Great book to learn about the real civil rights movement, as opposed to the clean version we got in "history" class (if there was a lesson at all). As I continue to read about the mid 20th century struggles of Americans, the broader picture seems clear. I highly recommend studying this narrative. ( )

I’m not sure what to say about Ralph Abernathy. He’s in the dictionary because he was such a great friend and adviser to Martin Luther King, so I decided to read his book. I feel shy about saying, Be like King/Abernathy, or else!, because white Americans did not deserve to have the truth preached to them so lovingly by such upright teachers…. and anyway, we told King/Abernathy to shut up, or else!, at the time, just like today people say America is great, now shut up. Of course what made the sixties happen was even relatively prosperous and upright middle-class Blacks like Katniss and Abernathy, I mean, King and Abernathy weren’t allowed into the mainstream, so there were lawyers and preachers leading protests and getting arrested; both King and Abernathy were Baptist preachers. As befitting his background and Greatest Generation/WWII vet status, (although he served in a segregated army, in a Black unit with white officers), Ralph David’s story has elements of the wholesome American story, raised right and working for a better world, although it has subversive elements too, since he got repeatedly arrested for asking for basic civil dignity in the United States of America during the space age.

…. There’s a sentence that I think displays the wholesome subversive tension, if you like: “We were marching around the walls of Jericho, and the white establishment knew it.”

…. A certain amount of tension is a sign of honestly struggling; people who think Martin is cute and glib have never heard much about him after kindergarten, nor the names of his friends and enemies, or the struggles of his life. I remember when I thought “Too Late the Phalarope” was going to be one of those cute Hollywood “Loving vs. Virginia” stories, (I was actually trying to de-southern, as I had recently been quite the northern cracker), and at the end I was just like, Wow, what a really sad fucking story.

…. America after 1965: We are equal if and only if, I am doing everything wrong, and you are doing everything right.

…. In a way Martin Luther King is more tragic than Malcolm X. Malcolm came from a working class background and was angry and oppressed and gradually things lifted for him and he became more universalist which is a beautiful story. Martin’s story is just as beautiful but it’s a lot scarier in a way. He came from a middle-class background, and he personally had it as good as a Black man could’ve got it in America, which wasn’t always that great, but it could’ve been a lot worse for him personally—but then for him to have to take as his moral life and his burden the burden of the poor and of his people the oppressed and to be gradually crushed by it: it’s just a sad sad story…. worse than a horror movie.

…. And even the anti-radical RD Abernathy exceeded what most whites, even liberal ones, were willing to give him after there were no more Southern laws to talk about. People just expect the kindergarten class to bare the burden of talking about race, and then we can all shut up and go home.

…. Of course by the end of the 60s there were some riots, and the non-violent crowd couldn’t always control things, but I don’t know how you talk about that in good faith when so many people don’t. Every Black need, every incident of Blacks being wronged, goes down the memory hole, and in return for this service we can all live in a country that’s patriotic, thank you very much. There’s no honesty or good faith, no negotiation. People panic when you do that to them for long enough, especially after things slightly improve for long enough for them to stop feeling like, they just don’t exist as free people. I wouldn’t call it rational, but for a less than heroic person some amount of failure in a near impossible situation is nearly inevitable, and not one-tenth of the hostility those people receive is earned on their part.

…. It’s not the money. It’s that people don’t think it’s honorable to deal with a Black. Every injury is also an insult, every concession distasteful beyond any material loss, because they’re ugly fuckers—not one of us!

…. Anyway, most white people like Dr. King because they think he was Uncle Tom, but Uncle Tom never got arrested.

…. And, to paraphrase Gogol—Well, it’s a cruel world, gentlemen!

Who campaigns or demonstrates now for the poor and disenfranchised? Is there still a Poor People's Campaign or plans for another Resurrection City in Washington, DC?
What future is there for the poor other than welfare and food stamps?

I just finished reading the history of the Civil Rights movement - an autobiography by Ralph David Abernathy: "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" (Harper & Row, 1989, 1990). It is the best history of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Abernathy because it relates personal and intimate stories from the man who knew the movement the best. A must read for everyone, especially anyone who is inspired to engage in action to reduce poverty in our nation and to know how civil rights for black people came to be inthe U.S.A. ( )

Who campaigns or demonstrates now for the poor and disenfranchised? Is there still a Poor People's Campaign or plans for another Resurrection City in Washington, DC?
What future is there for the poor other than welfare and food stamps?

I just finished reading the history of the Civil Rights movement - an autobiography by Ralph David Abernathy: "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" (Harper & Row, 1989, 1990). It is the best history of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Abernathy because it relates personal and intimate stories from the man who knew the movement the best. A must read for everyone, especially anyone who is inspired to engage in action to reduce poverty in our nation and to know how civil rights for black people came to be inthe U.S.A. ( )