt, since no one has actually asked me to go that far for justice. It’s more about each day, each interaction, each opportunity. Will we seize each one with the conviction and joy that Medgar Evers and his family (and Jemar Tisby) brought to the calling of activism?
That sounds poetic and reassuring, but for real, we are not so far removed from the past that the question doesn’t ring true. It really does. Are we ready to go all in to oppose injustice, and even put our loved ones at risk for it?
I didn’t know that his wife and kids witnessed his shooting and still carried on his cause. The past isn’t past. Thanks for this post!
Stories like this are a reminder of how ferociously and violently white people fought to maintain the status quo of white supremacy. Over 33 million Americans today were adults at the time of Evers' assassination, and a third of Americans today lived at a time when Jim Crow laws were in place. Even math exposes as a lie the statement that the history of racial strife in America is meaningless to today's culture. As William Faulkner famously wrote, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Acknowledging the past is essential to creating hope for the future. Thanks for not letting us forget.
Living in the Deep South for so long, I was constantly reminded of the nearness of the history we think happened so long ago. Residing in the land of Civil War battles and Civil Rights struggles make the past tangible in ways I had not experienced growing up in the Midwest.
Indeed! I grew up primarily on military bases, some far away from the strife of the 1960s, and as a veteran myself and a defense contractor, my family traveled the world and never witnessed the intensity of the Lost Cause and its hold on the South and its sympathizers.
We lived in southern Maryland for ten years, and some of the history is evident there, but it's very apparent in central Virginia, where we've lived for almost twelve years. Charlottesville is just up the road from us, and we were here when the protests over the Lee statue turned violent and then deadly. Richmond, the last capital of the Confederacy, is two hours away, and we watched the news as the statues came down, not without significant resistance. Driving south toward North Carolina, there is a huge Confederate flag flying on private property but high enough to be seen by everyone who travels that road.
It's unique; the old adage is that history is written by the victors, but the United States may be the only nation to erect statues, name military installations, and craft a mythology masquerading as history in honor of a failed insurrection that sought to rip the United States apart so they could continue to enslave other human beings in contravention to the nation's creed of equality under God and the law.
Thank you for this. Each time I go back to "I Am Not Your Negro", I learn something new, I see something I missed or understand some element of the story in a deeper way. Today, I'll watch it for the 10th time.
10x!!! I'll be the producers haven't even watched it that much, LOL. Thanks for reading!
Incredible article. Thanks! What’s so crazy though is that there are likely many people out there in 2023 that would criticize this piece as nothing but Woke CRT rhetoric.
That's right. Which exposes the vacuousness of the accusation. They have no evidence or better ways to explain the past, so they dismiss it as "woke."
Thank you.
Appreciate you reading!
It’s impossible for me to estimate how much Black people and Black culture have positively impacted my life. That fact alone often makes me feel like I’m a failure if I don’t push hard against the limits of personal safety. It’s a weird narcissistic version of survivors’ guilt, since no one has actually asked me to go that far for justice. It’s more about each day, each interaction, each opportunity. Will we seize each one with the conviction and joy that Medgar Evers and his family (and Jemar Tisby) brought to the calling of activism?
That sounds poetic and reassuring, but for real, we are not so far removed from the past that the question doesn’t ring true. It really does. Are we ready to go all in to oppose injustice, and even put our loved ones at risk for it?
I didn’t know that his wife and kids witnessed his shooting and still carried on his cause. The past isn’t past. Thanks for this post!