Don’t forget to read Dr. Norman’s essay and attend his lecture (if you can). Blog your thoughts on the these as a comment here.
Academic Writing
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Don’t forget to read Dr. Norman’s essay and attend his lecture (if you can). Blog your thoughts on the these as a comment here.
I attended Brian Norman’s lecture tonight, and I was thoroughly impressed and interested, to say the least. From Loyola University in Maryland, Norman spoke of the civil rights martyrs in both his lecture and essay. I thought it was particularly interesting how he talked about the murder of Emmett Till in great detail in tonight’s lecture. He showed numerous examples of literary works that included plays and novels (particularly by James Baldwin), which all tell different stories and paint different pictures of Till’s death. I also found it intriguing how many of the works exhumed Till’s body and examined the type of person he truly was. Hearing Brian Norman speak tonight was especially enlightening, considering it correlated to Freedom Summer and the unfortunate events that occurred in Charleston this past summer. Norman related literacy and race, while also introducing topics of feminism and controversy embedded in those literary works. Overall, Norman’s lecture effectively examined how past and present issues intersect.
I actually ended up attending the #BlackLivesMatter discussion in the Stern Center (sorry Prof. Kelly). Like we talked about in class, this talk was much more modern as opposed to the more historical one given by Dr. Norman. However, it was really interesting to see how many of those same issues fought against by activists back then are still present today. One of the main messages I took away from it is if we want to see change in the world, we have to fight for it as a whole; all or nothing. We can’t be divided; we have to stand together. Similarly, Patrisse Cullors (the main speaker) talked about how closely linked each distinct fight for freedom and acceptance are. Cullors, a feminist, black woman who supports LGBTQ rights, embodies the ideal that it is both illogical and hypocritical to fight for a group of people’s rights while oppressing another group’s. For example, she uses the “Straight Black Movement” to show that a group of people who try to fight for select rights (black rights) while simultaneously putting down another group (LGBTQ community), only hurt their own cause.
I read Norman’s essay, and a few things popped out at me as I read. Norman points out a disturbing fact I had not realized from “Freedom Summer,” and consequently, the following decades. While the FBI were searching for the highly profiled freedom summer advocates in the rivers, the men were pulling up a multitude of other bodies. Not once did they bat an eye, thinking that these other bodies deserve a happy ending with convicting the killer. Those bodies found were simply just identified as dead, and the men kept going. But, as Norman points out, “what are all these bodies doing in the river?” Do they not deserve just ends? Do their families not deserve to know who killed their beloved husband, wife, brother, son? Just because they were a nobody means they do not deserve a close to their life. It disgusts me that a white man had to disappear with black men for the government to step in to help find the killers, and it truly shows how messed up racism is/was in the past. On another note, I agree with Norman in saying that maybe our school systems should adopt the freedom school ways in pairing academic instruction with community-based discussions that involve real action, so that future generations know real-world problems, and how to deal with them.
I attended Dr. Norman’s lecture and was very intrigued with his view on racism and the civil rights era. Emmett Till was the focal point of his lecture, and the multiple way people have comprehended and analyzed his murder. He talked about many forms of literature and plays that have told stories of Till’s death. The works I found the most interesting were the fictional works describing what the “ghost” of Till would have to say or do today. I never knew that people will exhume a person’s body after decades to reinvestigate a case. I was very interested when Dr. Norman began to talk about Till’s body being exhumed to reinvestigate his case, and how they were still able to find his murderers, even though they had already passed away. By the end of his lecture, I was beginning to understand the link between the past and the present issues in our world.
I read Dr. Norman’s essay and was intrigued by the points he made regarding racism. When I read Freedom Summer I did not once think about how the FBI agents were pulling multiple bodies out of a river and not doing anything about it. But after reading Dr. Norman’s essay I began to realize that even the FBI, who were looking for three missing individuals, were disregarding other lost lives. The FBI only cared about finding these three men, two of which were white. Even looking at today’s issues with racism, although much less prevalent, much remains consistent with the racism during Freedom Summer. And it is people like Dr. Norman who open our eyes up to these issues and similarities.
I attended Norman’s lecture tonight and I was interested on his perspective of the racial issues throughout history. His main focus was on the death of Emmett Till. He started with the historical aspect of it talking about his murder, deposit into a river and his mother’s request of an open casket funeral. It was interesting to see all the links in later racial literature that illustrated aspects from his murder and others like his. He explained how the ghost of racial martyrs will become present in a living person’s body and affect their actions. I thought it was interesting how all these stories of martyrs’ ghosts correlated with watery deaths and how they are so popular in racial literature such as novels and plays. I also thought it was interesting how he mentions time is so ironic with racial issues. He mentioned setting up this lecture with Dr. Kelly in June and only several days later the tragedy of the Emanuel Church occurred. I really enjoyed his lecture and the connections about racial issues he made throughout literature overtime.
What I was most interested in from Dr. Brian Norman’s lecture was the story of Emmett Till. I had little knowledge about the reason for the gruesome death of this fourteen year old boy, but it was interesting to know how different authors incorporated this tragedy into their books. It is good to know that authors continue to tell his story through racial literature because people often forget about those who didn’t have a well-known name but had a big impact on civil rights.
Literature possesses a unique ability to bring historical events to action and to inspire social action. The brutal murder of Emmett Till is just a sad story if it stands alone. Maybe the story evokes brief passionate emotion, but the story itself is unlikely to affect social change. Yet when an army of creative minds devote themselves to retelling the tragedy in a powerful, creative fashion, the story comes into its full potential and truly begins to affect social change. We have seen the product of this army in the last half century through the continual retellings of the Emmett Till tragedy. Songwriters, poets, authors, and playwrights have all given their hand to empowering this tragedy. As I listened to Brian Norman’s lecture, I became acutely aware of the power in the hands of the author. A story left alone is dead, but the author has the ability to resuscitate the dead story, bringing it life, and posing the necessary questions that society needs to answer. I find it amazing that a play in which a dead man is exhumed and brought to trial can have such a powerful social commentary on racial issues. Truly it is in the hands of the author to take these stories that reveal such great social injustice and present them to the world in a way that inspires social action.
After reading Dr. Norman’s essay, a few things stuck out to me. To begin, I found it disheartening that during this time, the only way that serious national attention was placed upon Freedom Summer, there was a serious murder. The murder of Emmett Till, for example, was so publicized that it had over 150 novels, poems, and play tell the story of the murder. Dr. Norman’s essay focuses on how the story of Freedom Summer was portrayed in subsequent years; whether it was through movies or novels. At the end of the essay, Dr. Norman asserts that it might be best if we returned to the “original design of the Freedom Schools to imagine a curriculum that connected formal education and liberation project.” I found this to be a little odd how he wanted up to learn in the mornings, and go picket a cause in the evening. It seemed like it didn’t make sense with what Dr. Norman was talking about in the rest of the essay. He focused on how the story was getting told, and then shifted to telling us how we should adopt principles from the Freedom Schools.
I read Dr. Norman’s essay, and it was interesting to hear his opinion on literature regarding the Freedom Summer Era. It is shocking that people took so long to ask the question about the bodies that did not belong to Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner. The FBI should be concerned about any bodies they find in the river. Clearly this highlights the fact that killings were not uncommon in this era. Also, it was interesting to read his take on the literature. “Mississippi Burning” is widely criticized, but it sounded like there were more pieces that truly did not capture the full purpose of the civil rights movement. Freedom Summer captured the images of the schools and associations, and it personally gave me a new perspective of the issue. It sounds like there were many pieces published on the subject, but most of them captured stories and events that did not necessarily enunciate the issue on an organizational or national level.
After reading Brian Norman’s essay “What are these Bodies Doing in a River?” I learned much more than I thought I would in six pages. What was truly horrifying was the attitude the FBI had towards the dead bodies. Why had not a single member of the FBI team question why the bodies were in the river? Did they want they fame and attention, or could not care less about the families and the nobility of the deceased? This also makes me angry because the murder was really what caused national attention on Freedom Summer. Here was people risking their lives to fight racism with education. The only time this was noticed was when tragedy stuck. The whole scenario shows the priorities of the American society as a whole, which is really disheartening.
I read Dr. Brian Norman’s lecture, and the main point which stood out to me was not about the bodies found in the river-though this was a horrific circumstance- but the importance of documentation through out these events. In Freedom Schools, students were taught history of the African American population as well as literary skills which would give them the tools to have their own voice in documenting the civil rights movement. Freedom Schools also incorporated discussion based learning to a much larger extent than traditional memorization. This strategy resulted in a wider range of curiosity, questioning, and imagination in portraying the problems. Combining all of these skills, a population of young African Americans who had the capability to make a big impact on fighting for civil rights grew up. Having the ability to portray stories through poetry, writing, and plays had a big impact on the civil rights movement because it amplified the awareness of the conflicts and inequalities to a much wider audience. The power of education prevails.
I attended the Brian Norman event and actually loved it. He is a really great speaker. Even though it was all based from a historical standpoint, he brought some really fresh ideas. I had my friend Courtney (I introduced y’all) also come with me because she has just changed her major to African American studies. We went up and met Mr. Norman after and left liking him even more! I also really liked that he experienced “Baltimore” and could speak on that. He made his presentation much more than a history lesson. I’m really glad I went! Thank you!
(also, the food was really good)
I read Dr. Norman’s essay and attended his lecture, and it was very enlightening. He spoke a lot about the relation of race issues and literature in the past, and emphasized the point that to make a difference and make these martyrs mean something we must not only think of whether or not we’re telling their stories, but the way we tell their stories. It is crazy to hear what all people who are black had to go through in the past, and it makes me angry. So many of those people Dr. Norman talked about last night were mostly innocent, and none of them deserved what happened to them. He spoke a lot of Emmett Till and the 150+ pieces of literature that were written about his death, and then brought attention the question of why we talk about some of these martyrs more than others. Towards the end of the lecture, and especially during the Q&A, many links were made between the past and present and I came out of the lecture understanding the events of the past much better than when I went in.
To reflect on the lecture, I think that he brought to my attention phenomenons that I was aware of in light of recent events but didn’t fully understand the significance of. Specifically I’m referring to the idea of a martyrdom. There are distinct parallels we can draw between Emmet Till and those recently slain by the forces of police brutality and institutionalized racism with Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and Freddie Grey being some of the most well known. These tragedies all have things in common with Till, including racism, injustice, media attention, and martyrdom. One thing that resonated most with me was when he begged the questions, “What do we owe the dead?” Based on the lecture last night, I’d claim that we owe the dead far more than they could ever owe us, I think it would be a shame if the names of Bland, Brown, and Grey became little more than an allusion for literature, and a means for others to further corrupt expressions of black delinquency, white saviors, and anti-feminist sentiment like Till. That being said I don’t think it’s unfair or unwise to bring these people into martyrdom. The injustice they faced should not be mourned one day and swept under the rug the next, it should be a radical reminder that the fight against racism is far from over and a rallying cry to end police brutality and institutionalized discrimination for good. We owe the dead respect and honor, but we also owe them change.
I read Dr. Norman’s essay and two main points stood out for me. Firstly, The general public and federal aid did not become interested and involved in Mississippi until the disappearance and murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, two white and one black person. Furthermore, the fact that while the search for the three men was under way, multiple bodies were recovered from the river, but the only bodies interesting anyone were those of the three men, other bodies were simply disregarded, which for me seems extremely unjust and puts into perspective the American white disposition towards racism and the events in Mississippi. Also, the use of education as a tool of giving the younger generation a voice of their own is something I have believed in for quite a few years now and I am glad that those kinds of methods were accepted and seen as helpful, unlike in still many places today.
After reading Dr. Norman’s essay, I’ve been struck with a few things. First, the horrifying nature of the FBI drawing up numerous bodies out of the river and not thinking twice was a shocking image to think about. Every one of those bodies was a person with a family and friends, but because they weren’t “important” enough, they did not receive due justice, nor did their families. Second, the way that Freedom Schools were structured with applicable life skills about current issues in the world should be considered in schools today. When kids can see real-life applications to what they are learning, they pay attention and retain more, in my opinion. Not only that, but they might find something they are passionate about and pursue changing the world. However, lastly, I took away from this essay that no matter how much we read or watch, we will never be able to fully comprehend the horror of that time. Nor will we be able to understand that invigorating sense of community between activists that drove the Civil Rights Movement forward. I wish I could have been a part of it.
I read Norman’s essay and found it very intriguing. We all now know the story of Freedom Summer, and the reason why is because we all read a novel on it. Norman talks extensively about literature’s relationship to the black struggle. He brings an important point to the table. While art is extremely important when fighting against social injustice, it is also important to think about perspective, and sometimes even why the artist was motivated to embody such a message. A good example from the essay was “Mississippi Burning”, the big Hollywood production from the late 1980’s. While the movie does good by showcasing Freedom Summer, it does not necessarily hold true to what really happened, because of the perspective. It showed Freedom Summer as a movement of white heroism, not black activism. It is important to keep perspective in mind when viewing history to avoid inaccurate portrayal of facts.