9-22-12 - Referring to meeting mentioned in post immediately below.

Once again Robert Moses was to me quietly inspiring in the meeting yesterday. He met with about twenty of us, mainly veterans of the civil rights movement. There was talk about a 50th anniversary of the 1964 Freedom Summer, of collecting more stories from those who were there, but also Moses talked about what we can do now. I wish I had time to present what he said about this as well as he did. He spoke about the right to vote, still a problem, especially for black Americans, the right to a good education, the hard work required to earn media and public support, the importance of this effort coming principally from those who are lacking the full benefit of these rights. Moses is a math teacher and emphasized the importance of algebra.

What he had to say was impressive and well organized, talking about what we can do now. I asked him two questions. One was about how voting rights might have improved in the South but the disparity of wealth had grown greater. He mentioned the Jack and Jill prosperous blacks and how their kids could not necessarily expect to do as well as their parents.

I said I was too busy to do much more than point people in the right directions and asked where can I send people to learn more.

He said that what he had to say is not presented systematically anywhere. His work is centered largely around The Algebra Project but he said their website isn't so good. It seems okay. Needs to have a glitch fixed where a bunch of stuff that shouldn't be there is up top.

He suggested SNCC Legacy Project and Courtland Cox, especially for dealing with the right to vote.

Other sites to check out:

RJOY - Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth - with their Zen logo

Civil Rights Movement Veterans - CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC

The Bay Area Civl Rights Movement veteran's group - Many of the people at the meeting are in this group which has been meeting for years. They all made major contributions to the civil rights movement and brought what they learned back with them to bring their humanistic good will to this neck of the woods. You can read their stories on the aforementioned sites.

I am giving a report that does not convey the wisdom of what Moses had to say. It seems to me that what he had to say was important and needs to be packaged so to speak. I can't do that but I'll try to get back to this.

One more point about Moses. This Robert Moses is not the most famous Robert Moses from 1964. There was a man named Robert Moses who was head of the New York World's Fair that year. I went there too. He's considered by some the most important city planner of the last century. The Robert Moses, Robert Parris Moses,  we met with yesterday and forty-eight years ago had a big impact too. He'd been working on voting rights in Mississippi since 1960. He had a great idea, an idea born somewhat of frustration, and idea that changed American history. His idea was to send a bunch of white kids to Mississippi, whites and blacks and anyone, but if there were whites he knew the media, the American people, and the government would pay attention. It worked.

Then Moses quietly went back to the North and taught math.

-dc

9-21-12 - Robert Moses, the inspiring leader of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, will be in the Bay Area at an Oakland church near Mills College raising funds for Ron Bridgeforth [see article in SF Chronicle]. While he is here, he would like to meet with Bay Area veterans of the Mississippi Movement to discuss plans for a 50th anniversary gathering of the Mississippi Summer Project. He was truly a moving and humble spokesman for non violent change - and that's change I hope for. - DC