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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: Barking up the wrong tree ... Guest Opinion: Why Republicans oppose the Iran agreement ... Attorney general investigating Klamath County Sheriff's Office ... Our View: Barking up the wrong tree ... Guest Opinion: Why Republicans oppose the Iran agreement ... Attorney general investigating Klamath County Sheriff's Office ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: Reason to believe DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Aug. 22, 2015 @ 12:01 am Posted Aug. 22, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2324,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> Until May I hadn’t been in touch with Elliot Halpern, a high school classmate, since 1959. I reestablished contact after learning that he was active with the ACLU chapter in Berkeley. By email I shared some of my ACLU experiences in Louisiana in the 60s and 70s, and we invited him and his wife, Linda, to visit. Last month they came. Linda told us she had been a SNCCer. That is, she had been one of about 700 students from around the country who went to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to help local blacks, under the direction of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, conduct voter registration drives and Freedom Schools. For her it was a transformative experience. My own experiences had partially prepared me to understand why. But when I viewed “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” which aired on PBS’s American Experience in June 2014 and which she and Elliot left on a DVD with us, I understood more completely. Several times Linda appears in the documentary. In one of her appearances she tells of having imprudently walked alone into downtown from the black section of town where she was living. A group of white men grabbed her. One said he had never killed a white woman before. They put a noose around her neck and got into their car holding the end of the rope. Linda walked behind as the car gradually gained speed. She was sure she was going to be dragged to her death. But they released the rope and drove away. The documentary can be viewed on-line at video.pbs.org/video/2365275337 . If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to, because you’ll understand that Mississippi then was a totalitarian state. The systematic subjection of black people, both legal and customary, was enforced by a prevailing threat of violence. Blacks had no protection of the law whatsoever. Law enforcement was a key part of the terror. Their only protection might be employment with an influential white family. But what they mainly depended on was constant vigilance and self-repression. Even that didn’t guarantee their safety. Much of the pre-Civil Rights South was totalitarian, but in Mississippi that socio-political order was statewide and most violently enforced. For a summer, Linda and her fellow SNCCers, like so many black Southerners, lived with the ever-present threat of death. Hers was akin to a soldier’s experience, only with a clear morality. She became a veteran of the nonviolent war to end totalitarianism. Knowing when and where I grew up, people occasionally ask me whether the racial situation has improved. Recently the question has been prompted by the spate of publicized police killings of unarmed blacks and the widespread effort to suppress black voting. My response is that it’s almost impossible to imagine what it’s like to live all one’s life without protection of the law — that you must stomach constant humiliation; that any perceived sign of “uppityness” may bring the direst consequences; that people can beat and rape and kill you with impunity. I rarely volunteer such information. Black people don’t want a white man saying what can sound like “You never had it so good.” And I don’t want to dissuade anyone from deep engagement in the struggles against continuing injustice. The long view can erode the urgency that the short view imparts. But the long view can impart hope when current challenges seem overwhelming. And given the huge challenges of economic inequality and climate change, we need reason to believe that we shall overcome someday. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Aug. 22, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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