Freedom’s Fruits: A Sea of Change for Blacks

Ross, S. (1994, August 14). Freedom’s Fruits: A Sea of Change for Blacks. The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star

, p. A12.

OVERVIEW

(Download Freedom's Fruit overview as a PDF)

Ross’ article focuses on Vicksburg, Mississippi and the triumphs and setbacks its black community has experienced. Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1964, a program called the Freedom Summer Project

employed 1000 volunteer college students to register black voters, educate children and run community centers in an effort to "...chisel away at formal segregation." In an area of the country most known for its racism, the South boasts the greatest number of black elected officials of any region in the country. However, blacks in the South still live with a tenuous relationship with their white neighbors: "Being black in the South means acceding to a love-hate existence. It means loving the laid-back, nearly conflict-free life, but hating the history of oppression that underlies, and too often undermines, this hard-earned ease."

Lee Willa Miller, a resident of Vicksburg and long time activist, shares her experience of racial progress:

Miller doesn’t see racism scraping against black people in the South as rawly as it scraped her back in 1928; she sees a more insidious form that foments black self-destruction through unemployment, drugs, crime or the breakdown of the family. ‘Somewhere along the line, we’ve made progress. But somewhere along the line, we’ve gone back...You’ve got some black folks who live well. But it’s not enough. The white man has still got his foot on us here. White people are white people, and don’t ever forget they’re white. They’re not going to ever want you to come up to their equal.’

The article comments on racism and politics; it also discusses racism and juvenile delinquency, presenting Vicksburg as a representative southern town. The main point to be learned from this article is that, although Vicksburg is in the deep south, its struggle against racism is resembles towns anywhere else in the country—it can point to some progress, but too much racism and self hatred among its youth persist. The South, long characterized by its intense racism, differs little from its metropolitan neighbors to the north and west. Sadly, America remains a nation still plagued by its racist history.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How do you assess the civil rights movement of the 1960s? Were the efforts of black and white young people effective and long lasting?
2. How, in the deep South, is present racism different now than it was in the 1950s? How do you compare today’s racism in the South and North?
3. What can families, schools, churches, and youth groups do about youthful racism?
4.  

1. Should youth organizations specifically address the issue of racism?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Americans tend to tire of problems they cannot quickly solve.
2. Overoptimism, extreme pessimism, cynicism, and apathy all deter correcting the great American problem. Progress has been made; injustice still remains.
3.  

1. Those who relate to young people should be concerned with the whole person. Racist tendencies impede holistic growth.

Amy Allison Moreau and Dean Borgman cCYS