For today’s class we have a special treat. A former IB student Camille McPherson, now a dancer with San Diego Ballet, will be with us to enjoy some time with her father, the famous jazz saxophone player Charles McPherson. Charles was born in 1939 (I’ll let you do the math there) in the South, in Joplin MO, and moved to Detroit when he was 9, just around the corner from the “hippest jazz club in Detroit” according to the official biography, distilled from a dissertation, on his web site. He has played along side many jazz greats including Charles Mingus and Wynton Marsalis. He has played all over the world and his career of course began in the time of great social and political change that we are studying. And as was said in our chapter for today, “They felt that as jazz musicians they were the most influential unofficial ambassadors America had”. So they played. So get ready to enjoy.
As for our reading today the reference to “Camelot” should be recognized as the Kennedy years. That such a short presidency takes up nearly 50 pages suggests that a lot went on here. A lot did. From the sit-ins to the Freedom Riders, to the creation of SNCC, and expansion of CORE as well as the Organization for African Unity, it is also the time period as noted as the rise of Castro (who Malcolm X will call the “blackest man I ever met”) and the “Year of Africa” in 1960 with all of the newly independent states. Culminating in the carefully managed march on Washington and the tragic bombing in Birmingham followed by JFK’s tragic assassination one might see how it would be hard to be optimistic at the end of 1963.
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I still can’t believe how poorly the foreign diplomats were treated when they came to the United States. Diplomats being refused service in hotels, restaurants, and diners is embarrassing for all parties involved. The story of the one diplomat who was given a folding stool and a wrapped sandwich in the airport was horrible. With the newly independent countries in Africa, and the subsequent influx in foreign diplomats, these racial predicaments were even more fragile. If the United States wanted any sort of good relations with the new African nations, the way these officials were treated in the United States would need to change. What was interesting in this chapter was Dudziak’s portrayal of Kennedy’s change in attitude on civil rights. At first, he runs his presidential campaign with some promises to African Americans, such as the end to discrimination in federal housing programs which he could accomplish “with the stroke of a pen.” When he did not follow through with this promise in his first year in office, civil rights activists sent thousands of pens to the White House. This unfulfilled promise shows Kennedy’s original lack of commitment to the civil rights program. As the chapter progresses, we can see how Kennedy’s position on civil rights changes. He becomes more involved (somewhat reluctantly at first) as it became apparent that action had to be taken. Eventually, Dudziak seems to believe that he truly became sympathetic towards the civil rights program, and was not just pursuing it because of its importance for the United States national security and foreign image.
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This chapter was of particular interest to me because of the parallels to my IA topic this year. I studied the systemic extermination of Ottoman Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, and came to the conclusion that the Greeks were not targeted for Genocide until the Greco-Turkish War (unlike Armenians and Assyrians which suffered mass murder beginning in 1914) because Greek Ottomans had an external advocate in form of the newly democratized nation of Greece, whereas the other victim groups did not. In Ottoman Turkey, when atrocities were committed against ethnic Greeks, the Greek government would use its (admittedly limited) diplomatic clout to apply international pressure and threaten the Ottomans with political and economical isolation. This “Big Brother” stance (in a good sense) arguably plays the leading role in this chapter, which so greatly emphasizes the link between civil rights and Cold War relations. Following the Year of Africa, the newly formed African Nations often use their international position and their U.N. vote to pressure the U.S. about the human rights violations that continue to take place (exempli gratia, police turning fire-hoses and dogs on protesting CHILDREN [just as an aside, what the hell is wrong with us people?]). When the Organization of African Unity is formed at a conference in Addis Ababa, this occurrence is still fresh in the mind of the international community, and a number of African heads of state write to Kennedy (like Milton Obote of Uganda) saying they will not stand for this, sometimes claiming kinship with the victims. And this, FINALLY gets Kennedy to take some notice, because while he ran on the promise of civil rights, he pushed them aside as far as possible to focus on foreign affairs. Once he realized that civil rights are, at this point, very much linked to foreign affairs, and that convincing the rest of the world that Americans aren’t monsters is going to take more than the Peace Corps (although I’m sure Ms. Dershem and the other volunteers helped), he becomes reluctantly involved in voting rights etc… In all honesty this chapter made me question why we hold JFK in such high esteem. Indeed, it seems he even owes MLK’s allegiance to his brother Robert. Kennedy’s martyrdom certainly contributes, but his blatant disregard of internal issues (until they endangered his international position [#callthefederalmarshalls]) cannot be described as very presidential (and that is without mentioning the “President’s Women” waiting for him in the pool).
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So many things happened in 1960 during The Year of Africa. However one of the most imporntant parts of the year of Africa was namely the independence of seventeen African nations. Some of the African nations being Cameron, Togo, the Mali Federation, Madagascar, Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Chad, the Central African Public, Brazzaville, Gabon, and/or Mauritania. For so many years foreign nations controlled parts of Africa, however now we see a break away from the scramble for Africa.
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I don’t know first hand about the Kennedy’s of that time but I have read about them at schools. I have seen documentaries on several key members of the family. They are the royal family of America and are well engaged in politics presently. Just a few weeks ago, how Kennedy gave a State of the Union response shortly after trump said his speech. By far the best speech was that of Joe Kennedy. He hit key points that I feel Americans are concerned with that included division amongst the nation, and DACA. Unlike trump, Kennedy was an effective speaker. His words were passionate and focused on compassion and dignity but most of all, he has a message of hope. Trump has the tendency to use current events to place fear in its people. He has even been quoted that other nations are laughing at us. Just to say, I don’t believe anyone is laughing at us but they are at him for his messages that promote one thing one day and something else that same day. All the same, Joe’s speech reminded me of the speech clips I heardadw by JFK and his brother Ted Kennedy. They were extremely hopeful and humbled. Perhaps this has to do with the fact they came during a time when the nation was undergoing much change. The time demanded that we changed how it treated its citizens. Then, Joe’s speech took me back when President Obama was elected and that awesome speech he gave during his first inauguration ceremony. All speakers has the same thing in common. They were are hopeful about democracy, but we need to work together closer than before. Now, I have a huge family and I don’t know any that own a gun. My family doesn’t own guns and I don’t plan to own guns. This is my right to not own guns. My grandfather taught me that just because you own a gun, your safety is guaranteed. Guns kill people and as we have witnessed in recent years, they kill students in colleges and most of all in high schools. I’m not saying that no one ought to own guns. That’s part of right but I am for those who demand more stricter gun laws. The last thing I want to worry about is having anyone coming into my school and committing such a hateful crime as that if Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and recently, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This is the time when we need to come together just as our past ancestors did. The way they fought injustices was to band together and march right up the steps of the White House and our local city hall. Berkeley did this in the past to protest the Vietnam war and social injustices. We are a nation that’s evolved since these times and we cannot even agree on simple things like the budget. I just feel that we need to go back to basics and remember what this country is founded on. We have to stop fighting one another and start preventing my generation from seeing attacks inside the places where we should feel safe. Soon, I’ll be able to vote and all those who sat doing or saying nothing need to go and make room for those who will take action. This is what this chapter today inspired me to write this morning.
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I really like what Dudziak said on page 162 “Because federal rights were at stake, because law and order demanded it, because it had an impact on his image as a national leader, because it harmed U.S. prestige abroad, Kennedy would find himself increasingly involved in civil rights.” I actually find this to be extremely interesting because its not something that Kennedy or any government could control. I mean how could anyone have predicted what happened with the Freedom Riders, maybe one incident but literally every place they went there was some form of a scandal. Especially when they got arrested in Mississippi and then faced 67 days of jail time, its just unpredictable. This is why I find the importance of civil rights on the world image of the US to be so fascinating. You don’t think about how other countries see things that seemingly only pertain to the US. I also find some of the critics around the world to be pretty hypocritical because some don’t even have any opportunity for any racial issues so how are they going to talk about the handling of racial issues in America. I also find it funny how some countries make it seem like the government is causing the issues when Kennedy really just wants them to stop.
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This chapter was particular interesting to me because I had never studied Kennedy’s presidency in such depth before. I had known a little bit about him, but I certainly did not realize his take on the Civil Rights Movement vs. foreign relations with the Soviets. I am glad that Dudziak addressed this and made it known how his take on each differed. It makes me a little bit angry that Kennedy seemed to only have thought of the racial discrimination issue as an issue if it was making the US look bad internationally. This reminds me, I absolutely despise the way that diplomats from black countries were treated on their visits to the US. They were respected individuals who were there on foreign relations missions and should have been welcomed with open arms. But due to ridiculous racial stereotypes and prejudices, they were refused service by Americans and were turned away in a country that should have been graciously hosting them. But back to Kennedy. The fact that he wanted to discourage and turn away the Freedom Riders for standing up for all black Americans just because it was causing conflict astounds me. I wish that these politicians were able to see and recognize that the racism, not the fight against, was creating the real problem.
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Something that was super clear to me from this chapter was Dudziak’s opinion on President Kennedy. According to Dudziak, civil rights was not a priority of Kennedy’s and whatever he did in the beginning that seemed to support the civil rights movement was actually to support his election campaign. President Kennedy is described as being “angered” by the persistence of the Freedom Riders and annoyed because the violence emerging from the protests could be used by the Communists as ammunition to make the United States look bad, which it did but not because of the Communists, just because it was bad. Following the events, countries such as Pakistan, Morocco, and Ghana state that the recent incidents were compromising to the US position of world leadership. However, not every country shared the same opinion and some applaud Kennedy’s actions. Ultimately, Dudziak reports that the Kennedy administration handled the crisis in a way that limited mob violence and negative headlines but without protecting federal rights and goes on to say that President Kennedy would find himself increasingly involved in civil rights conflicts, however usually not by choice.
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It was interesting for me to learn more about Kennedy. When Kennedy is mentioned the automatic connection is the civil rights movement. In the book there is a sentence that says that civil rights was not of interest for him and that to me was eye opening. He was basically doing it to gain popularity fro his presidency. He later is described as the hero of the civil rights movement, which I understand because he later pushed for a civil rights bill. I always thought that Kennedy was this president who actually went in and wanted change but learning that he was angered by the freedom riders and the actions they had taken. Over all, I found this chapter to be really interesting because it went more in depth with what was going on during Kennedy’s presidency. At least he came around at the end and changed the civil rights movement.
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Firstly, the presentation from Mr. McPherson was very interesting. I gained insight into the racial atmosphere of the 60s and he spoke a lot about consciousness and unity which is probably attributed to god psychedelic experience, because it is known to cause profound positive shifts in perception. In this chapter, something I found interesting was about Johnson’s methods of honoring Kennedy. Even though Kennedy himself did not prioritize civil rights, Johnson tried to propel the civil rights movement to honor Kennedy’s dreams. He was the one who got the civil rights bill to pass, and this was a celebration across the globe. However, Malcolm X was denouncing America and told African nations that it was merely a propaganda stunt. He traveled to Mecca and experienced a spiritual rebirth. So I wonder how he achieved that?
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