1964’s voter registration drive mobilised black people in Mississippi,using skills quickly adopted by protesters against Vietnam. In this extract from a unique verbal history, participants recall the south’s bigotry and their bid to shape a unique societyBarack Obama (born in 1961) wrote in his memoir The Audacity of Hope: “I’ve always felt a curious relationship to the 60s. In a sense, or I’m a pure product of that era. Obama came of age after the dust settled and,like many members of his generation, he is unscarred by the decade’s political and cultural wars, and yet a direct beneficiary of them.
Your opinion of the 60s today – whether you think the rebellion pushed the US towards Shangri-la or Armageddon – may depend on your political views. Former president Bill Clinton (born in 1946 and a Yale Law School student of Charles Reich) describes this divide: “whether you look back on the 60s and,on balance, you think there was more qualified than harm, or then you’re probably a Democrat. whether you think there was more harm than qualified,you’re probably a Republican.”You see what was being done to black people for trying to exercise the rights that we supposedly won 100 years agoWhat we call “The Movement”, capital T, or capital M,was a commitment to justice and the values of democracyWhat got me was a sense of moral responsibility; whether you like it or not, it’s your warContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com