Tag Archives: Charles A Bonner

August West Coast Civil Rights Events

Maria was interviewed by musician activist Chili Most on Aug 1st on WVFG 107.5 FM in Uniontown, Alabama and in 8 surrounding counties. This interview was part of Mr. Most’s tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. See and hear his inspiring music at: http://www.chilimostmusic.com or search You Tube “Chili Most Fight for Your Rights.”

AUGUST 17, 2013  BERKELEY, CA

Social Justice and The Right to Vote: Looking Back, Looking Forward
panel 1 bonner gitin cervantez_MG_4465

As part of a daylong celebration with young and old activists, Maria Gitin facilitated a Voting Rights panel with Charles A. Bonner, civil rights attorney, author and SNCC field director who shared memories of the Selma and Wilcox County Alabama voting rights fight with civil rights veteran and author, Maria, a SCLC SCOPE and SNCC worker in 1965. Karina Cervantez, Vice Mayor of Watsonville, shared stories of her youthful experience registering and educating voters, and of the gains that Latinos have made through the 1965 Voting Rights Bill that Bonner and Gitin fought for and of the challenges that lie ahead. The three discussed what activists can do in the face the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down a key provision of the 1965 VRA.

Other Bay Area Veteran Panelists were Phil Hutchings and James Garrett. Clayborne Carson, Director of the MLK Institute at Stanford University was the keynote speaker.

The 10 Demands of the March on Washington – How Far do we Still have to Go?

  1. Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress — without compromise or filibuster — to guarantee all Americans:
    Access to all public accommodations
    Decent housing
    Adequate and integrated education
    The right to vote
  2. Withholding of Federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
  3. Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.
  4. Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment — reducing Congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised.
  5. A new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.
  6. Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when any Constitutional right is violated.
  7. A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers — “Negro” and white — on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.
  8. A national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 an hour fails to do this.)
    [The minimum wage at the time of the march was $1.15/hour.]
  9. A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment which are presently excluded.
  10. A federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination by federal, state, and municipal governments, and by employers, contractors, employment agencies, and trade unions.  – Courtesy of www.crmvet.org  National Civil Rights Website

Selma SNCC and SCLC’s Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project Summer 1965

Charles Bonner was my first SNCC friend and co-worker. He and Eric Jones were in charge of voter registration for SNCC in Wilcox County where I was working with SCLC’s summer voter registration project. He immediately inducted me into SNCC. For the rest of the summer, he and his girlfriend Jan, my boyfriend Bob Block and I spent time together in Selma, as well as doing some canvassing in Wilcox. Freedom Summer 1965 was one of the last truly cooperative projects with SNCC, SCLC, NAACP and dozens of local improvement associations working together on one goal: voter registration. For information on why this work was so essential and my orientation to SCOPE please visit the Civil Rights Veteran’s website http://www.crmvet.org/info/scope1.htm

Excerpt from 1965 This Little Light of Mine, This Bright Light of Ours: stories of the Wilcox County Freedom Fight © 2011

Nonviolence as a Strategy versus a Philosophy   

The next day we had breakfast with Chuck and Jan somewhere nearby. Over coffee with a still muddled brain, I tried to explain my understanding of nonviolence is that it boils down to being like a spiritual martial art.

“You take the negative energy, the hate rushing towards you and turn it back on the perpetrator in the form of love. That should melt down his defenses or at least make him stop and think. I believe that if you hate or hit back, you become no better than the oppressor. ”

Then Chuck explained that SNCC uses the word nonviolent in their name, but nonviolence is just a strategy, not a philosophy or belief.

“We use it when it’s convenient, when it will get press, prevent a mass murder and recruit more people to be active. When necessary, we use any weapon: rocks, knives, even guns, especially in isolated situations where you are outnumbered or outrun. There’s no political advantage from taking a beating or getting shot if no one is there to cover it. ”

Bob said he absolutely agreed with that, which made my stomach queasy, not only from last night’s liquor. “But, I don’t mind getting beat or even dying for The Movement, but I sure as hell don’t want to die if these guys don’t even want me here,” Bob added.

“Well I want you here, that’s for damn sure. Ya’ll been damn straight with us. But it is gettin’ time to go. Fact is, me and Jan are thinkin’ of heading out there to San Francisco with you all, in a few weeks.” Chuck went on to explain that getting an education is a form of activism, too.

Luke (Bob) Block, Maria Gitin and Charles (Chuck) Bonner 2005

Jan said that she thought, “Black power will come through independence that comes with achieving affluence and influence in the tradition of the often-maligned Booker T. Washington founder of Tuskegee Institute.” We groaned in self-mockery at our intellectual talk and the giddy guilt that we could, all four of us, drive away from Selma, alive.