Birmingham

noreply@blogger.com (Joel Backon) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:13:00 +0000

This was the first full week of work. I read four books on Bull Connor and Birmingham to better understand place and protagonist. I have four more books to look at to fill in the blanks. There are similarities between the Bull Connor of Birmingham and the Jim Clark of Selma. They crossed paths at least once when Clark brought his posse to Birmingham in early May 1963 to assist Connor with the civil rights demonstrations. I still have my notes of last year analyzing Jim Clark so this week will be a writing week as I try to synthesize the two men in the context of their words and actions. I must frame my reasons for selecting these particular men as my primary examples of excessive racial violence. As my adviser says, I must begin to crystallize that all important connection between these two men and the European response to black Africans during the fifteenth century. That connection will be an intellectual link rather than a trans-historical causal relationship. The latter would require years of reconstructing historical events.

The Beginning of the Project

noreply@blogger.com (Joel Backon) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:26:00 +0000

I'm writing a lengthy paper to satisfy the requirements of my master's degree. It is entitled:

OFFICERS JIM CLARK AND BULL CONNOR MEET HENRY THE NAVIGATOR:
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY EUROPEAN ROOTS OF RACIAL VIOLENCE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT IN CIVIL RIGHTS ALABAMA, 1960-65.

The two central questions of this work are:

1. Why did two notable Alabama law enforcement officers respond violently to Civil Rights protestors from 1960-65, given that the impact of their response was counterproductive to the preservation of southern culture?

2. What historical, sociological, and psychological forces fostered apparently irrational behavior on the part of two experienced law enforcement professionals responding to nonviolent demonstrations?

Both questions may be answered by returning to fifteenth century Portugal and the internalization of racial differences between white Europeans and black Africans. The essay will establish a connection between the beliefs and actions of two Alabama law enforcement officials and a deeply rooted fifteenth century Portuguese, and then European, hegemonic belief: blacks are an inferior race and should be treated accordingly. Understanding the very public tactics used by Bull Connor and Jim Clark to counter racial equality, the influence of national and international media coverage on shaping negative public opinion with respect to those tactics, and the resulting civil rights legislation supporting racial equality, reveals an irrational and counterproductive prejudice on the part of these two men. A level of anger and contempt that would short-circuit the goals of southern politics in the early 1960s required a deeply rooted source, the Portuguese psyche of the fifteenth century. Consequently, the subsequent theories proposed in opposition to racial equality (such as scientific racism) were simply a natural progression and outgrowth of the original fifteenth century origins.

The purpose of the blog is to make my thinking transparent as I research, organize, and write this paper. I welcome feedback and opinion from all writers, social scientists, and historians.

Writing Something Meaningful

Birmingham

The Beginning of the Project