AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Thursday, March 14, 2019

20th century Civil Rights movement and 21st century Human Rights movement come together as Fair Food tour lands in Atlanta! Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Coalition of Immokalee Workers<workers@ciw-online.org>

3/13/2019 9:35 AM

To alfredjohnson34@comcast.net

20th century Civil Rights movement and 21st century Human Rights movement come together as Fair Food tour lands in Atlanta!

Charles Black, former chairman of the Atlanta student movement and longtime activist for universal human rights, hugs the CIW’s Mercedes Gomez, a remarkable young activist in her own right from Immokalee, following Monday’s Wendy’s protest in Atlanta. The former and current student leaders engaged in an animated conversation on Mr. Black’s experience studying under Dr. Martin Luther King during the early years of the Civil Rights movement.

4 for Fair Food Tour stops in Atlanta on way to final stop in Gainesville, re-fuels with visit to Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, Wendy’s action…

Following a long, overnight drive from Ann Arbor to Atlanta, the sleep-deprived – but indefatigable – tour crew took advantage of some rare downtime to squeeze in a few hours of entertainment and education on Monday, visiting some of Atlanta’s top attractions. Later, they headed back out into the city’s streets for a late afternoon Wendy’s protest, followed by a wonderful dinner with old friends from the booming capital of the new South. [...]

[...] The tour crew’s brief but energizing stay in Atlanta was perhaps best captured in the story behind the picture at the top of today’s post.

In the course of the afternoon’s protest, Mercedes came to learn that Charles Black was one of a handful of students who, nearly 60 years ago, had the great fortune to take a class in philosophy from Dr. Martin Luther King. The idea that she was in the presence of someone who personally knew, and fought side by side with, Dr. King, was so exciting to Mercedes that she stepped out of the protest and sought out Mr. Black for a conversation on his experience in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. As it turned out, Mr. Black was not only happy to oblige Mercedes’ request, but was also deeply impressed himself to learn of Mercedes’ own commitment to the CIW’s struggle (she was part of the children’s contingent that supported their parents in last year’s unforgettable Freedom Fast).

The two leaders — one, a key leader of the most important social movement of the past century, the other, a young and upcoming leader of one of the most important human rights movements of this new century — came together in that moment in Atlanta, and for that moment they were carrying the same torch, across generations, across eras. But now, though the time to pass that torch is surely still many, many years off, Mr. Black can rest assured that when that time comes, it will be in good hands.