Boomers to the Barricades!
“It’s changin’ out there. Just like last time. There’s a storm comin’ Harry. And we all best be ready when she does.”– Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
We do love anniversaries here in the USA. This year it was the 40th anniversary of 1968, one of those years like 1776, 1860, 1929, 1941 and 2001 where we stood at some kind of societal crossroads.
Of course the problem with anniversarial history is that the only time we’re supposed to think about our history is when the Corporate Media waves its digital wand and provides us with a safely sanitized version that doesn’t threaten the present Established Order.
Fortunately, I’m not a part of the Corporate Media so I can think about history any damned way I please. So can you. Like the t-shirt says,”Think, while it’s still legal.” So I’m going to refer to the events of 1968 in a way that I sincerely hope will contribute to the overthrow of the present Established Order. Read more
The Souls of White Folk
I attended my first Black History class in 1968 at the University of Maryland. The class came about because black students demanded it in that tumultuous year. They were supported by a small but significant number of white students.
On the first day of class it was a shock to all of us to find out that a southern white professor was the teacher. Because of UM’s Jim Crow history, it had almost no black faculty at the time. The class was full to overflowing and the reaction of the students was so intense, I thought there was going to be a riot. But Professor Dan Carter turned out to be very knowledgeable and an relentless foe of Dixie apartheid. All of us learned a lot from that man.