Page 20
The
Portland Observer Black HlStOiy M onth
February 20, 2013
The Courage and Vision of Medgar Evens
continued
from page 18
know that in Mississippi and else
where some people are resorting to
Jim Crow-era tactics to disenfran
chise voters in a desperate attempt
to reverse 50 years of hard earned
political progress.
He would be pleased to know
that all public schools are techni
cally available to all children and
that many school systems are even
led by black administrators. But he
would be dismayed to learn that
even so, many black children are
still getting a separate, unequal, and
SUNDAY
failing education.
He might smile at the number of
black doctors, lawyers, and million
aires in Mississippi now, but would
be disappointed to know the state
also has the highest child poverty,
low birth weight, and infant mortal
ity rates. He would also be so sad to
see the number of young, middle-
aged, and older black m en in
Mississippi’s prisons, trapped in a
prison pipeline leading to social and
economic death.
He would be relieved to know
black M ississippians no longer
live in constant fear of the Ku Klux
MONDAY
17 ©
Kian and the kind o f white su
prem acist terrorism that took his
life. But he would be alarmed by
the proliferation o f gun violence
that still keeps residents o f many
black com m unities locked in their
hom es after dark in a new kind of
Am erican terror.
And he would be dismayed by
the resurgence of hate crimes like
the cruel hit-and-run death of James
Craig Anderson, a black man as
saulted and then run over in 2011 by
a group o f young white men who
made a habit of coming to Jackson
to assault and harass black people
TUESDAY
18
for sport. But he would be proud
that they, unlike his own killer, were
brought to justice swiftly by the
county district attorney, the son of
black civil rights pioneers.
In some ways the battles of the
Civil Rights Movement were easier
to fight 50 years ago because they
were easier to see. Today the rigid
lines that create two systems of
opportunity for children in Missis
sippi and elsewhere are no longer
written into law but remain present
and the children know it. One group
of children is still tracked towards
limited opportunity, second class
citizenship, and the invisible but
powerful cradle to school to prison
pipeline.
Strong adult voices for children
have to become a stronger and stron
ger force if the clock of racial and
economic progress is not to con
tinue to move backwards. The fab
ric of family and community must be
rewoven and the child must be
placed at the center of all o f our
concerns.
Medgar Evers remains a beacon
for all of us who are still inspired by
his example and vision. We must
not let all he lived and died for re
cede on our watch.
Marian Wright Edelman is Presi
dent o f the Children's Defense Fund.
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
19
20
26
27
SATURDAY
21
22
23
Presidents Day
24 25
O
Purim
Share a Smile Day
Justin Bieber bom,
1994
Peace Corps
Anniversary
Iditarod Race Begins
Dr. Seuss bom, 1904
Read Across America
Day
Yellowstone National
ParkEs.(1872)
N ational
Anthem Day
Patricia MacLachlan
bom, 1938
Inventor Alexander
Graham Bell bom,
1847
8
First meeting of
Congress (1789)
Boston Massacre
(1770)
Oreo CookiesSold for
the 1st time in 1912.
Dav Pilkey bom, 1966
Artist Michelangelo
bom, 1475
Mem Fox bom, 1946
National Cereal Day
Scientist Luther
Burbank bom, 1849
Telephone Patent
Granted (1876)
9
Working
Women's Day
Explorer Amerigo
Vespucci bom, 1454
Robert Sabuda bom,
1965
Barbie's Birthday
(1959)
(continued next week)