Memphis, Tennessee is one of the stomping grounds for the Civil Rights Movement. Before the sanitation strike and before Dr. Martin Luther King’s arrival in Memphis regarding the sanitation workers’, we must learn from the women who initiated for his arrival to help. Women were not as direct and bold as far as the Civil Rights Movement around the United States but in Memphis, Tennessee they were. Take for example Julia B. Hooks, Maxine Smith, Mary Church Terrell, Meharry Medical College graduates Francis M. Kneeland, Josie Wells and Emma R. Wheeler, and other black women who help bring the Civil Right Movement in Memphis to the country’s attention.
Maxine Smith, who was prominent in the betterment of the public-school system in Memphis helped desegregate public school because she was rejected from Memphis public higher education school University of Memphis. After that ordeal, Maxine Smith decided to join the Memphis chapter of the NAACP. Maxine Smith went on to become the executive secretary in 1962. Maxine Smith organized student marches including the one called “Black Monday” which lasted from 1969-1972. Black Republicans and Democrats worked tirelessly to get black men elected in the city elections of 1959, but they met a crushing disappointment when black voters did not respond as expected. In March 1960, Smith and the Memphis NAACP shifted their support to local sit- ins by Lemoyne College students who first targeted the segregated public libraries. The national office was not yet on board with sit- in tactics, but it soon bought into the Memphis movement.35Beginning in 1961, Atkins- Smith helped lead the desegregation of local public schools. She and Vasco were among the individuals designated to drive thirteen black children to school on the first day and then to pick them up. When she was involved in the Memphis garbage strike, she was injured and jailed. Native Memphian Mary Eliza Church- Terrell was prominent among black women who used social and civic clubs to promote black uplift and racial equality and to gain women’s suffrage.
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Women in Memphis Civil Rights Movement was all about gaining socioeconomic equality and human rights for African Americans in poor, urban neighborhoods. Black women in Tennessee used their financial resources to support the struggle for civil rights. They organized clubs like the YWCA founded by Sallie Hill Sawyer, Ethel Benson Beck, Harriett Hale, Julia Hooks, Josephine Groves- Holloway, Saint Mary Magdalena L. Tate, Lula Crim, and Mrs. W. D. (Anne) Weatherford. These women also were prominent in organizing the Girl Scouts chapters and welfare centers in Memphis. Black women attended anti- lynching seminars like the Southern Women and Race Cooperation Conference which was held in Memphis in 1920. Women in Memphis advocated for so many causes that helped build up the Civil Rights Movement to what it is today even after the law passing to end segregation and discrimination in the workforce, schools, and transportation. After, the 1940s black women had even more visible roles in the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis. Roberta Church, who was a well- known politician, in 1952 became the first black woman to win the executive committee seat for Tennessee Republican Party.
Black women in Tennessee and in Memphis increasingly gained support from communities because of their continued activism. In January 1954 a Memphis bus driver moving a resistant black woman to the back to accommodate more white riders, exclaimed, “There is still segregation in Tennessee.” A few days later a Memphis bus driver pulled a pistol on another defiant black woman, telling her, “A nigger on my bus gets off at the back door.”22 These women involved their neighbor-hood clubs. Willa McWilliams, for example, with others of the Bluff City and Shelby County Council of Civic Clubs in northeast Memphis began protest the segregated city bus system. Women were prominent among Tennessee delegates attending the NAACP national conventions, which inspired their activism, and aft er attending the Tennessee NAACP Statewide Conference in Memphis in September 1959, they returned home fi red up against Jim Crow.23The most insulting Jim Crow practice in Tennessee was the segregation of downtown lunch counters, restaurants, theaters, water fountains, restrooms, parks, public recreational facilities, city auditoriums, employment, and the like—anything to remind working middle- and upper- class African Americans that they all were “blacks,” devoid of standing and without full citizenship. Even in the black churches, women received subordinate positions in the institutional leadership. Women did much of the hard work; men became leaders and spokesmen to the outside world. Most churches excluded women as deacons, trustees, and ministers. Even the First Colored Baptist Church of Nashville, with its great civil rights legacy and liberal theolog y, did not ordain women ministers until 1980. In heavily black west Tennessee, the NAACP held the leadership position in the civil rights movement, but by the early 1960s the SCLC had preacher- dominated chapters in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville. Women were heavily represented on the membership rosters of these organizations, but the Congress of Racial Equality, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and smaller grassroots organizations, which shared civil rights projects in Tennessee cities, included fewer local black women.
Things Fall Apart Point Of View
Introduction
The book Things Fall Apart was written by Chinua Achebe with the aim of depicting a lower tribe in Nigeria. The book is thrilling because it narrates about the Igbo society. Chinua Achebe uses Okonkwo when giving a detailed account of the Igbo society. Okonkwo was a focused man who wanted to avoid the mistakes of his father. Unlike his father who spent all his life accumulating debts, Okonkwo was a focused man who aimed at improving his life. The book narrates the importance of associating with the Igbo culture. Therefore, a reader can connect with the society through the use of language and imagery. For instance, the back of the book contains a glossary of Ibo words which are used throughout the story to emphasize cultural and traditional values. Furthermore, Chinua applies literary devices such as irony, symbolism, and imagery to give more light on the colonization of Nigeria by the British. Achebe addresses various issues including colonialism, ambition, social integration, belief and fear of the Igbo society. His superb use of commanding language is evident in the book. Achebe uses vivid description, proverbs, and other stylistic devices to transmit the message of the book to the readers. Also, the book gives an overview of the economic and social benefits of colonialism on the Igbo society. The paper discusses the importance of language in the daily lives of the Ibo people and also analyzes the linguistic and literary dimension of the culture.
Language
Language is a vital element in the daily lives of Igbo society. In spite of the existing stereotypes by the Europeans that Africans were silent, Achebe depicts that oral tradition still exists in the Ibo culture. Occasionally, the author used Ibo words to emphasize the proverbs. When colonists arrive in the Ibo society, they find it difficult to interact with the society members due to the language barriers. Moreover, the translators do not succeed in solving the problem. At one particular situation, the translator confuses between the words my buttocks and myself (Chinua 147). This situation can symbolize mockery to the British invaders who thought they could easily take advantage of the Africans because of their illiteracy. The Europeans held the perception that Africans could not communicate effectively. Nevertheless, when they entered Nigeria, they became language victims since they could not effectively connect with the people who spoke Ibo. Achebe succeeds in depicting that the Ibo society had a language and an oral tradition like that of the Europeans. Thus, a European should be ready to experience trouble when understanding a foreign language just like the Africans do. Ibo people use the Ibo language when interacting on a daily basis both when harvesting and carrying out religious rituals. They felt pride in their language which enhanced their cohesion among themselves despite the intrusion of the Europeans. At one point, the people made fun of Mr. Brown’s translation since it was different from their language. Moreover, the Ibo language created a sense of identity among the Ibo people. Thus, the cohesion created enabled them to cope with the increased pressure from the Europeans to understand English.
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Gender Inequality and Patriarchy
Furthermore, the novel focuses on the linguistic dimensions of the culture. In this, it analyzes the issues of religion, gender inequality, and punishment in the Igbo society. Gender inequality and patriarchy are prominent issues in the Igbo society. In the first chapter, it is evident that Okonkwo associates affection with weakness which is in turn associated with femininity. This is because he viewed his father as pathetic since he did not provide to his family. Thus, he did not qualify to be a man in the opinion of Okonkwo. Moreover, the word agbala is used frequently in the novel to infer to a man or woman who did not have titles. This is not a coincidence since the two ideas have a similar word. This portrays that males in that man dominate the Ibo culture without power or title is compared to a woman. Achebe says: Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate told him that his father was an agbala (Chinua 13). The novel also focuses on the idea of patriarchy where the man was seen as the provider and head of a home. A man was even supposed to enjoy all the rights including the privilege to be in power. Through the use of agbala Achebe demonstrates to people how male dominance in the Western and European culture is still evident in Ibo society today.
Religion
The novel entirely emphases on the construction of a society. Ibo society has diverse social elements compared to Europeans. These elements include cultural values, language, and religion. Due to the invasion of the British Christian colonialist, the Ibo people do not have a particular form of worship. They believe in Evil Forest and Oracle representing Hell and Heaven respectively. They also talk to their ancestors and use their inner chi to guide them in their lives. Efforts by colonialists to build more churches and preach different religious beliefs to the Ibo people did not succeed (Chinua 133). Ibo people found it difficult to understand those views since they beheld Christianity from a literal point of view. They, therefore, continued practicing polytheism which is the belief in many gods.
Punishment
Additionally, the Ibo people had a similar way of dealing with crimes as Western Civilization. Often, they held ceremonial gatherings which represented the courts when making a judgment about a particular crime. For instance, Okonkwo is exiled from the community for seven years after he had murdered a clansman. After his return, Okonkwo killed a colonialist and hanged himself before he could be tried (Chinua 172). This justice system shows that the African culture has not evolved as that of the Europeans. Although they have the same belief system, they apply diverse traditions when practicing the beliefs.
Conclusion
The novel is exceptional because it depicts how Ibo people struggled and succeeded during colonization. Initially, Ibo people were able to hold to their culture or religion, punishment and gender inequality vices until things fell apart. Their language was critical because it gave them the sense of identity which in turn helped maintain cohesion in the society. Achebe used the story of Okonkwo to show how Africans can conquer the stereotypes held by the Europeans. In the end, Ibo people had to abandon their culture and adopt a new lifestyle and way of governance as stipulated by the colonialists. At this stage, there was the destruction of the rich African heritage due to the introduction of a new regime. Therefore, the book Things Fall Apart provides good lessons on the history and evolution of the African culture.
