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Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
Sun Mar 5, 2023, 09:46 PM Mar 2023

Remembering 'Bloody Sunday' with its youngest participants - Velshi (Michael Steele- MSNBC



On March 7, 1965 8-year old Sheyann Webb-Christburg and 11-year old Joanne Bland joined hundreds of others in a civil rights march that was ultimately met with violence, in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” The event shocked the national conscience and contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Now, 58 years later, Webb-Christburg and Bland reflect on that period and the continued struggle for justice.“Talking about this history and talking about my experience has been therapeutic,” says Bland. At the time, she says, “no one came to talk to us. No counselors, no physiatrists…So we internalized a lot, and all of it wasn’t good.” The experience turned Webb-Christburg and Bland into activists for life. “If you want to see change, you must be a part of change,” Webb-Christburg tells the students she now inspires. - Aired on 03/05/2023.



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Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
2. I watched this report on MSNBC earlier today and was incredibly impressed with these two women
Sun Mar 5, 2023, 10:38 PM
Mar 2023

Who are still continuing the activism that they started as children. Though I have to agree that it was incredibly dangerous for anyone, let alone small girls.

brer cat

(24,402 posts)
4. I'm always heart struck when I see children placed in harm's way,
Sun Mar 5, 2023, 11:09 PM
Mar 2023

but this is an amazing account of history, one I haven't heard before. The picture of Webb-Christburg with Dr. King is a joy to behold.

Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
5. I watched this report on MSNBC earlier today - in which both women appeared and spoke
Mon Mar 6, 2023, 12:57 AM
Mar 2023

It totally floored me that they both participated on that fateful day at such a young age - and that they're both still proactive today! And I loved that photo of her with Dr. King, as well. She has every reason to be proud of her courage at such a young age - they both do!

wnylib

(21,146 posts)
6. I remember seeing the TV coverage when it happened
Mon Mar 6, 2023, 01:14 AM
Mar 2023

and feeling enraged over the violence against the marchers. I was 15 years old

Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
7. I remember my 9th grade Social Studies teacher discussing the Civil Rights movement quite a bit
Mon Mar 6, 2023, 01:20 AM
Mar 2023

And not only am I grateful for that, but it's stuck with me ever since. Kudos to you that you watched the news, I'm sure that it was on at my house, too, but it took 9/11 to wake me up and start paying attention.

wnylib

(21,146 posts)
8. I paid attention to news at a young age.
Mon Mar 6, 2023, 01:54 AM
Mar 2023

Partly it was because my parents did, and often commented on what they saw. Partly it was due to teachers in 5th and 6th grades who told us that we were getting old enough to start paying attention to national and world news. Once a week we had to report on something in the news that we saw on TV or read in the newspaper.

The Nixon/Kennedy campaign occurred when I was in 6th grade. When Kennedy won, the school set up a TV (black and white then) in the grade school auditorium so that we could watch the inauguration. Normally, we went home for lunch and returned for afternoon classes. But that day, we were allowed to bring in a sandwich and something to drink, with our parents' permission, so we could stay through lunch and watch.

I was 14, in 9th grade and home sick on the day that JFK was assassinated. I felt well enough by lunch time to get out of bed, so I was lying on the couch watching TV when the first bulletins started.

So I was following news and politics early. I watched campaign conventions, protests and marches, nightly newscasts, etc.

I was in 8th grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the day that our Ambassador was confronting the Soviet Union about it at the UN, I took my transistor radio to school to listen, with the ear buds tucked under my long hair and the radio hidden under my sweater. (My brother was in the Navy so my family followed it closely.)

We were not allowed to have the radios at school, but when my social studies teacher discovered that I was secretly listening to the UN speeches, he had me turn up the volume so he and the rest of the class could listen.


Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
9. Kudos, you really did have a front row seat to history.
Mon Mar 6, 2023, 02:29 AM
Mar 2023

You have a few years on me, plus I didn't necessarily watch the news - which was tough enough when I was in the early grades. We lived in Ticonderoga at the north end of Lake George and on the side of a mountain that looked straight down the lake. And because of the mountain being in the way, we only got one TV channel! It was the NBC affiliate out of Albany (it's now CBS - and Sinclair for the local news) so it was Huntley-Brinkley for us, or nothing.

When I was in 4th grade, we moved to Saratoga (my Dad's job) and closer to civilization. Back then they did bring a TV into the classroom so we could watch the early space flights and I remember the Kennedy assassination. My reading group was allowed to go to the school library on our own, with instructions to stay in line and to walk quietly in the halls. Apparently the gym teacher had a free period so turned on his radio, so he was the first to hear that President Kennedy had been shot. He immediately ran to the first classroom on the hall and alerted the teacher, and that sixth grade teacher ran to the nearby library and told the librarian which was when we heard, so we immediately ran as fast as we could back to the classroom which was at the far end of the hall and told our teacher - and after that all hell broke loose.

I don't necessarily remember much from day to day in that elementary school, but that day is burned into my mind. They sent us home early, I can remember waiting in the gym till the buses came and we were scared. My mother already knew when I got home and was very upset, she'd already heard from our distraught neighbor. And after that the news was all the time - and I saw Oswald shot on live TV. I went and told my mother in the kitchen and she had to lean against the counter, said she couldn't stand to hear anymore. And I did know that my parents voted for Nixon, but back then people weren't partisan like they are today. John Kennedy was the president and my mother was understandably devastated - and scared.

Response to Rhiannon12866 (Reply #9)

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