{"id":70,"date":"2012-02-26T23:36:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T04:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?post_type=worldedu_posts&p=17027"},"modified":"2016-07-01T17:02:20","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T21:02:20","slug":"banned-books-awareness-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/2012\/02\/26\/banned-books-awareness-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Awareness: \u201cSlavery by Another Name\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Being that these are the final days of Black History Month 2012, I thought it wise to share a news story that is also sadly apropos to the subject of censorship.<\/p>\n

The Equal Justice Initiative<\/a> is a Montgomery, Alabama-based organization founded in 1989 to provide legal representation for the indigent and incarcerated. Bryan Stevenson, director of the EJI, sent two books last year to Mark Melvin, who is doing life for a murder he committed when he was 14.<\/p>\n

One was \u201cMountains Beyond Mountains<\/em>,\u201d about a doctor\u2019s struggle to bring medical services to Haiti. The other was \u201cSlavery by Another Name<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSlavery by Another Name<\/a>: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II<\/em>\u201d is Douglas A. Blackmon\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning look into how the American South established a form of de facto slavery in the decades following the Civil War by arresting a large number of black men on ridiculous and unfounded charges and then \u201cselling\u201d them to plantations, turpentine farms, and into other forms of forced and cruel manual labor; even passing laws that made it illegal for black men to change jobs or employers, thus indenturing them into servitude at little pay.<\/p>\n

While prison officials allowed Melvin to have the first book, they confiscated and banned the second because, according to Stevenson, they felt it was \u201ctoo provocative, they didn\u2019t like the title, they didn\u2019t like the idea that the title conveyed. They didn\u2019t read the book, but they were concerned about it and thought that it would be \u2018too dangerous\u2019 to have in the prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since filing on behalf of Melvin, Stevenson has heard from other prisoners who claim that \u201cyears ago, there were a handful of Alabama prisons where the wardens would not let them watch Roots<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is yet another account of the disturbing trend of denial in how Americans are dealing with their dark past and the social issues that remain by simply forgetting it ever happened and not allowing any dialogue regarding such \u201csubversive\u201d subjects.<\/p>\n

The prison has no issue with Melvin himself; as he isn\u2019t considered a behavior problem. The issue isn\u2019t security, either. So, then, what other reason could there be than to suppress the truth about the South\u2019s record on human rights?<\/p>\n

\u201cOther countries that have tried to recover from severe human rights problems have always recognized that you have to commit yourself to truth and reconciliation: South Africa, Rwanda. In the United States we never did that. We had legal reforms that were imposed on some populations against their will and then we just carried on,\u201d says Stevenson.<\/p>\n

Take the Holocaust, for example. There are still those who believe the Holocaust never happened and that it was nothing more than political propaganda to garner sympathy for the war effort and the creation of the State of Israel.<\/p>\n

Just like a black version of Holocaust denial, Stevenson feels- and I have to agree- that it\u2019s \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d before Americans begin to minimize what segregation really was, and is.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s truly frightening is that the process has already begun, as many of my weekly reports show in shocking detail. Like former Mississippi Governor, Haley Barbour (R), who claimed in 2010 that desegregation in his state was \u201ca very pleasant experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hate to burst your bubble of ignorance, Haley, but desegregation in Mississippi was marked by numerous atrocities, the least of which were a firebombing, a fatal riot, the assassination of Medgar Evers, and the cold-blooded murders of three voting rights workers; hardly a \u201cpleasant experience\u201d by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, what a slippery slope the practice of revisionist history is.<\/p>\n

A PBS documentary also titled Slavery by Another Name<\/em> was presented at the Sundance Film Festival. Following the film’s screening the audience gave a 2-minute standing ovation for director Sam Pollard. The film made its PBS debut<\/a> on February 13th as part of the channel\u2019s Black History Month programming.<\/p>\n

As the many public service announcements we see throughout this month proclaim, we should celebrate Black History Month. We should not hide from it. Actually, we should celebrate history and truth in all its forms and all its positives and negatives, not pick and choose that which we want to believe simply because the harsh truth is too shameful or disturbing to bear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http:\/\/www.deepforestproductions.com\/BBARK.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources: American Library Association, Wikipedia, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Washington Post<\/em>
\n\u00a9 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro\/Deep ForestProductions<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being that these are the final days of Black History Month 2012, I thought it wise to share a news story that is also sadly apropos to the subject of censorship. The Equal Justice Initiative is a Montgomery, Alabama-based organization founded in 1989 to provide legal representation for the indigent […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[377,378,379,2,1],"tags":[257,305],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","category-banned-books-awareness-and-reading-for-knowledge","category-censorship","category-social-change","category-uncategorized","tag-prisons","tag-slavery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}