Last week, Clark Atlanta University hosted a commemoration of the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. See the welcome and opening statement of chair Stephanie Evans here. She said
“The following words were Dr. Du Bois’s final prayer to the Ancestors. I find it worthy of our meditation for his birthday. ‘In every name of God bend out and down, you who are the infinite majority of all mankind and with your thoughts, deeds, dreams and memories overwhelm, outvote and coerce these remnants of human life…. Let your memories teach these willful fools all which you have forgotten and ruined and done to death. Teach us…there is no Dream but Deed, there is no need but Memory.'”
The website for the conference is here.
Unveiling the Du Bois statue
Tonight, I listened to Vandana Shiva discuss Earth Democracy. Her organization’s website explains that concept;
“We need a new paradigm to respond to the fragmentation caused by various forms of fundamentalism. We need a new movement, which allows us to move from the dominant and pervasive culture of violence, destruction and death to a culture of non-violence, creative peace and life. That is why in India, Navdanya started the Earth democracy movement, which provides an alternative worldview in which humans are embedded in the Earth Family, we are connected to each other through love, compassion, not hatred and violence and ecological responsibility and economic justice replaces greed, consumerism and competition as objectives of human life.”
PBS is showing a film about “Makers: Women who Make America” starting this week.
“MAKERS: Women Who Make America tells the remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy. It’s a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. MAKERS brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it, and those first generations to benefit from its success. Trailblazing women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey share their memories, as do countless women who challenged the status quo in industries from coal-mining to medicine. Makers captures with music, humor, and the voices of the women who lived through these turbulent times the dizzying joy, aching frustration and ultimate triumph of a movement that turned America upside-down.”
P.S. Added the picture at 10:47
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Prof M criticizes the “Makers” documentary for turning a mass movement into a movement compelled by a few prominent individuals. http://historyinthecity.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-women-who-made-america-were.html. Well worth reading.