Go Getta Chedda: What is OUR Legacy?

I woud be remiss if I didn't acknowlege the recent passing of two very influential people in the civil rights movement:

Robert Hicks & Dr. Dorothy Height

While Mr. Hicks was not as notable a figure as Ms, Height he was still very well known for his activism and the strides he made in his hometown of Bogalusa Louisiana.

Mr. Hicks was a member of the local NAACP and the Bogalusa Voter and Civic League. He won several major lawsuits, one which resulted in the desegregation of Bogalusa's public schools and the prohibition of unfair hiring tests and seniority systems at the local paper mill. He also filed a suit against the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing, which resulted in the prohibition of the construction of public housing in segregated neighborhoods in Bogalusa.

In another landmark suit that Mr. Hicks filed against the city and police department of Bogalusa, he obtained a federal court order requiring the police to protect protest marchers, and won a lawsuit that overturned officials' refusals to allow protest marches.

Now if that's not using the justice system to actually serve justice I don't know what is!!!

In response to numerous attacks made against him and his family by the Ku Klux Klan, Hicks motivated the formation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed band of African-American men who stood guard at his home and protected civil rights workers in the city.
(The 2003 Showtime movie "Deacons for Defense" was loosely based on this group.)

Robert Hicks and his wife of 62 years traveled the country, spreading the word about the conditions for black people in the South and encouraging people to travel to Bogalusa and other Southern cities to campaign for civil rights.

In his memoir, Crossing Border Street, (author/attorney/professor/activist) Peter Jan Honigsberg wrote about Hicks that:

"Even today I still think of him,"-- "He was determined to do what he had to do to change the South."

By conducting daily marches to protest racial discrimination by merchants and city government in a crusade Hicks thrusted the conditions going on in his town into the national spotlight!

To me, Robert Hicks exemplifies the concept that anyone can make a change. He wasn't a politician nor had the power that comes with celebrity but his voice was heard just the same. He was just a simple man determined to gain equality for his people and his life's work is inspiring!

R.I.P. sir!

Dorothy Height was a civil rights servant from her youth until her recent death.

She had to fight for her education starting in 1929, when she was denied entry to Barnard College (they had an unwritten policy of only allowing 2 black women into the school at a time and the quota was full -- smh). Dorothy went on to earned 2 degrees from NYU!!

Dorothy later presided as the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. In 1994 she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

She fought for equal rights for both African American men and women. Shout out to the Deltas!! Dr. Height was the National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority from 1946 to 1957, where she developed a leadership training program and remained active with the sorority through out her life.

She also organized “Wednesdays in Mississippi”, a conference which brought together women of all races from all over the country to engage in conversations and dialog during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Together these women went on to forged bold alliances to fight for advances in education and health care.

As the prolific writer that she was Ms. Heights wrote numerous columns, including the New York Amsterdam News in 1965. She published her memoirs entitled, Open Wide the Freedom Gates. It gave her personal perspective and details on the civil rights movement and told anecdotes of mentors she had in her life, including McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Many U.S. government officials sought her counsel, including Lyndon B. Johnson, when he appointed African American women to government posts and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, when he desegregated schools.

When Barack Obama was elected president, it was a dream come true for Dorothy, who was an honored guest at his inauguration on January 20, 2009. (Do you guys remember the elder woman seated on the stage? Well I remember seeing her but not knowing who she was -- now I do!)

President Obama called her "the godmother of the civil rights movement”, and that she truly was. When the President heard about her passing he said:

"Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality, and served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement, witnessing every march and milestone along the way."

R.I.P. madame!

The passing of these 2 great leaders (among the many many others that we have lost) really calls my attention to my own generation and what our call to duty is.

Do we not have any sense of responsibility or obligation to the generation coming after us?

We cannot possibly believe that our fight is over. That we have all that we need. That the black American is equal to the white American, or that regardless of color we do not have to wage war to repair our planet, all colors working together.

Brothers & sisters, whatever your passions are, go after them! Make sure your voice is heard and make sure you are saying something that will benefit generations to come.

We have to use this modern world for our betterment and not our demise. For example, if I can blog about shoe shopping I can damn well blog about racial profiling or green awareness. There must be some kind of balance in our conciousness.

We cannot honestly be as shallow as it seems sometimes. :( I REFUSE to believe that!

In the words of Dr. Height: "If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time."

Here is an exceptional compilation of photos & footage of those fateful 'civil rights' days taken by Bruce Davidson: