words : long time coming
Boycott is an HBO movie about the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott and the start of the US civil rights movement. There is a memorable scene where a young Martin Luther King is home alone preparing a cup of coffee. He’s interrupted by repeated telephone calls, and although viewers do not get to hear the caller’s words, we know they are threatening. At the first call, King silently and gently hangs up the phone. At the second (though it’s surely more like the hundredth), his hangup is a crash and he rips the phone from the wall. He returns to his coffee, and pours milk from the glass milk bottle into his coffee. But shaken and distracted, he sets the milk bottle down on the edge of the table and it crashes to the floor.
The bus boycott has just begun. Blacks are walking and taking taxis to work, until a new “minimum fare ordinance” forces taxi drivers to charge exorbitant rates and eliminates that option for the boycotters. They keep walking, and start car pooling. Next, car owners are badgered by police officers writing a deluge of traffic tickets for trumped-up infractions. They incur fines and the threat of losing their licenses. Vandals slash their tires with impunity. A law is passed that makes it illegal for black people to “loiter in groups” while waiting for their carpools. The mayor’s office uses its influence to get untruthful stories published in the newspaper about the boycott leaders. Vigilantes set fire to black homes and the city firemen watch them burn. Many boycotters are railing against King’s nonviolent ideology and want to retaliate.
It is in this moment, when every act of courage and creativity is met with a downward shove from the powers-that-be, that King distractedly breaks the bottle of milk. It is at this moment that I, as complete outsider to the dilemma of American black people in the 1950’s, can fully understand the frustration, anger, and despondency of seeking to right a wrong in the face of relentless oppression.
Every privileged person should, at least once in his life, experience what it feels like to be powerless, struggling against an unprincipled force that has no mercy, no compassion, and leaves no voice for complaints. I felt this, in a much smaller way than the civil rights activists, in my struggles with an insurance company after the theft of my car and their mishandling of the ensuing events. At the point where my only options were to personally sue a multi-billion-dollar company or let go of the struggle, I admit to letting go. But I was fortunate to have this option; all I had to do was acquiesce to the monetary loss. The bigger picture of the power of insurance companies was left for someone else to deal with in the future. For many others, the struggle is for something so personal and so important (civil rights, religious freedom) that there is no choice but to continue fighting.
This is definitely not just a historical issue, it is alive and important today, all over the world and in many forms. I watched the riots of the oppressed Muslim immigrants in France, hoping that their rioting could be a successful start to change without becoming too violent. I also see fairness and freedom eroding in my own country, from the oppression created by corporate greed to government abuses of human and first amendment rights during this time of our so-called “war on terror”. So I am thankful to Dr. King and the people who successfully staged that bus boycott. It took them over a year, it took suffering hardships, but they did ultimately bring about significant change that continued to ripple out long after the busses were running again. Understanding this historical example of nonviolent resistance, and being able to recognize and accept the frustration and despair that is inherent in such struggle, can be useful for solace and strength in the continued fights for civil and human rights that happen everywhere.
The segregated blacks in Montgomery had a tipping point. Rosa Parks’ defiance helped push them past it into action and King’s inspired leadership helped make desegregation a reality. Right now it’s still unclear to me where the tipping point is for US citizens relating to our current issues of civil and human rights. Will it be the government snooping in email or phone conversations? Will it be the illegal federal detainment and torture of suspected terrorists? Will it be the whittling away of healthcare and retirement benefits for workers? Will it be the creation of a have/have-not society supported by the degradation of our public education system? There are many possible fronts for this fight, and I can feel the tension building. I’m waiting with both anticipation and trepidation to see how and where it finally breaks. Anticipation because the way things are now is unsustainable and unhealthy for our society, trepidation because the process of change will be difficult and could well coincide with widespread economic collapse and hardship. But my biggest concern is that it won’t happen at all: that the American people will continue to let their civil rights, human rights, and worker’s rights be eroded to nothing while they focus on just trying to make a living in an increasingly harsher environment created by the economic and power greed of the country’s established “nobility”. But then I think of how bad it could get, and I have faith that somewhere down the line that tipping point will be reached for someone, and a leader will emerge to help us in the long struggle back to true democracy.
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Recommended Inspirational Listening: A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Individual speech downloads also available at Alternative Radio: Audio Energy for Democracy.
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