Teaching about Ella Baker for the Broadside Press Institute of Cultural Studies

As a board member and co-founder of the Broadside Press Institute of Cultural Studies, I will be teaching a workshop about Ella Baker at the University of Detroit-Mercy in July. This year's summer workshop theme is "Intellectual Leadership." We will be discussing the lives of African American leaders, film makers, the portrayal of African American families in film, and writing poetry and reflections.

Click on the blue or gray words to go to the links.

Resources for Students:

Ella Baker Bio: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=19&contentid=9


The Ella Baker Center http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E7CWAOrl9M




Mississippi Freedom School
http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/ED_FSC.html

Freedom School Curriculum:
http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles/A_03_Index.htm

University of North Carolina Press: Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement
A Radical Democratic Vision By Barbara Ransby

http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=270

Click this for Books About Ella Baker (google page)

Education: Baseball- Racism Towards Jackie Robinson, Soccer, and Other Things

Aurora Harris- 4:30 a.m. July 8, 2010

I was in a deep sleep until I heard loud cheers and found myself waking up to a documentary on baseball with the narrator talking about the deep racism African American ball player Jackie Robinson and other team members endured as members of the Negro League Baseball teams. As I listened to what happened to the ball players in 1947, I had a very clear memory of my father telling me how he went to a field on or near 6 mile and Dequinder, on the east side of Detroit, to watch Negro League ball games because Blacks were not allowed to play on minor or major league teams due to the segregation of Jim Crow. In the memory, I could see my father and I driving east on 6 mile and hearing his voice say, "See that corner? I used to come here to watch Negro League baseball, some of the greatest Black baseball players in the world. They played on this field because they couldn't play in Tiger Stadium."

As I listened to the story of how Robinson suffered from stomach pains and was pushed to the brink of a nervous breakdown by repeated racist taunts and name calling by Whites every time he stepped out on the field, but managed to keep playing better and better until he was drafted into the Major League as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers... listened to how his team mate repeatedly drank alcohol to cope with racism until he began hearing voices and eventually had a stroke, and, listened to how a White ball player purposely gashed open Robinson's thigh with his spiked shoe, I thought about the soccer players of color during the 2006 World Cup who received racist taunts by White Europeans during soccer matches every time they stepped out on the field, and, how they became so upset, they wanted to stop playing.

The next memory that I had was about my father and how he came out our our restaurant on Fifth Street near Elizabeth and Plum, in the Plum Street district in the 1960's... how one evening, during a Saturday in the summer, he was stabbed repeatedly in his chest by a White man who tried to rob him. I remembered my mother getting the call from Receiving Hospital and going with her in a cab to find my father in the hallway wrapped in sheet, dripping with blood...how he told us later that the butcher knife broke off in his lung and that he drove to the hospital himself, slumped, and with gashes to his arms that severed tendons...

Jackie Robinson was one year older than my father...born in 1919, my father born in 1920...when Robinson was playing baseball in 1947, the man who would become my father was returning home from World War II... the soccer players in 2006 being spat at... all of it adds up to the existence of racism in various countries within a span of eighty seven years... Whether it is through sports or trying to be an independent business owner, the film and the memories are reminders of the reality of what Black Americans endured under Jim Crow and what some African men continue to endure in the 21st Century.

The following video is from an ESPN special on Soccer players of color and the level of racism they faced during the 2006 World Cup. The players are Carlos Kemeni, Marc Zoro, and Thierry Henry. I find it ironic that as I write this morning, the 2010 World Cup Soccer games have been taking place, and it was just announced that Spain beat Germany...Spain's racist fans are shown in the video.

As a result of the racism from soccer fans, Thierry Henry got with Nike to make a commercial that speaks out against racism. The commercial called "Stand Up Speak Up" has been shown in Europe. The commercial follows the sports video.

  Sports (Soccer) and Racism.  This video was posted a few years ago.  European Racism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwpO-nnFY9g




2. Thierry Henry's Commercial: Stand Up Speak Up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sbetvlu9Qg




So, here I am sitting on the edge of the bed watching images of Whites in the bleachers screaming at Jackie Robinson in a black and white film on baseball...suddenly I get an in color flash memory of the soccer players and how they looked on the field as people screamed at them, and then I have an idea to put to the two together, the baseball documentary and the soccer video, to talk about racial and ethnic identity, racism, and its effects.

I think that if teachers, parents, and students who are interested in Sports; American, African American, Ethnic, Racism, Whiteness, and Peace Studies should watch the documentary on baseball and compare what happened to Jackie Robinson and fellow African American ball players, to the European soccer team players, there is a possibility that someone will have a deeper understanding of the levels of racism that historically exists, in addition to discussing the following and other sources mentioned in this morning's blog:

1. The effects of the social construction of racial and ethnic identity.
2. Prevailing racism in an imagined post-racial or colorblind society in America and abroad.
3. Resiliency, strength, and coping skills to deal with persistent racism and racial violence.
4. The importance of documenting and listening to lived experiences from our families and communities
5. The importance of lived experiences in legal cases as discussed by Critical Race Theorists.
6. Where or how does a person find peace or peace of mind when faced with racism on a daily basis?
7. Examples of how race trumps gender and class.
8. How to improve race relations.
10. Since there was no equivalent to the US Civil Rights movement for people of color in Europe, how can we as Americans who either lived through and after that era, lend support to others that experience racism in other countries?

It is now 7:14 a.m. and a POV film about apartheid in South Africa is on ( once again this is another morning experience of watching important educational programs that are shown most people are asleep). For more info on the film "Promised Land" go to

http://www.pbs.org/pov/promisedland/background.php

Notes: (see PBS Baseball link below)

1. I was watching Baseball, Inning 6: The National Pastime (1940-1950) by Ken Burns
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/pastime/

2. For info about the Negro Baseball League: http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/history101.html

3. For further information to add to your discussion, see this blog's side bar for "Education: Aurora's Project: Part 4 Brazil." Click on the link to see more videos concerning the construction and effects of racial identity in Brazil, the story of Native American actors in Hollywood, and, videos on Whiteness and White privilege.

4. The website Football Unites Racism Divides explains the Stand Up Speak Up campaign and provides more information of racism in soccer (football). At he bottom of the page is a PDF document that has the story of Stand Up Speak Up from 2005-2009.
See http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=275

5. Latest news on racism in soccer as of July 1, 2010 from Foreign Policy. A 3 page article about France: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/01/le_scandal?page=0,0


End: 8:13 a.m. July 8, 2010
writing and memoir c. 2010 by Aurora Harris
All other sources and videos mentioned are under their own copyrights like YouTube, PBS, Ken Burns, POV, Thierry Henry, Nike, Football Unites, Racism divides, etc.

Also see me at Facebook.

Education: Civic Literacy- Speaking to Detroit City Council

July 7, 2010

This morning I attended a Detroit City Council Meeting with other concerned parents and citizens to ask the Council Members to not turn the Detroit Public School District over to the Mayor. I requested that they allow us our right to choose and vote for Detroit Board of Education representatives. While we face numerous issues concerning our city after being devastated by the economy, and, many of us are tired from just trying to survive from day to day, two of the things that the citizens have is a VOICE and our right to VOTE.

During today's Council session, there were several female students and the principle from the Catherine Ferguson High School for pregnant teens that received Spirit of Detroit recognition awards for their work with urban gardening and green house construction in Detroit, and, their reaching out to students in South Africa. A proud parent spoke about how her son, a graduate of Renaissance High School in Detroit, received more than one million dollars in scholarships to attend a university.

I mention these success stories because these students are the products of Detroit's Public School System. Contrary to the numerous negative media stories about the bad situation our schools are in, we do have dedicated parents, principals, students, and concerned citizens who virtually go unknown unless you get to see them for yourself at presentations during City Council meetings.

Concerning the take-over of the schools by the Mayor, why did we speak about the importance of Detroit's citizens having the right to vote for our school board? Some of the answers are:

Many Detroit citizens are not voiceless or illiterate.

Many of us are the products of the Detroit Public School System, community colleges, and local universities; have or had children in the schools, and are fighting against apartheid schooling and its effects.

Many of us own homes and pay property taxes that fund the district and

Many of us understand and know the importance of CIVIC LITERACY.

Education: American & Multicultural Studies (Videos From Howard Zinn Special)

Today's Session concerning American History and Culture covers historical speeches made by famous and not so famous Americans. Write a reflection concerning these speeches and share them on this blog. Thank you.

The videos are from:

Voices of a People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove.)


1. Danny Glover Reads Frederick Douglas' "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (July 5, 1852)



2. Alice Walker Reads Soujourner Truth's "Ain't I A Woman"



3. Alfre Woodward Reads Maria Stewart's address to Black Abolitionists



4. Sandra Oh Reads Yuri Kochiyama re: Japanese internment camps



5. Mos Def Reads Malcolm X



6. Benjamin Bratt reads Orlando and Phyllis Rodriguez's letter, "Not in Our Son's Name," distributed to the media on September 15, 2001

Jazz: July 4-Why I Love and Write About Jazz Part. 2

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie: Hot House



Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams:



Pharoah Sanders: Favorite Things



Cecil Taylor: Documentary


Ravi and Alice Coltrane: A Love Supreme

Jazz: Why I Love and Write About Jazz..all music really!

7/3/10 3:46 p.m.


Last night, I had a great playing DJ by posting jazz and videos on my fb page. A friend of mine asked me when was the last time I played violin and suddenly I recalled being a 14 year old Jr. High School student ( these days its called Middle School) playing my violin all day on Saturdays in my bedroom. The first album that popped into my mind was "Birds of Fire" by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Jerry Goodman was the violinist for the band at the time, before Jean Luc Ponty joined.

I remembered playing "Miles Beyond" over and over and "Birds of Fire" in an attempt to become more accurate at playing fast runs. Prior to playing jazz-rock, which was called "Fusion" at the time, I played classical violin. I was in elementary school and began taking lessons when I was in the 2nd grade at the school. On Saturdays, I took lessons at noon at the Grinnell's Music Store on Woodward in downtown Detroit. Prior to that time in my life, I remembered being a little girl before I entered elementary school. My grandfather would play Bossa Nova, Stan Getz and Milton Nasciemento when it was time for me to take naps.

By the time I was in the 4th grade, I was playing in Detroit's All City Orchestra, that met for practice in the large auditorium of Cass Technical High School. The orchestra would have been like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Sphinx Orchestra for youth.


So some of my Saturdays were spent meeting at Cass Tech in the mornings, then I would walk to Woodward and take my noon lesson at Grinnell's. I recall my best friend and I being the only two girls from our elementary school to play in the orchestra with high school students. I played second chair position.


What does classical music have to do with jazz? Well, one day at Cass Tech, we were told that the funding was gone and the orchestra could no longer be supported (  I think this was in 1966) and that the orchestra would be discontinued. I remember being in the hall with the other students, all of us with the look of shock and confusion on our faces, and crying. I remember that when we arrived, the auditorium door was locked, so we were waiting in the hall for the conductor.  Our instrument cases were in the hallway and when someone arrived, we were asked to gather 'round.  I remember that when we received the news, how some of us who were standing against the lockers, slid down to the floor and cried.


After the orchestra was shut down, I continued to take private lessons at Grinnell's until it closed down. By that time, I was in Jr. High School and we had "Band" instead of "Orchestra." Eventually, I dropped out of the class. All I had to practice from was Beethoven, Mozart, and a Vivaldi concerto for two violins. Now this is where the jazz comes in.


One day, I was listening to WJZZ and the DJ played a Miles Davis tune. I can't recall what it was but I  remembered thinking that I could play the song. I used to listen to rock a lot when I was a teen and was trying to figure out what else I could play on the violin. Later, in 1972,  I heard the Mahavishnu Orchestra play "Birds of Fire" and fell in love with the song. I liked fusion because it combined rock and jazz. I could hear the violin in it and was sure that if I bought the album, I could pick out the notes and play by ear. So I grabbed some of my pay from my newspaper route, hopped the Hamilton bus to Northland, and bought it from the record store. And this is how I began collecting fusion LP's that had violinists. Later, I practiced to Stephan Grapelli, then Jean Luc Ponty when he replaced Jerry Goodman. I also had Gentle Giant collection to practice to. My favorite to play was "Black Cat" from the Acquiring the Taste LP.


Years later, in the late '70's, early 80's, when I was a university student, I took some jazz theory and music appreciation courses to help me understand how jazz was composed. It was at that time that I began collecting jazz, going to jazz concerts to write papers for my theory classes, and really got into BeBop and folks like Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Coltrane, Miles, Ayler, and others. Later, I took these experiences and began documenting jazz musicians by writing jazz related poetry.


Here's the Gentle Giant cut "Black Cat"




Here's an early video of the first Mahavishnu Orchestra with Jerry Goodman on violin, Billy Cobham on drums, John McLaughlin on guitar, Jan Hammer on keys and synth, and Rick Laird on bass. (My hair was like Jerry's!)

I Read A Declaration Against Racism in Detroit on June 24-US SF Press Conference

9:25 a.m. July 3, 2010

On June 24, 2010, I was honored to be invited by my friend Freda, to attend a press conference in the Media Center at the US Social Forum and read the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion Declaration of Intent: Race, Residence & Regional Cooperation.  A copy of the document is posted below. Prior to the reading of the Declaration, a statement was made that made it clear that in Detroit and Metro Detroit, a colorblind or post-racial society does not exist, due to the history of racism and its continued effects. A large copy of the Declaration was provided for the attendees to sign. I felt proud to sign it.

The press conference had a beautiful, historical exhibit of Detroit neighborhoods that were targets of racism. The exhibit included Black Bottom, "The 8 mile Wall" that separated blacks from whites on the NW side of Detroit, like the Berlin Wall, and a photo of the National Guard during the 1967 rebellion/riot. 

After seeing the photo of the National Guard, I was flooded with memories that placed me right back in Quezon City, P.I., where I watched the rebellion via satellite before we received a telegram from my father telling us to leave the country and come home ASAP. The photo of the crouched National Guard soldiers reminded me of the soldiers I saw in the Philippines that were on the streets as we drove to the airport in Manila, and, the soldiers I saw driving on Hamilton Ave. with Army Jeeps that had what looked like rocket launchers, and, the tanks and jeeps that were parked on the field of Central High School on the Linwood Ave. side.

On June 25th, 2010, at Wayne State University, I attended a workshop where people gathered to listen to panelists talk about the way cities and townships in Metro Detroit practice and promote racism and exclusion. One of the panelists spoke about living in Sterling Heights, MI, where she found that folks did not celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. The speaker stated that she was able to bring the issue to their City Council. "I had to tell them it was a Federal Holiday." 

All of what I have written so far, brings me back to my Masters' paper that documented the activist efforts of the 1970's  that were made to eradicate institutionalized and systemic racism in the City of Detroit. At this point, there is something stirring in my soul...an uneasiness...the memory of comments written across the pages of the paper that questioned the validity of racist statements that I have been hearing from some white folks from the streets of Detroit, to classrooms in universities, to community meetings, for the past 45 years.  I feel as if my reality is not valid unless it is "proven" ...so in case anyone ever  asks me, "Who? Where did this take place?" I can just refer them to this blog and the document below.

Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion

Declaration of Intent

Race, Residence & Regional Cooperation

Truth & Reconciliation Commission

June, 2010

Preamble

This nation was established on the promise of equality and opportunity.  Delivering on this promise for all people is an ongoing struggle.  We all share a linked fate.  As we fulfill this promise, we all benefit.  When any individual or group is denied equality and opportunity, we all suffer.  Having the courage to examine and understand our history can help build a more just society.  Truth provides the foundation for reconciliation.  Reconciliation provides the foundation for hope and the promise of a supportive and inclusive future.     

The contemporary challenge: Detroit is the most segregated region in the country.

Detroit is the most segregated of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.  The 2000 US census provides a mirror of our social reality.  Two of every three communities in Metro Detroit are more than 90 percent white; one of three is more than 95 percent white.  On the other extreme, Inkster is 67 percent black; Detroit, 81 percent; and Highland Park, 93 percent.  This is not simply a problem of the past.  In the 1990s, more than half (53 percent) of all white Detroiters left the city.  Only one in 10 Detroit residents is a non‑Hispanic white.  Sterling Heights (111,743) and Warren (124,936) both have more white residents than Detroit (99,921

Racism casts a long shadow over the experiences of all of Southeast Michigan.

Today’s regional segregation by city and township is no accident.  Residential and social segregation are the direct consequence of countless individual choices made in the context of identifiable institutional structures, unavoidably tinged by the effects of race, racial tension and racism.  Many practices consciously and unconsciously have oppressed a large segment of the population.   We continue to live with these legacies; the legacies produced, for example,  by the crowds that gathered outside the home of Dr. Ossian Sweet, the hands that constructed the Wailing Wall near 8 Mile and Wyoming, and the racial conflicts and unrest that boiled to the surface in 1943 and 1967.   These practices resulted in crimes against the body, crimes against property, the collusion of public and private institutions in preventing access and opportunity to all people, and numerous conspiracies of silence.

We still feel the effects of these troubled times.

If problems are not addressed, they fester.  Social structures and racial hierarchies reproduce themselves over time.  Historically, blacks were limited to a few Detroit neighborhoods, such as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.  White neighborhood associations fought aggressively to prevent black families from moving into their communities.  These private acts of discrimination were reinforced by government policies such as redlining and discriminatory lending policies of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), as well as the refusal to locate public housing near areas of opportunity.  Sadly, when racial segregation inside the city could no longer be maintained, similar social forces reproduced identical patterns of segregation at a regional level.  Suburban governments have taken the place of the neighborhood associations.  Exclusionary zoning and failures to provide affordable housing have taken the place of historic fights to prevent the siting of public housing in traditionally white neighborhoods.  The results, however, are the same.  Metro Detroit remains the most segregated region in the country. 

Racial Segregation is also the segregation of opportunity and hope for the future.

Decades of social science research illustrate how racial segregation embodies a deeper institutional segregation of opportunity.  Without doubt, racial disparities have had a disproportionate effect on the regions African- American population, but they have also limited the quality of life for all our citizens.  We share a linked fate.  The geographic fracturing of Metro Detroit is also a fracturing of hope for the future.  Many young people with the opportunity to do so choose to leave the region and move to other more diverse metro areas.  Despair and a lack of hope in the future fill the lives of many who stay.  The failure to build a just and inclusive community greatly diminishes our collective potential, as well as our regional promise.  A brighter tomorrow can only be built upon a willingness to confront these difficulties with a shared commitment to both truth and reconciliation.

An inclusive and prosperous future can only be ensured by an inquiry into and understanding of the structural dynamics of racial segregation, past and present.

Too often, stories are told focusing on individuals and not institutions.  While it is true that individual Detroiters formed neighborhood associations that organized to prevent blacks from purchasing homes, it is also true that public officials and community leaders helped shape and perpetuate these same patterns of oppression and exclusion.  All important institutions in the community should pause and reflect on the role that they knowingly and unknowingly played in this process.  The failure to understand the deeper structural dynamics of racism has cultivated the mistaken belief that these problems are only problems of the past.  They are not.  These institutional histories carry forward and define the patterns of behavior that exist today and will be projected into the future if not addressed now. 

The establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, inspired by the process that took place in South Africa, will allow us to develop an appropriate understanding of past injustices and to envision constructive remedies to create a new regional culture of fairness, equal opportunity and improved prosperity.

Working to understand the dynamics of individual and structural racism can permit us to better understand our past, while creating opportunities to build a more just tomorrow.  All important institutional stakeholders must be part of this self-reflective process.  Understanding the institutional role of race in our past and now can permit us to collectively re-imagine our future.  A Truth and Reconciliation Commission that shepherds this process will allow the region to constructively engage the problems, division, and bitterness related to past and present patterns of segregation.  Truth provides the foundation for reconciliation.  Reconciliation provides the foundation for hope and the promise of a better future, enabling Metro Detroit to realize a  fuller potential, the construction of a viable, inclusive region to educate, to work and to live in for this and future generations.

We, the undersigned, commit ourselves to work diligently and honestly with the people and institutions of Metro Detroit to carry out this project with integrity, promoting truth, understanding, and the hope for a future providing opportunity for all.