Audre Lorde , born on 18 February 1934, was an internationally-acclaimed American poet, feminist, professor, and civil rights champion. She described herself as a “black-lesbian feminist, mother, warrior, poet ” who “dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia“. She died in 1992. “It… Read More Audre Lorde
“I just wanted to do something important.” Norman Rockwell‘s first assignment for “Look” magazine (see here) was an illustration published on the 14 January 1964 issue.The title is “The Problem We All Live With” and it is considered an iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It is a painting where… Read More Norman Rockwell/2
On 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913 –2005) was a 42-year-old African American employed as a seamstress at a local department store. On the evening of Thursday, 1st December 1955, after a long day of work,… Read More Rosa Parks (1)
On 31st March1968, just four days before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., inspired by a previous sermon when he had recited parts of the hymn “We shall overcome” to the interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood, California. The resonant line of the folk… Read More “We Shall Overcome” – by Martin Luther King, Jr.
In August 1963, Joan Baez led a crowd of 300,000 in several verses taken from “We Shall Overcome” at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Even President Lyndon Johnson, himself a Southerner, used the phrase “we shall overcome” in a speech delivered after the violent attacks on Civil Rights… Read More 🎶 We Shall Overcome 🎶 (4. Use in protest movements)
In 1957, Pete Seeger, American folk singer and social activist, sang “We Shall Overcome” at the Highlander Folk School to an audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the young African-American Baptist minister who had become the most visible Civil Rights leader in the United States, who, on the way to his next stop,… Read More 🎶 We Shall Overcome 🎶 (3. Pete Seeger)
We shall overcome We shall overcome We shall overcome, some day Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome, some day We’ll walk hand in hand We’ll walk hand in hand We’ll walk hand in hand, some day Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome, some day… Read More 🎶 We Shall Overcome 🎶 (1. Lyrics, introduction, translation)
DESMOND TUTU (born 7 October, 1931) is a South African Anglican cleric and theologian known for his opposition to South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ii 1984. 🌍 “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We… Read More Human rights
words and music and stories 