Speaker demonstrates power struggle during Civil Rights Movement

CONTACT: Gail Crutchfield, Communications and Marketing, Wallace State Community College, 256.352.8064, gail.crutchfield@wallacestate.edu
HANCEVILLE, Ala. – It started with one person facing off against three others who represented government, money and power. It ended with that one person being joined by many others and succeeding in a battle over human rights.
 

 
That was the demonstration provided Wednesday by Birmingham Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator Sam Pugh during Wallace State Community College’s Arts in April event spotlighting diversity.
Pugh, a native of Birmingham, provided a visual demonstration of the Civil Rights movement, using members of the audience during two separate sessions on the Hanceville campus. He started by quizzing the audience with such questions as: When did the Civil Rights movement begin?
During his second session, several answers were given from the audience: 1963, during the Civil War and the 1950s. In his opinion, Pugh said the Civil Rights movement started with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, earning the person who gave the answer “during the Civil War,” two thumbs up from Pugh.
“More or less, 1963 was the beginning of the end,” Pugh said of that turbulent year.
In his demonstration, Pugh utilized a game of tug-of-war to show how the people fighting for freedom were pitted against the “establishment” who were “anti-freedom.” The establishment represented government, money and power.
During the demonstration, Pugh called WSCC students and faculty onto the stage. Some were directed where to go, others had to make that choice.
“Do you want to fight for freedom?” he asked. “Will you do whatever it takes? You want to fight for freedom even though it may cost your family member their job? Because here’s the deal, more than likely your parents work for money, government or power, or they work for somebody who’s a part of money government or power.
“If they find out your last name and who you are and who your family is, guess what? They’re going fire them, and it’s going to be your fault. The lights go off, the gas goes off, the power goes off…. Y’all are sitting at the dinner table with a candle in the middle and your family looking across at you with that eye of murder because you decided to go fight for freedom. Now that you know that is a possibility, do you still want to fight for freedom?”
Though the questions were hypothetical, it took some of the students some time to answer it as they found themselves put in the position that many people found themselves in in the 1950s and 1960s.
As the demonstration continued, that one person on the side of freedom grew to outnumber the side of the establishment, with Pugh explaining how the freedom fighters used peaceful protests to help bring the world’s eye to the situation.
Pugh said a lot of the focus wound up in Birmingham as the Civil Rights movement hit its peak during 1963 when the world saw peaceful protestors – including children – be hosed down and attacked by dogs and more than 1,500 young protestors being arrested. The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the death of four innocent girls widened the spotlight and the eyes of many around the world. That was quickly followed by the shooting deaths of two young black men, one at the hand of a law enforcement officer and another by a young white man.
“Now we have mass chaos, because the world now knows what is going on in Birmingham. The world is looking at Birmingham,” Pugh said. “Montana knew about Birmingham. California knew about Birmingham. Indiana knew about Birmingham. But bigger than that, Switzerland knew about Birmingham, Alabama. Cuba knew about Birmingham, Alabama. Russia knew about Birmingham, Alabama.”
Cuba and Russia used the chaos of the Civil Rights movement to continue the “war of words” during the Cold War. “They picked up our newspapers and said, you condemn us for communism, and yet you kill kids, spray kids, you hurt children in America,” Pugh said. “This did not look good. Not only that, John F. Kennedy, right after the children’s march, he said segregation must stop. It must stop today. Many people feel that speech is what got him assassinated later on in the year.”
That international exposure brought more support to the side of the freedom fighters, which in his demonstration had those on the side of freedom defeating those left on the side of the establishment.
“These events changed the course of American politics,” Pugh said, citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act Kennedy was drafting at the time of his death and signed by President Lyndon Johnson after the fact, and then the 1965 Civil Rights Act.
“We like to credit the children and the leaders of the freedom movement in Birmingham for changing policy nationwide,” Pugh said. “But what I want to leave you with…it was not a bunch of grown people that changed the world in the 1960s. It was students that changed the course of history in America. You students here at Wallace State have a responsibility, not just to go to school, not just to better themselves, but to better this nation. It’s going to take guys like you, who have the thought, creativity to know that things can be better.
“You guys can mobilize, your voice can be heard,” Pugh said. “And if you need something to pull your strength from, check out 1963 and take on the spirit of not only four little girls and two little boys, but thousands of kids who said enough is enough, wrong is wrong and right is right and we’re going to stand up for right.”
Stacey Brunner, a member of college Diversity Committee, said Pugh’s appearance at the Arts in April event was a perfect fit as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of events of 1963 as well as the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
“We intend to take field trips to the Civil Rights Institute next fall,” Brunner added, “and this is in conjunction with the upcoming Common Read book “While the World Watch,” by Carolyn McKinstry, who was in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church the day of the bombing.”

 
 
______________________________
Kristen Holmes
Director, Communications & Marketing
Wallace State Community College
P.O. Box 2000, Hanceville, AL 35077
1-866-350-9722 256-352-8118 direct
256-352-8314 fax 256-339-2519 cell
Visit us online at www.wallacestate.edu