Well, we made it to Atlanta. Today we slowly wound our way through closed streets to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site on Auburn. It's hard for me to articulate how I felt about the experience. I was moved by the bravery of the civil rights activists, from the leaders to the everyday people who risked their lives. I was filled with despair over the unbelievable isolation and poverty of the neighborhood. The pictures are of MLK's house until age 10 and the view from the back steps of the house; everywhere in the neighborhood were abandoned houses with boarded up windows.
Auburn used to be one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the world. Today we parked in a fenced off area for people going to the National Parks Site. During our visit we were approached by two men hustling from the tourists. But then in the museum, we watched a short film that explained that King's work is not finished, because of problems in *the world* - not the US, not Atlanta, not the neighborhood in which we were sitting. The films showed black students in an apparently segregated school talking about the successful efforts to end segregation. We have come far, as evidenced by prominent black political leaders, but we still have segregated schools and neighborhoods and on an on. It is hard, though I teach it and understand it academically, to listen to the language of the successful achievement of "rights" when for many, many people they are de jure rights only. The film and the tour don't address that King's work when he was assassinated was to improve wages and workers' rights and to improve funding of public schools. They don't say that his work is not done.
Auburn used to be one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the world. Today we parked in a fenced off area for people going to the National Parks Site. During our visit we were approached by two men hustling from the tourists. But then in the museum, we watched a short film that explained that King's work is not finished, because of problems in *the world* - not the US, not Atlanta, not the neighborhood in which we were sitting. The films showed black students in an apparently segregated school talking about the successful efforts to end segregation. We have come far, as evidenced by prominent black political leaders, but we still have segregated schools and neighborhoods and on an on. It is hard, though I teach it and understand it academically, to listen to the language of the successful achievement of "rights" when for many, many people they are de jure rights only. The film and the tour don't address that King's work when he was assassinated was to improve wages and workers' rights and to improve funding of public schools. They don't say that his work is not done.
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