Category Archives: Selma & Civil Rights

Dr. King & the FBI: Orgies & Commies & Wiretaps, Oh My!

Suppose for a moment that the bullet at the Lorraine Motel had missed Dr. King that evening in April, 1968. Suppose he had continued with the campaign there in support of sanitation workers — and then gone on to lead the Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington that summer.

Besides these boiling issues (along with the continuing Vietnam War), there were others waiting to ambush him, and one of these was sex.

The male chauvinism behind much of his and others’ behavior was corrosive to the cohesion of the key cadre of the movement: marriages were broken up; colleagues parted ways; many rank and file supporters backed away. These patterns were not “victimless.”

Read more →

Philadelphia YM’s Racial Turmoil Continues: Ambushed by URG

It began at Pendle Hill in early June, where I was visiting their Young Adult Friends conference, as a specimen Geezer Quaker. It came as a request to hear some “concerns” about my March blog post; I agreed.

It turned out, though, that the two URGers, a white male and female, wanted rather more than to “express concerns” about the post. In a session that stretched to three hours, they declared it was full of racist lies, had damaged their cause, and that it and I were thereby shown to be enablers, even pillars of racist white supremacy.

To set things right, they insisted I must retract the post, publicly apologize for both the text and its headline, and as a sign of real repentance, become a booster of their agenda.

I was unable to meet their demands. For one thing, there are no lies in the post; I stand behind it. For another, URG’s repeated rebuffs in PYM came well before it appeared, as did the turmoil and division that accompanied their efforts. The post may have echoed the questions of some others, for which I am not sorry; it was hardly their source. And I am not moved to become URG’s scapegoat.

Read more →

Gorsuch Defended Torture: That should END His Nomination

In the Iraq War which was launched in 2003, one of the worst of its many horrors was the use of torture. I have protested that practice for more than ten years, calling for ACCOUNTABILITY for those who created, justified and/or carried out that program.

This week you have the chance to HOLD ACCOUNTABLE one of those who justified official torture: NEIL GORSUCH. As reported by your colleague Senator Dianne Feinstein, as a white House lawyer Gorsuch justified torture and advised on ways officials could evade accountability for it. (Details here: http://bit.ly/2nYHgUZ )

Read more →

A Letter to Students at Friends Central School: Resist!

A Message to students at Friends Central School, Wynnewood PA:
From Chuck Fager
A few seeks ago I shared a story with you, about getting arrested in Selma, Alabama in 1965 and spending the night in jail with Dr. King.
I told you that for almost 50 years, that true story had a happy ending: from the black struggle in Selma came the Voting Rights Act, which had advanced freedom, elected presidents, and made things better.
But then starting a few years back, that happy ending was snatched away. In its place came massive vote suppression, and following that, attacks on the other freedoms that democracy protects. So my story about a fight for freedom was not over after all.
At my age, I said, passing on these stories is my main contribution. It’s a passing of the torch. As for the real activism, as for the new leadership demanded by our times, And these were my final words:
“It’s your turn.”
Now it looks as if your turn has come already.

Read more →