Years later though she could recall almost every physical detail of what it had been like to sit there in that course on English literature, Diane Nash could remember nothing of what Professor Robert Hayden had said. What she remembered instead was her fear. A large clock on the wall had clicked slowly and loudly; each minute which was subtracted put her nearer to harm’s way….It was always the last class that she attended on the days that she and her colleagues assembled before they went downtown and challenged the age-old segregation laws at the lunch counters in Nashville’s downtown shopping center. No matter how much she steeled herself, no matter how much she believed in what they were doing, the anticipatory fear never left her.
Excerpt from the prologue of The Children by David Halberstam
When Villager I saw an old tree today recommended that I read The Children, I had no idea that I wouldn’t get past the first paragraph of the first page (above) before being stopped in my tracks. Once again, I was reading about a woman whose role in the Movement I should know; once again, I was confronted with my own ignorance, born of my own privilege. As usual with these posts, I am providing a mere gloss of the individual featured; in 2013, the newspaper, The Tennessean did a series profiling the leaders of the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, and their detailed overview of Diane Nash can be found here: Diane Nash refused to give her power away: Civil Rights leader Diane Nash played a critical role in pricking the conscience of Nashville. Read it, and then listen to Diane Nash. Hear her words; they’re as important today as they were in 1960.
{{{DoReMI}}} – I’m going to have to do this one in pieces. I can read faster than I can listen to people speaking. But I will listen to them over the course of the day. Thank you for putting this together, as always.
Truth to tell, I don’t remember anybody’s name that we don’t have a holiday named for. Every time I read your posts or Denise’s posts I spend my time going back and forth between “oh that’s the person who…” and “oh that’s her/his name.” Which I pretty much promptly forget – I have sticky notes all around my computer of the names of folks I’m going look up or want to remember. sigh. But I always appreciate the work you do to bring me one more for my list. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meese. Thanks for spreading the word, DoReMi between the sites. I admit to white privilege changing my perspective on many things. Also, lack of coverage in my very small town didn’t help.
31 with a high of 54 today. Off to refill and grab my buds.
Morning meese…Thanks Sher…Another in a long line of superbly informative diaries. Thank you!
LOL, my ignorance has its advantages; it will be a long time before I run out of topics to explore!
And what strange times we live in…I NEVER dreamed I would be cheering the words of a former CIA director.
Thanks all! If you didn’t see it last night, I strongly recommend watching the PBS Independent Lens episode, Tell Them We Are Rising. It’s a survey of the history of HBCUs, and what little I saw convinced me it is must-see TV. I’ll be catching the whole thing through On Demand; it’s available for streaming here: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/tell-them-we-are-rising/