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Robert Jackson:
Never did I imagine that we would be in a discussion with two white men talking about the Civil Rights Movement at the same time, just to be honest. Never did I imagine that we would be in a discussion so heated that it brought a friend of mine, to remain nameless, to tears. Today was an interesting day.
It started out with us going to meet John Siegenthaler, a white man supportive of the Civil Rights Movement, and Will Campbell, a white minister, and they discussed their experience in the Civil Rights Movement. It was pretty interesting to hear the perspective of a white man in the times of Black struggle. I honestly did not know how to react due to the fact that I did not understand how they could feel what it was like to be Black. After hearing that he was struck in the head with a pipe and also seeing this pipe, I guess I realized that he went through hell as well, but I still do not think he went through the Black experience. So I just did not know how to take in the knowledge that he was dropping.
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John Siegenthaler and Students
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Paul Spurgeon:
We walked into this tiny auditorium and listened to Mr. Siegenthaler's account of his brush with violence. We were being pushed head first in to the deep end of living history. I think the most important thing I got out of Siegnthaler's comments were his take on the Kennedy question. We had debated Kennedy's record on race relations in class and I think everyone I talked to planned to ask Siegenthaler about this. His response sounded like he had gave it many times. The ultimate pragmatist meets with the ultimate idealist. That is how he explained the meeting between Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.
We also heard from Rev. William Campbell who spoke of a life in struggle. He made it clear that he was always that white preacher who spoke out for the causes whatever they might be. He also used the word britches in a very casual manner.
We were encouraged to look at the little museum with held the infamous pipe.
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Rachel Katz:
When we were looking at the museum part of the First Amendment Center, I looked more closely at the photos. I concentrated on the activists who were simply sitting there and taking the pain as the police, dogs and bystanders would throw stuff at them, yell at them, beat them, and allow the dogs to attack them. I could not imagine being so trained in non-violence that I would be able to sit there and simply take the blow. I had seen these pictures before, in books and magazines, but I had never seen them this large and so up close. I could see the look of pain in their eyes as all they did was try to shield their faces. I wonder how their self esteem could take the physical and the emotional pain that was being poured on them everyday for no real reason. I wondered how they could go on day after day when it seemed like they were getting no where. I know that people say it will get a lot worse before it gets better when you are fighting for something, but this got so much worse then it should have.
I truly have the utmost respect for anyone that fought in this movement. To be able to go through what some of these people went through daily just to move baby steps forward in an amazing feat.
Pete Woiwode:
Siegenthaler had been a journalist for a few year in the late fifties, covering the civil
rights movement intensely for a publication in Nashville. The leadership of
that paper changed, and a disgusted and despondent Siegenthaler was hired
into the Kennedy administration. He served there until he was struck on the
head escorting freedom riders from the bus into a vehicle. His stories both
intruiging and enjoyable, and the way he talked about his days in the
movement with an air of reverence, one that carried with it the mystique of
being attached to something so noteworthy on the pages of history. He
impressed upon us how little people cared back then, or I should say, how
much people cared for segregation and maintenance of their white privledge.
He also told a tear jerking anecdote about his grandson's inability to see
color, and left all of us with these ethereal wings of idealism. One of the
most impressive things he said was in response to a question about Civil
Rights now and beyond. He said, unflinchingly, that the most dire problems
facing us now are the protection of arabs and muslims, and striving for
homosexual rights. It was a phenomenally unexpected idea, and so very true.
Sam Butler:
Seiganthaler seemed to me as a real role model for me. His experiences in
journalism particularly caught my attention. I liked how he was able to
balance a career in public service and the newspaper business, which are
two fields that I currently am very interested in. Based solely on my own
meager experiences with working with the newspaper, I could see certain
personality traits in him, although evolved, that I see peers of mine.
But most of all, it was his humor, his personality and persona that seemed
like something to try and emulate. His gross intelligence and perspective
of historical events was apparent yet a certain friendliness and amiability
was also expressed. I respected his intelligence and his ability to be so
down to earth.
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Rev. Will Campbell
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Pete Woiwode:
Will Campbell, a priest who spent his life facing danger and the horrors
of the civil rights movement, also spoke to us at the First Amendment
Center. Will's experience, essentially, was to go where God needed him,
and those places were mostly the ones teeming with the violent and
indignant racists. He constantly challenged the status quo and apathy, from
a place of holiness, and from a place of internal peace. He emanated
serenity and comfort, and to posses those things and to convey those things
after a lifetime of struggle and combating hatred was truly inspirational.
Joe kept mentioning (and rightfully so) that Will was just so happy after
all he had been through, and that in and of itself was beyond remarkable.
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Peter Jenkins:
....most people when dedicating themselves to social change, will live a
life in struggle. When working for change that will manifests itself in
future generations rather then your own, one's efforts may seem unrewarding, or the rewards that exist may seem intangible. Progress comes
slowly and this can wear down a person's psyche especially when the ends
that one works for should seemingly already exist. For example, shouldn't
inequalities never exist upon arbitrary traits. When fighting for social
change you are really attacking people's ideological mindsets.
Unfortunately, history shows us how hard it is to change these mindsets.
From the day a person is born they ingest all sorts of information that
may or may not be biased. How can a person learn to navigate through such
an environment flawlessly? Prejudice is inevitable. Resources and social
planning to fight prejudice is invaluable. It is not easy to battle fear
and insecurities, but the ceiling always needs to be raised and the walls
always need to have width. In America the walls are not being pushed down
and the ceiling is staying put. Prejudice seems to exist everywhere
while social planning and resources in the name of public interests seem to
hide in certain progressive communities. It is not easy to kill the
popular, but we need a popular extinction of sorts. The dilemma exists
because battling prejudice mindsets lowers the profit of America's major
corporations. An ideological revolution towards equality and
sustainability is a direct threat to the most powerful conglomerates that
exist. In the context of such struggle exists Rev. Campbell, who manages
to smile. While he has lived a life of struggle, his face won't show it.
Is there hope for living a life in struggle for atheists or is the
steadfast belief in God and the teachings of the Bible necessary to keep
people's spirits intact when everything else seems to be out of tact?
Robert Jackson:
What I realized after hearing them speak was that I wanted to get a Black perspective of the Civil Rights Movement. I got all that and more when we met Kwame Lillard at the State Capitol of Nashville. All my life I wanted to participate in a march, and when I came to college I got to do that a little through the Black Student Union. Never would I have imagined I would get to do it in Nashville, Tennessee where real marches during the Civil Rights Movement took place. Listening to Brother Lillard speak was truly inspirational, and I definitely learned a lot from him.
I was really feeling him when he said that one of the main problems with the Civil Rights Movement was that there was a great lack of vision. All we did was stop at being able to eat at white lunch counters, or as he said getting our hamburger. I did not completely agree with how he felt about our sitting in to eat at those lunch counters, as I felt that those events allowed us to be able to do many of the things we do today, and I do not think that they were a waste of time.
One time that was hard was when the discussion got so heated that it brought a friend of mine to tears. My heart really hurt at this time, because 1) I was really understanding what Brother Lillard was saying, and 2) I was feeling my friend when she said that the Movement was not worthless, although I cannot ever recall him actually saying the Movement was worthless, but I knew what she meant. It was hard to see my friend in tears, yet at the same time it was so beautiful to see a strong Black woman passionate about the Movement, and I will never forget that moment. When it came time for the demonstration, I have to admit I was so nervous. I really did not think that I would be in the front of the line, for one thing. It was a great experience, although I could not tell if I was shaking from the chilling air, or my severe nervousness for not wanting to mess up. I will, however, remember this day in Nashville, and I will appreciate the fact that I got to be a part of it.
Victoria Edwards:
The most inspirational speaker to me by far was Kwame Lillard.
I think the personal atmosphere had a lot to do with his impression on me. But even
more it was his passion, this raw bitterness
that he seemed to embody. From the previous speaker I got much of the same
feeling as one gets from reading a textbook. It is interesting, but the time
has passed and the events do not have such direct relevance. From Kwame I
got a different feeling, that of an ongoing process, he called the movement
a "failure." This was a perspective I had never thought of and was grateful
for the different viewpoint and chance to widen my perspective on the
issue. I don't agree with his view that the movement was a failure. The
foundations of the movement no matter how small they seemed, had to be laid
before big change could be tackled. Still, there are so many problems with
racial equality in present day America, it is clear that the Civil Rights
Movement is not the 100 percent sparkling success that many make it out to
be. And it is most definitely not finished. I found his view that American
culture should be a salad bowl valid. I too feel that a culture where every
race stands out like a vegetable instead of being shredded into obscure
mediocrity as a good point. Blacks should be holding onto their identity as
blacks instead of fading into the grayness of white-middle class America. I
found truth in the statement that many blacks are culturally confused; and
don't have a clear understanding of their roots. I don't necessarily know
direct steps that should be taken to amend this, but he did mention the
importance of education. This was something that had been echoed by our
previous speakers, which I found interesting. I agree that Civil Rights
leaders were not concerned enough with long-term goals. As I look around
the journey for Civil Rights is definitely not over. But I think it is up
to a new group of Civil Rights Activists to draw out new goals that can
propel minorities to full equality, or at least a stronger voice in society.
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Kwame Lillard
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ReBecca Robinson:
The person that really guided me along the trip, whose comments and ideas
formed my questions and way of thinking, was Lillard. He brought up points
that most people would not dare to speak on. There was a lack of cultivation of the
Black community during the movement. After the movement simmered, Blacks
were back to the beginning of the drawing board. Not realizing what they
just did but more importantly not realizing who they were. The movement
never dealt with what to do after you get the job or get equal
opportunities. The movement and its elitists never instructed the lower
class Blacks on proper morals and self-motivation. In the word of Du Bois,
it is up to the elite Blacks to teach and pull up the lower class Blacks
and the movement did not do so.As far as religion, the movement never talks
Black or never emphasized without God nothing is possible. They used
religion as something to fall back on but they, the leaders of the
movement, did not give emphasis to the fact that RELIGION should be an
everyday way of life, part of the Black culture. This is why Blacks have
fallen behind after they/WE have made so much progress.
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Students watch the protest
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Paul Spurgeon:
Our next stop was the "protest" with Kwame Leo Lillard. The war protest was in progress when we arrived and it was quite a scene to behold. There were these two people dressed in purple dancing, a group of women wearing black remaining completely silent, and there were those people that Pete and I met earlier. Everyone got a chance to speak including Mr. Lillard and Joe. It ended with one of the men who had been sleeping outside the capital giving everyone a hug and he smelled as though he had been sleeping outside for a week.
Mr. Lillard gave us an ad hoc talk right there where he expressed
his disapproval with the civil rights movement. He felt that the mainstream movement focused too much on "being white." To paraphrase what he said, "While we were sitting-in for the right to pee next to a white man they were downtown preparing to drive an expressway right through our neighborhoods." Lillard then led the affirmative action "march" to show us what it is like to do a political march.
Lillard then took us to a BBQ that was set up in cafeteria style complete with pictures of famous patrons on the wall. As we drove Lillard back to his life he showed exactly where the expressway came through Black neighborhoods.
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Lillard guides the students in a protest march
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Louisa Holaday:
For me, Mr. Lillard was our most inspiring speaker, in part due to the fact that rather than recounting history he shared with us the tactics he is currently using to facilitate social change. Mr. Lillard exuded a great deal of energy and enthusiasm, which was easy to absorb, and provided me with passion that I could apply to my own beliefs.
During the time we were able to meet with him, Mr. Lillard mentioned a number of meetings with Malcolm X. This was especially affecting for me as I have been very inspired by Malcolm X's views and opinions since reading his autobiography over Winter break. Mr. Lillard, in my opinion, was the only speaker that day who really pushed us to think, and to question things in ways we had not been taught. I respected him for his drive and for his dedication to his beliefs, at one point refusing to dismiss something that was important to him just to ease a student's mind. I have a great deal of admiration for those who know what they think, and while they will listen to and take in other's arguments, they would not pretend to feel differently than they do for any reason.
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Pete Woiwode:
We came to that place thinking of the Civil Rights movement as an undeniable success, with little
or nothing left to be done, for the trailblazers had done it so right and so
totally that we wouldn't dare piggyback off of them. Kwame made us realize
that while equality and justice spews forth from the pages of our history
books, the real story is a tremendously segregated society, now socially
and no longer legally, and thus, he gave us something to fight for.
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