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My, How the Guard Has Changed

The following Southern cities played dark historic roles in the civil rights movement and
all received national and international media coverage.  Most Americans of a certain age or awareness are familiar with them, but what ISN’T widely known is that today ALL of them are led by African American mayors!

As a reminder of those shameful roles played, here are some brief anecdotes:

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 1963

  • Fire hoses and police dogs turned on peaceful demonstrators seeking the right to vote and to be served at public lunch counters.
  • Bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls.
  • Current Mayor, Larry P. Langford

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI   1963

  • Medgar Evers, officer of State NAACP, murdered in his driveway.
  • Current Mayor, Harvey V. Johnson, Jr.

PHILADELPHIA, MISSISSIPPI   1964

  • Three civil rights workers (Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney) killed by local Ku Klux Klan and buried in earthen dam.
  • Current Mayor, James A. Young

SELMA, ALABAMA   1965

  • Scene of “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, where hundreds of voting-rights advocates were brutally attacked by Alabama law enforcement officers. Victims included present-day Congressman John Lewis (Georgia, Democrat).
  • Current Mayor, George P. Evans

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE  1968

  • April assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Current Mayor, Willie W. Herenton

What does all this mean?!?

When President Obama’s election is added to these mayoral elections, it should be clear that there is a great need for a societal assessment of these profound changes.  Obviously, they should be documented in much greater detail than I offer in these anecdotal reflections.  In fact, they should be systematically ANALYZED­-and monitored.

I conclude with a few words of wisdom I have shared with certain undergraduates at Harvard over the years:

“A CHANGING OF THE GUARD, WITHOUT A GUARDING OF THE CHANGE, IS MOVEMENT WITHOUT CIRCUMSPECTION AND COULD WELL BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.”

David Evans

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