Category Archives: January 6

More Un-Banned Black History: Tom Ricks on The Civil Rights Movement as a “Good War”

The Guardian — Interview

‘It’s good to think strategically’: Thomas E Ricks on civil rights and January 6

Martin Pengelly in Washington — Published  8 October 2022

In his new book, the historian considers the work of Martin Luther King and others through the lens of military thought.

There is a direct connection from Freedom Summer to the January 6 committee,” says Thomas E Ricks as he discusses his new book, Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968.

But the committee is chaired by Bennie Thompson. In his opening statement, in June, the Democrat said: “I was born, raised, and still live in Bolton, Mississippi … I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, Ku Klux Klan and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021.”

“Summer ’64, you start getting Black people registered in Mississippi. A tiny minority, about 7%, are able to vote in ’64 but it rises to I think 59% by ’68. Bennie Thompson gets elected alderman [of Bolton, in 1969], mayor [1973] and eventually to Congress [1993]. And then as a senior member of Congress, chairs this January 6 committee.

“Well, there is a direct connection from Freedom Summer, and [civil rights leaders] Amzie Moore, Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer and Dave Dennis, to the January 6 committee. And I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

Under Thompson, Ricks says, the January 6 committee is acting strategically, “establishing an indisputable factual record of what happened”, a bulwark against attempts to rewrite history.

“It’s always good to think strategically,” Ricks says. Which brings him back to his book.

He says: “This book, I wrote because I had to. I had to get it out of my head. The inspiration was I married a woman who had been active in civil rights.”

Mary Kay Ricks is the author of Escape on the Pearl (2008), about slavery and the Underground Railroad. In the 1960s, she was “president of High School Friends of the SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee], Washington DC chapter.

“She would pick people up at Union Station and drive them wherever they needed to be. So her memory of [the late Georgia congressman] John Lewis is him arriving, saying, ‘I’m hungry, take me to McDonald’s.’ All our lives we would be driving along, and somebody would be on the radio, and she’d say, ‘Oh, I knew that guy’ or ‘I dated that guy. Oh, I thought he was crazy.’

“So I was reading about the civil rights movement to understand my wife and the stories she told me. And the more I read, the more it struck me: ‘Wow. This is an area that can really be illuminated by military thinking.’ That a lot of what they were doing was what in military operations is called logistics, or a classic defensive operation, or a holding action, or a raid behind enemy lines. And the more I looked at it, the more I thought each of the major civil rights campaigns could be depicted in that light.”

In 1961, campaigners launched the Freedom Rides, activists riding buses across the south, seeking to draw attention and thereby end illegal segregation onboard and in stations. It was dangerous work, daring and remote. Ricks compares the Freedom Rides to cavalry raids, most strikingly to civil war operations by the Confederate “Gray Ghost”, John Singleton Mosby.

“Before the Freedom Rides they sent a young man, Tom Gaither, on a reconnaissance trip, where he drew maps of each bus station so they would know where the segregated waiting rooms were. He reported back: ‘The two cities where you’re going to have trouble are Anniston, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama.’ There are real race tensions in those cities.”

Activists faced horrendous violence. They met it with non-violence.

“They did months of training. First of all, how to capture and prevent the impulse to fight or flee. Somebody slugs you, spits on you, puts out a cigarette on your back. They knew how to react: non-violent.

“But this is a really militant form of non-violence. Gandhi denounced the term passive resistance. And these people, many of them followers of God, devoted readers of Gandhi, understood this was very confrontational.”

State troopers break up a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama on 7 March 1965

State troopers break up a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, on 7 March 1965. John Lewis, chairman of the SNCC, is seen in the foreground, being beaten.Photograph: unknown/AP

In 1965, Selma, Alabama, was the scene of Bloody Sunday, when white authorities attacked a march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and southern racism stood exposed.

“It is such a human question. And in this confrontational form of non-violence, I think they flummoxed the existing system, of white supremacism, which the world saw was a system built on violence inherited from slavery.”

Ricks has written about his time in Iraq and post-traumatic stress disorder. At the end of Waging a Good War, he considers how those who campaigned for civil rights, who were beaten, shot and imprisoned, struggled to cope with the toll.

“If you want to understand the full cost, it’s important to write about the effect on the activists and their families, their children. Dave Dennis Jr, the son of one of the people who ran Freedom Summer, he and I have talked about this a bit. We believe the Veterans Administration should be open to veterans of the civil rights movement. There aren’t a lot of veterans still alive. Nonetheless, it would be a meaningful gesture that could help some people who have had a hard time in life.”

In a passage that could fuel a whole book, Ricks considers how Martin Luther King Jr, the greatest civil rights leader, struggled in the years before his assassination, in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

The campaign took its toll on others, among them James Bevel, a “tactically innovative, strategically brilliant” activist who abused women and children, moved far right and died in disgrace.

Ricks hopes his book might help make other activists better known, among them Pauli Murray, Diane Nash – a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom – and Fred Shuttlesworth, “a powerful character, a moonshiner turned minister”.

Shuttlesworth lived in Birmingham, Alabama, scene of some of the worst attacks on the civil rights movement, most of all the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963, in which four young girls were killed.

To Ricks, “If there’s a real moment of despair in Martin Luther King’s life, it’s the Birmingham church bombing. He says, ‘At times, life is hard, as hard as crucible steel.’ That was the focal point for how I think about what King went through.”

But there is light in Birmingham too. Ricks recounts the time “the white establishment calls Fred Shuttlesworth up and says, ‘We hear Martin Luther King might be coming to town. What can we do to stop that?’ And he leans back and smiles and says, ‘You know, I’ve been bombed twice in this town. Nobody called me then. But now you want to talk?’

Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaks in Selma in February 1965, after his release from jail, supported by his aides including Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, left.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaks in Selma in February 1965, after his release from jail, supported by his aides including the Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, left.Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

“Then there’s Amzie Moore. I wish I could have written more about him. He came home from world war two, worked at a federal post office so he would not be under control of local government. He starts his own gas station and refuses to have whites-only bathrooms. ‘Nope, not gonna do it.’ To me, he’s like a member of the French Resistance but he does it for 20 years. When Bob Moses and other civil rights workers go to Mississippi, he’s the guy they look up. ‘How do I survive in Mississippi?’ And he tells them and helps them.”

Waging a Good War also considers how campaigners today might learn from those who went before. Ricks says: “Some of the people in the Black Lives Matter era have reached back. I talked to one person who went to James Lawson, the trainer of the Nashville sit-ins in 1960, and asked, ‘How do you go about this? How do you think about this? What about losses? Instructions?’

“A demonstration is only the end product, the tip of an iceberg. There has to be careful preparation, consideration of, ‘What message are we trying to send? How are we going to send it? How are we going to follow up?’ So James Lawson conveys that message. Similarly, Bob Moses, who recently died, attended a Black Lives Matter meeting. There are roots by which today’s movements reach back down to the movements of the forefathers.”

“Black Lives Matter reminds me of SNCC, if somewhat more radical, more focused not on gaining power through the vote but on abuses of power, especially police brutality.

“It’s sad that the problems the movement tried to address in the 1950s and 60s still need to be addressed. We have moments of despair. Nonetheless, one of things about writing the book was to show people who went through difficult times, and usually found ways to succeed.

“The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it. It was a real contrast. Writing about the Iraq war? It’s hard. This felt good. I was hauled to my writing desk every morning. I loved writing this book.”

  • Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 is published in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

 

“Prophetic & Scary” — A Quaker Mystery from 1993 That “Foretold” the Course of U.S. History Til Today

I

In 1992, I spent much of my free time planning a murder.

I mapped it out it out to the last detail: victim, weapon, motive, opportunity, covering the tracks, the whole meticulous homicidal mess. In the end, it went almost exactly according to plan, and was a complete success.

Almost.

Fortunately for all concerned, the murder was fictional: the plot of a mystery novel,
Murder Among Friends, published in 1993. It sold out two printings; that was the successful part.

But I’m remembering it now for a different reason. One of its central plot elements, indeed the underlying theme — the reason I wrote it —was not the homicide, but the context: the murder was a portent, a forerunner of a larger real-life conflict, with a grim history and an ominous future. I could feel it coming then; two decades later, long after the novel ended with this part unresolved, it has moved from fiction to perilously close to fact.

Its history was our American Civil War (the first one): my tale was set in one of its most contested killing fields, the splendid and fertile Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, near Winchester. The Valley was fought over repeatedly, and changed hands between Blue and Grey dozens of times. Today its landscape is dotted with battlefield memorials and war cemeteries.

It seemed an apt locale for early warnings of a potential repeat catastrophe. Further, the Valley had the other feature I wanted for my story: a long and turbulent, but little-known Quaker presence.

Continue reading “Prophetic & Scary” — A Quaker Mystery from 1993 That “Foretold” the Course of U.S. History Til Today

How Pizza, Porn & Public Executions Made Good Politics in North Carolina

Every Democrat who won a state-level race in North Carolina this week ought to be tossing  at least a fiver into a common hat.

Then that wad of bills should be plunked down at Greensboro’s greasiest pizza parlor, to have at several dozen steamy pies delivered to the front porch of Chez Mark Robinson, topped by an oversize “Thank You” card. On it will be a PS hinting broadly that Robinson should consider making a second run at the state house in 2028.

That’s a helluva lot of pepperoni, but the social media posts unearthed in the campaign indicate that Robinson could handle it, especially if he resumes his particularly spicy diversions to fill his impending surplus of free time. Continue reading How Pizza, Porn & Public Executions Made Good Politics in North Carolina

DNC: Monday, Monday– Can’t Stop That Day . . .

Here are a few of what I felt were highlights of the first day and night at the DNC (seen from my recliner at home, but a marathon even so).

As I predicted, the Chicago cops were out on their bikes for the DNC, big time.

 

Most in short sleeves, some in short pants . . .

 

But while numerous permits for protests were issued, not many showed up on Monday; these pro-Palestine posters beamed their messages mainly at the sky. The bike cops were spotted escorting a small group of pro-Israeli protesters which walked around one of the parks, keeping them separated from the more numerous Palestine-supporters. Later about 30 activists were arrested.

 

Screenshot

Inside, the speeches went on and on, to many thunderous cheers and loud, almost continuous  applause. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina struck a biblical note of encouragement.

Among a parade of union leaders, UAW president Shawn Fain went the GOP’s Hulk Hogan one better, by stripping off his jacket to expose a vivid red tee-shirt that called out Trump’s anti-union attitudes with a 4-letter epithet that’s one of the worst profanities than can be hurled by a union member.

We also heard from legal eagle Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of the survivors of the January 6 attack, and a tenacious attack dog himself in the second impeachment the insurrection produced.

Raskin drew on that experience to voice an ominous warning to one JD Vance (and of several other names), in his perilous quest to become Trump’s next Veep:
“Remember what the mob chanted as they stormed the Capitol?” Raskin asked. “Hang Mike Pence.”

“J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket?

They tried to kill your predecessor!”
Raskin continued.

“They tried to kill him because he would not follow Trump’s plan to destroy and nullify the votes of millions of Americans.”

And while The Squad has been somewhat reduced by primary losses this year, two of the group’s veterans showed they were not only survivors but becoming stars:

Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, is a young but fast-rising House member, and a riveting, witty and eloquent speaker. She jumped right in, noting that on On Nov 5,  the USA was going to hire a president. So, she said, let’s compare the two applicants’ résumes:

“[Kamala Harris] became a career prosecutor, while he became a career criminal. . . . She’s lived the American dream while he’s been Americas nightmare.”

Crockett then pivoted from keen barbs into a tender retelling of the comfort and encouragement she received from her very first meeting with Harris, when Crockett was an uncertain political newbie.” This is a speech worth hunting up on computer video.

And as a followup, straight from the Bronx and Queens New York came Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, known to all as AOC, another must-see video (only seven minutes, but power-packed and eloquent). Last night, AOC showed she was ready for prime time.

Of course there was much more; but the climax was Joe Biden’s speech, which included, for my money, the best, most unforgettable line of the night:

Best line of the night . . . .
The way Joe will remember it in his dreams . . .

It was close to 2 AM EDT when I tumbled into bed. And after I catch a bite and take care of a bit of other business, I’ll be at it for the next night: after all, there’s not one but two Obamas to look forward to, among other riches. And what was it that guy fro Minnesota, the coach said: “We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”