Sublime

That poisoning knocked us right back down flat. We never did get back up again,” Hamer admitted.42 “White people never like to see Negroes get a little success. All of this stuff is no secret in the state of Mississippi.”43 In the aftermath of the devastating poisoning, Hamer’s father drew strength from the book of Psalms, reminding his faithful pa

There is a relentless drive in human beings, both inward and transcendent, that demands dignity and propels our progress—it is the spirit of justice. It is the conviction to continue the struggle no matter the odds or the obstacles. It is the heartbeat of people who hunger and thirst for righteousness. It will not concede. It will not let the evil

he as an individual can live in dignity, even though he as a Negro cannot.

Similarly, if we wanted to firmly establish the Urban League as a civil rights organization, we also had to develop and maintain a recognizable and steady presence in the national community-to let the country know what we

Even with that, the attitude expressed in the Meet the Press interview is alive and well, most annoyingly among some white people who can say the most amazing (and utterly revealing) things to black people, thinking they are entitled to because their hearts are in the right place.

The middle-class African American enclave of Liberty City began to change earlier, in the 1960s, when I-95 was built right through Overtown, displacing residents. And as a result of changes wrought by the civil rights movement, middle-class Black people started to move into neighborhoods previously covered by racially restrictive covenants that had

As Black people, if there is one thing we can learn from the 60s, it is how infinitely complex any move for liberation must be. For we must move against not only those forces which dehumanize us from the outside, but also against those oppressive values which we have been forced to take into ourselves.

reject the premise of the American Dream, and instead define a new Black American reality of ownership, excellence, and communal obligation.