I want to start first by thinking everyone for being here. We are all here to discuss a moment in Howard University history, and a lot of you were here in the our zoom tonight, were direct participants in that moment so we invite you to use the chat in the q a to share reflections as we engage in dialogue. After our dialogue well take questions from now. And then finally this is being simulcast via youtube so share the link and those who may not be able to join us here can also view the program. April r. Silver commented that there are two howards. But she left it there. Almost as if to signify that what is known aint got to be reminded me of the famous score activist and former dean, kelly millers statement in the 1916 Howard University yearbook, quote, those who feel it know. Theres a howard hidden from view that nevertheless comes to the surface often and forcefully because it represents an alternative black political culture to use the word odd cedrick robinson. The culture that xi
Emphasize was the fact that ordinary people were becoming much more militant and aggressive in defending their civil rights. Im going to continue that theme tonight and, indeed, i think its even more so the case in the 1950s and 1960s that ordinary people became the engines of the Civil Rights Movement. We tend to think about the Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther king, jr. , fanny hammer and largerthanlife figures. The Civil Rights Movement was made up by ordinary people including and youll find out tonight a lot of College Students. A lot of College Students. In fact, in some ways the driving force of the Civil Rights Movement came from people who were probably no older than you in this room. I want you to remember that. College students were the main force in terms of the Civil Rights Movement. Okay. I want us to keep that in mind when we talk of the evolution of this movement. Ill begin the lecture by discussing the decade of the 1950s because the 1950s really provide, i think,
Images here, these images are of three of our noteworthy president s. Every ten years or so, about 700 political scientists and historians across the country rank our president s. Now, who knows how our current president is going to rank . Nonetheless, whenever those rankings come out, generally these three guys here rank at the top. Sometimes itll be lincoln, sometimes washington, sometimes f. D. R. But the interesting thing about this is that we do not know what george really looked like. We have images of lincoln. We have photograph images. And you can follow those photographs over time and see how he changed, how he aged. And of course we have images of f. D. R. We even have some images of him in his wheelchair. And generally the press did not take images of him in his wheelchair. But with George Washington, he was there before photography so we dont have photographs of him. What we have instead are artists representations and those are not always very accurate. I mean, you look at
Going to work toward the creation of a marshal plan to get massive investment in these cities. No matter what our mayors do, for all of the good efforts that are made, unless we can get massive resources in our community, we are not going to be able to solve all the problems. So we must fight for reparations and we must fight for marshal plan. [ applause ] now of course this question of struggling justification is not without controversy. Its complex. Its difficult. And so there are voices who may agree and disagreen a and that fine. Disagreement as long as its constructive and intended to help move the process, it should be welcomed. Nobody ever said it would be comfortable. It has to be creative tension and out of that creative tension comes better partnerships. It sharpens our analysis and our thinking. I want to put that out there. This is not about a blanket endorsement of anyone. It is about an understanding that someone has the right vision, the right direction, because where th
I will never forget, i was struck by his slogan. He said when i become a mayor, we become mayor. That said this was a collective enterprise, collective work and responsibility, so there are policies being elaborated here last year we were talking about a Marshall Plan, because he called for a Marshall Plan. And we are going to work toward the creation of a Marshall Plan to get massive investment in the cities, because no matter what our mayors do for all the good efforts that are made, unless we get massive resources in our community, we are not going to be able to solve all problems. We must fight for reparations and fight for a Marshall Plan. [applause] the struggle against gentrification is not without controversy. It is complex, it is difficult, so there are voices that may agree and disagree, and that is fine. This agreement as long as it is constructive should be welcomed. It is not always comfortable, but nobody ever said it would be comfortable. There has to be creative tension