Where were you during the civil rights movement?

What would you have done during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s? For those of you who were adults at the time you have an easy answer to this question. But for those of us who weren't even born it is more difficult.

I periodically think about this. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have been a segregationist, but would I have been a freedom rider? Or would I have secretly admired the civil rights activists but been too busy doing other things to be bothered to join in? Perhaps I would have been too clueless to recognize the import of what was occurring and just sleepwalked through the whole thing. Or perhaps, worst of all, I would have been one of the ditherers who sat around saying things like "It's horrible what is going on down there, but things are slowly changing. We can't go around upsetting people because it just isn't the right time and we might actually set the process back by acting precipitiously." When I look deep inside I can see myself doing the latter and it isn't a pleasant thought.

Oddly enough, I haven't asked my mother, who was a college student in Texas in the early 60s, what she did during the civil rights movement. She was quite active in protesting the Vietnam war, including doing things of dubious legality (counselling people on their options to avoid the draft), so she does have some history of activism, but I realized that I know nothing about what she did a few years earlier.

Anyhow, I thought about this again when I read this post by Josh Marshall on his reaction to Gavin Newsom's issuing of marriage licenses in San Francisco and the ensuing hoopla. In his post he admits an ambivalence to supporting gay marriage, even though he agrees on the correctness of it, because he thinks that to do so would undermine not only the cause of gay marrige itself, but also progress on other progressive issues and the prospects of Democratic candidates in upcoming elections. When I read this, I thought about it for a while. Then I thought some more. And then I realized two things:

1. That I agreed with him completely.

2. And how bad that made me feel about myself.

So I've changed my mind on the issue. I'm not going to worry anymore about whether the time is right for gay marriage, just like I hope that I wouldn't have worried about whether it was the right time to give blacks voting rights in 1960.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. I've never been much of a fan of demonstrations as a way of affecting change, so you won't see me on the corner chanting "Two, four, six, eight, marriage equality is f*****g great." I've always been more of a change it from within sort of person and the guy who has set the ball rolling had to get elected mayor of San Francisco to do it. But I'm going to do a couple of things. First, I'm going to stop framing the issue as "gay marriage." Instead, I'm going to call it "marriage equality," because that's what it is. Second, I'm going to stop saying "now's not the time," because, even if I believed that myself, that is really beside the point.

History has a way of resolving these things pretty conclusively. You don't really have anybody seriously saying we should go back to the segregationist days of pre-1960. Nobody is saying these days that Truman's hotly debated order to integrate the army in 1948 was the wring thing to do. Crazed state senators in Kansas to the contrary, you don't really have anyone saying that women's sufferage was incorrect. And you don't have anyone saying that slavery was a beneficial institution that should be reinstated. All hotly debated issues at the time and yet it is obvious now that there was a right side and a wrong side to be on. And marriage equality will be one of those issues as well. And, whatever else happens, I don't want my kids to be wondering, 30-odd years down the line, if I was on the right side.

Comments

[Deep]

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[Amanda]

I love this article. I love the voice and the message is beautiful. It reminds me of myself which must mean your pretty awesome.

[Shop Hermes Outlet]

I'd be interested in hearing. The TOS seems rather clear that it is not unless expressly approved by Amazon. I guess if the library got it in writing then they would be ok.