King's Queen

The Civil Rights Movement was a series of worldwide political movements aimed at gaining equality before the law.  These movements were executed in many forms, usually in nonviolent forms of resistance, but in some instances, civil unrest and rebellion occurred as well.   Although this movement and the many countries who participated in this process didn’t achieve all of their goals, the movement did lead to improvements in the legal rights of previously oppressed groups of people.

 

"The African American struggle for freedom and equality... was a struggle not just for individual leaders, however charismatic, but of ordinary men and women who found the courage and dignity to demand change."[1] 

Many of the activists and leaders who participated in the movement have been people like Martin Luther King Jr., Stokley Carmichael, Jesse James, and Malcolm X. However, there were many influential women who were involved in the movement and its progression. More specifically, the participation of Coretta Scott King in the movement is very interesting. Coretta Scott King was the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and a civil rights leader. Although Coretta was interested in being a more public figure, her husband had conflicting feelings.

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1965

 King acknowledged that his wife was a huge part of his success stating: “I am indebted to my wife Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor work would bring fulfillment. She has given me words of consolation when I needed them and a well-ordered home where Christian love is a reality.”[2] However he had a hard time accepting Coretta’s desire to be more involved in the movement because he wanted her to be home raising their children. This seems slightly contradictory considering what they were all striving to achieve, but despite these setbacks Coretta did actively participate in the movement. Coretta was an influential character in the movement in the 50s and 60s and she even became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement after the assassination of her husband.

Coretta speaking at a peace demonstration in D.C., 1970

---

[1]  Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, Major Problems in American History Since 1945

[2] http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/chapter_5_coretta/

Regarding the Pain of Others

Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others addressed several issues regarding the depiction of pain and suffering, with specific emphasis on war photography. She examined how war is interpreted and understood through photographs. She claimed that “one of the distinguishing features of modern life is that it supplies countless opportunities for regarding (at a distance, through the medium of photography) horrors taking place throughout the world.” She examined how the constant barrage of images desensitized the viewer to images of horror. She also discussed the role the media plays in creating an “illusion of consensus” and how the media manipulated and continues to manipulate the public.

Larry Burrows, "Yankee Papa 13" 1965

Before the 1960s, the media had no desire to cover stories about Vietnam. However, by the mid- 1960s the number of press corps in South Vietnam had tripled. By August of 1964 the number had grown to 419. These journalists entered Vietnam, not with the hope of helping to end the war, but with hopes that they would capture a great story and a great shot that would be worthy enough to be shown in a high-profile newspaper or magazine.  And if they were lucky, an image they took would appear on television. The Vietnam War was also a time when war photography began to expand. Photographers like Larry Burrows and Nick Ut and their photographs became well known and Ut even received a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of “Napalm Girl.”  These photographs displayed and exploited the suffering of others was viewed daily in American and the ethical problem of consuming images of suffering comes into play.

 

"Napalm Girl", Nick Ut, 1972

 

 

 

 

Vietnam did happen, and because the era's most powerful symbol of damaged ideals and the loss of trust, unity, shared myths, and common values. Like a magnet, which draws steel shavings scattered on a sheet of paper into a particular form and pattern, Vietnam gave visible shape to the great cultural changes sweeping over American society, defining, more that nay other event, the era and its pains.

Sources:

Robert Griffith and Paula Baler, Major Problems in American History Since 1945

Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._news_media_and_the_Vietnam_War

The October Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one the major confrontations of the Cold War. This confrontation between Cuba and the Soviet Union versus the US lasted thirteen days in October of ’62. This crisis is regarded as the closest moment in which the Cold War could’ve turned into a nuclear conflict. The October Crisis is also the first documented instance of the threat of MAD. 

         

Castro and Khrushchev in 1963

When Fidel Castro came into power after the Cuban Revolution, Cuba and Russia became allies. Cuba’s public allying with Russia was troubling for the US because they were concerned about the spread of Communism. The US regarded this alignment as unacceptable because of Russia’s hostility since the end of WWII. This collaboration was also in direct opposition to the Monroe Doctrine.

            

Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna, 1961.

 Even after Kennedy and Khrushchev met in Vienna in hopes of reconciliation, the hostility  of Khrushchev was too much for Kennedy, and nothing was resolved. In fact," The failure to bridge differences over key matters in Vienna made for one of the tensest summers in the Cold War."

Photo evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. October 14, 1962.

Talk of nuclear weapons on both sides caused major concerns and the October Crisis began after evidence confirmed that the Soviet Union was indeed harboring nuclear missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev claimed that the missiles were "solely to defend Cuba against the attack of an aggressor." After a naval blockage and a standoff, Khrushchev finally agrees to remove the missiles from Cuba.

  The threat of nuclear annihilation on both sides prevented the "mutually assured destruction" of both parties and ended one of the "most dangerous moment[s] in human history."

Sources:

Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, The Untold History of the United States

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=23