Civil Rights in the Information Age
for Dr. James Farmer
Oct 22, 1996
Black and Asian culture have been an interest of mine since I was a young child. I realized that everything that they taught me from elementary school through high school was a whitewashed view of history. My high school had less than 1% black or Asian students, so while the whites in my community were in the extreme majority and this history may have satiated them, for me, I knew there was more to learn about the civil rights movement than the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. I never had the opportunity to learn about the great Marcus Garvey, about the Civil Rights struggle of the 1940's, or about the writings of Eldridge Cleaver. Curiosity and a yearning for knowledge got the best of me.
My interest in computers has always led me to search for interaction with people different from myself around the world. I've certainly found that interaction throughout my years, with people ranging from child molesters to members of the Nation of Islam to editors and writers of big-time magazines. The media has repeatedly shoved the fact in our face that we are in the information age, the age of computers, an age of rapid technological growth. The Internet, the largest worldwide network of business and personal computer users, has grown at astounding rates in the last five years, and I have been witness to it from the beginning of its growth. With the recent growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web, however, the amount of information available to anyone with a computer has gone through the roof.
Information in huge, unmanageable lumps can be overwhelming, but with a little work I found a lot of what I was looking for. In this paper, I look at some of what I have learned about during my travels on the Internet in search of history they don't teach in high school.
One web site (a web site is most easily defined as a collection of information made available by an individual or group for public access on the Internet) based at Georgia Tech is titled the "Universal Black Pages." It organizes the information available on the Internet about black history, music, colleges, and much more (1). Sites such as this made it easier to find site specifically about black culture among all the many other topics on the Internet.
Among the links to other web sites available on the Universal Black Pages is a tribute to the Memorial to Roy Wilkins. This site shows pictures of the Memorial and its design that is unlike many other memorials because of the intricate artistic detail (2). Also listed is a site comparing the approaches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X to freedom for the black race. The latter makes available sound and video clips of the two orators available for viewing or listening on one's computer (3).
Perhaps my favorite web site, however, is the UCLA Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project. As a companion to their project, the folks at UCLA have made publically available samples of their research, which include teachings of the British-educated Marcus Mosiah Garvey and even computer sound clips of his only known audio recordings. These recordings were originally released on 78 rpm record, but have been made available in digital form so those researching Garvey can hear the voice of this important black leader, despite his inadequate representation in history books (4).
In addition to a wealth of information about the history of the civil rights struggle, there is also a lot of information about current organizations working for the upliftment of the black race and humankind. One such site is the home site of the Universal Zulu Nation. The Zulu Nation was founded by Afrika Bambaataa in 1973 to "create and maintain high standards in the life of individuals within the world" (5) through music (specifically, rap music), neighborhood clean-ups, tutoring, mentor programs, canned food drives, conferences, and much more. Bambaataa is a legend in the history of hip-hop music, and this very positive organization explicitly states that "division amongst members is not acceptable and peace and unity amongst all should be the goal" (5).
Also among my favorite sites is The Virtual Niahbingi. The Niahbingi is one of the divisions of the Rastafarian religion practiced by many throughout the world, but mainly in the Carribean. This is an Internet-based magazine that features teachings of Marcus Garvey, a Rastafarian perspective on child care, and poetry by Rastafarians (6). One touching, but unattributed piece, is available:
living inna paradise ain't so easy
yet everyone thinks that it's nice
and in the searching for true wisdom
wise men spend fools gold
The Rastafari are a unique and positive group of people, usually pushed away from society because of their unkempt dreadlocks or seemingly antisocial attitude. They worship H.I.M. (His Imperial Majesty) Emperor Halie Selassie I of Ethiopia as their savior, but also acknowledge the Bible and Jesus Christ (in his true black form, rather than the Europeanized white Jesus created by Michaelangelo). They rarely use the words "me" or "we" but rather "I-n-I" (I and I) to stress unification among their people, striving for what they call "InI-ty," a play off of the word "unity."
As a final test of what is available on the Internet, I used a search engine, a web site designed to help users find other sites containing a certain phrase or topic, to find any web sites containing the phrase "James Farmer" (10). Among a lot of non-related material were sites such as an advertisement for a television program, "A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom," which featured Dr. Farmer. Incidentally, this program aired on February 2, 1996 at 9:00 p.m.
Another site was an index of a Boston-based magazine called the Trotter Review from 1987. This magazine featured an article by Dr. Farmer titled "Affirmative Action: Problems and Prospects" (7). Yet another site listed Dr. Farmer as a member of the African Americans For Humanism (AAH) Advisory Board (8). Perhaps the most interesting site that mentions James Farmer, however, is the Historical Document Society Autographs Home Page, which informed me that Dr. Farmer's autograph is worth $10 (9).
The amount of information on the Internet is overwhelming at times, but it is a new medium through which to communicate and find information. It is the great equalizer because people can communicate with others, and neither will have any idea as to the other's race, economic status, or sexual orientation. Everyone truly does have the same opportunities once they get online. While I continue to be proud of having made an effort to learn about other cultures on my own, since the public school system sure wasn't going to help, I get extremely frustrated talking with friends that have grown up in mainly white communities. Many of these people still have absolutely no idea about black culture. By not teaching students to unlearn the stereotypes they are taught by society, teachers and schools are simply perpetuating these stereotypes. They let these stereotypes grow into prejudice and racist ideologies that manifest themselves under covers such as "white pride." Fortunately, in this, the so-called "information age," everyone has an opportunity to expand and share their knowledge through mediums such as the Internet. Not only is it everyone's chance to learn about other cultures, it's everyone's duty to do so.
Works Cited
Due to the all-encompassing nature of this paper as research, personal experience, and opinion, the in-paper documentation seems to be lacking. However, since all the sources for this particular paper are from the Internet and there hasn't been any standard developed for citation of information from the World Wide Web, I tried to develop the most easily understood format I could think of.
Addresses for Web Sites Mentioned in This Paper
1. The Universal Black Pages
http://www.ubp.com/
2. Roy Wilkins Memorial
http://www.tccom.com/wilkins/
3. Webcorp -- Voices of the Civil Rights Era
http://www.webcorp.com/civilrights/index.htm
4. The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, UCLA
http://www.isop.sscnet.ucla.edu/mgpp/
5. The Universal Zulu Nation
http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~rmills/zulu1.html
6. The Virtual Niahbingi
http://www.nation.org/~krishnar/contents.html
7. A. Philip Randolph Press Release (Feb '96)
http://www.pbs.org/programs/1996/february/febpr/aphiliprandolphfebpr.html
8. Trotter Review - Winter 1987
http://www.trotterinst.org/00000017.htm
9. AAH Advisory Board
http://www.codesh.org/aah/advisors.html
Search Engines Used
10. HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com/