Freedom road
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=623298
The abolition of slavery in the United States wasn't even the beginning
of the end of black oppression. Here, the writer Bonnie Greer,
grand-daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, gives her personal account
of the fight for liberty
26 March 2005
The word "freedom" is bandied about a great deal today. We all want
more of it, whether it's freedom to chose those who represent us to the
freedom of having an extra hour of sleep in the morning. "Freedom" for
me was a visceral word, full of meaning. Growing up the child of a son
of black sharecroppers, and witnessing on television some of the most
momentous events in the struggle for human equality that the 20th
century had seen, I heard the word sung by people only a few years
older than me as they tried to go do something as simple as go to
school. Being a child, I did not at the time understand the boldness of
their song.
I am still old enough to recall history classes where black people were
shown bent over in cotton fields, the implication being that this was
all they were good for, and that they were happy and grateful to be
where they were. There was a map of the world on the board. Africa was
smaller than Europe. Every Friday afternoon, our school was shown a
film, and when Tarzan was the film, with the screaming natives leaping
all over the place, we all slid under our seats.
Bonnie Greer
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/b6bdc7307213153d
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