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Charles Sherrod | 
Charles Sherrod with students |
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Ilya Rusinov:
Hearing Charles Sherrod speak is a lesson in itself. He is vibrant, full of
energy, and willing to recant stories of the training and strength of
organizers during the civil rights movement. At the same time, he is
stubborn, unyielding, and not at all responsive to assertions that
challenge what he believes to be the accurate portrayal of the civil rights
movement in general, and the Albany campaign in particular. When we saw him
today, at a church in Albany, GA., Sherrod gave us the experiences of the
SNCC training sessions, where, for the first time, we got a true glimpse
into the "lessons of non-violence" that truly did have to be implanted into
the heads of the organizers in order for them to successfully sustain
ground in the movement. Sherrod did this by organizing a group of students,
some of which he pushed around, kicked around, and yelled at, to
demonstrate that, no matter what, they had to resist non-violently. I found
this rather difficult to take seriously, because we all knew that Sherrod
did have limits and that no one would be hurt, lessening the claim to
reality that he might have otherwise tried to instill. If he was confident
in his non-violent excursions, however, it was a different story when it
came to questions. I asked Sherrod why the Albany campaign is not as well
known as other campaigns when studying the civil rights movement. Sherrod,
thinking I based my question on the premise that the Albany campaign was a
failure (I did not do so) immediately got defensive, and resorted to the
answer that people write books, and they shape information. Well, that's
fantastic, but it was not a really accurate response to my question. I was
not the only one, too, whose questions were read to be others by Sherrod,
in order for the answer to be shaped different.
A very interesting thing happened at the end of our meeting with Sherrod. He asked us if he could
speak up at Michigan and if the school could pay him to do so. It was a sad
moment, looking at this civil rights survivor who now had to essentially
ask for money from college students.
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Connie Curry |
Justin Edge:
Today started off with my adrenaline racing. Last night my room along with Rachel R., Jennifer S. and Courtney was the hub of everyone who weren't able to sleep. Some of the funniest moments of the trip, along with the comedy and stitching of an odd couple that were determined to find a party or make one of their own. It's no wonder we slept in. I remember Joe telling us to be ready to board the bus at 8:30am, so when I woke up and saw that the clock read 8:40 I yelled, "We slept in!!" Everyone in the room scattered around the room trying to get dressed and gather all of their belongings without forgetting anything. The whole scene was like that off Home Alone but without the comedy. I think we all thought we would be in trouble and couldn't find any humor in it. But in retrospect, it was all hilarity. Joe was cool about the whole situation and didn't say much about it.
We headed to see Charles Sherrod discuss his involvement in the movement and the struggle in Albany. From his demeanor and ramblings of random songs one has to wonder about his frame of mind. He didn't seem to be altogether. The anger and hostility in his voice and words all depict a man still in pain over his individual efforts during the movement that are considered by many to be a failure. But who can blame him for his disillusionment. Everything he worked for is seen as only a blimp or an unimportant segment of the movement. During the portion of his presentation about the training for sit-ins and other forms of non-violent protest, Charles Sherrod got a little carried away with our willingness for him to "train" us. After being slapped and asked for money, my un-favored opinion of Charles Sherrod may be a bit biased. Just a tad bit.
The rest of the day was spent driving to Atlanta were we spoke with Connie Currie. You could feel that people were anticipating a night out in Atlanta, partying and enjoying the nightlife.
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