美国国家公共电台 NPR--Veterans of the civil rights movement of the 1960s see similarities today

Veterans of the civil rights movement of the 1960s see similarities today

Transcript¹

America was polarized during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Veterans from the movement say the racial backlash they feel today is reminiscent of the recoil² they faced in 1968.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Many Americans feel they've never seen their country as divided as it is today. But some with longer memories recall the 1960s. The Vietnam War is widely seen today as a mistake. But opinions back then were deeply divided. The civil rights movement today is widely praised, but it drew fierce opposition³ back then. NPR's John Burnett examines today's divisions through the eyes of some veterans of the civil rights movement.

VALDA HARRIS MONTGOMERY: Hi, everybody. First, welcome to Montgomery. Second, welcome to Centennial Hill.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁴: And welcome to the Harris House. The home of brick and white siding where Valda Harris Montgomery grew up served as a refuge for civil rights legends like John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr.

MONTGOMERY: So if anybody has any questions, let me know.

BURNETT: She's giving an informal tour to a group of Episcopal seminarians from Austin. The house sits a few blocks from the state capitol, where Alabama Governor George Wallace vowed⁵, segregation⁶ forever.

MONTGOMERY: This was the prominent African American neighborhood back in the 1800s. So it's going to be filled with Black history events, as well as civil rights events.

BURNETT: Inside the house, the third-floor strategy room, they called it, is unchanged from back in the day - same wood paneling, beige sofa and stereo system. Montgomery's mother served spaghetti to movement foot soldiers, like the Freedom Riders, who rode buses through the South, pursued by white mobs, to integrate interstate transportation. Her father, a pharmacist, brought them antiseptic and bandages when needed. Sixty years later, Harris cannot believe the nation is again torn asunder⁷, that we were again at each other's throats.

MONTGOMERY: We thought we had gotten there in the '70s and the '80s. But we're so hate-filled that I'm just afraid that there's going to be some type of battle. You know, why do you hate Jewish people? Why do you hate Black people? Why do you hate LGBTQ people? How are they threatening you?

BURNETT: The people interviewed for this story, who played roles, major and minor⁸, in the civil rights years, thought America had evolved beyond this.

MONTGOMERY: A lot of my friends, and that's what's - not just me, feel that we're just reliving the past, and that we have got to make sure that our children and our grandchildren understand that, that this is not new.

TAYLOR BRANCH: Those things ripped the country and families apart back then.

BURNETT: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian of the civil rights movement, Taylor Branch, is 75 years old. He's in the middle of writing a sweeping⁹ new book about the influence of race in all of American history.

BRANCH: I think we've always had extremely divisive issues. Right now, what we - I think that we lack is a more coherent, positive alternative. And that's what Dr. King and the civil rights movement provided.

BURNETT: Branch says civil rights activists¹¹ showed an abiding¹² faith in the public trust, much as the nation's founders¹³ did. They believed that this nation's experiment in self-government would take the place of violence and free us.

BRANCH: My view is that we are failing both the legacy¹⁴ of the founders in Philadelphia and the legacy of the re-founders in the civil rights era by allowing our politics to be so corroded¹⁵ and cynical¹⁶.

BURNETT: One of the leaders in the struggle for racial equality was Bernard Lafayette. He participated in the Freedom Rides, the Selma voting rights campaign and the Nashville student lunch counter sit-ins.

BERNARD LAFAYETTE: I'm an expert on mean white folk. So if you want to know anything about mean white folks, you're looking at the right person.

BURNETT: Sitting regally at a conference table at Auburn University in Alabama, where he's a visiting scholar, Lafayette, 82 years old, smiles and savors¹⁷ the question, how would he compare the fault lines in the 1960s with the 2020s?

LAFAYETTE: Back in the '60s, whites had no inclination¹⁸ that Blacks could rise up in political power. So that is one of the things that has changed now. I think that today, it's more scared white folks. They have come to the conclusion that other minority groups can take over.

BURNETT: There was American separatism 60 years ago. But it wasn't red and blue, it was Black and white.

HANK SANDERS: Back in the '60s, they didn't call it polarization. They called it segregation.

BURNETT: Henry Sanders is a 79-year-old civil rights attorney, former student activist¹⁰ and retired¹⁹ state senator in Selma, Ala. Sanders, too, has been disheartened by the setbacks.

SANDERS: I was one of those people who were convinced that with the election of President Obama, race relationship was going to get better, because I said, you know, they'll see that he's an intelligent and capable man. He's got a wonderful wife and children. I was just shocked that it had the exact opposite reaction.

BURNETT: Police and civilian²⁰ shootings of unarmed Black people, the massacre²¹ of Black worshippers in Charleston and Black supermarket shoppers in Buffalo²², the last White House courting white nationalism and the Confederate battle flag paraded through the U.S. Capitol on January 6, new state voting restrictions²³ transparently²⁴ aimed at Democrat-leaning Black communities - to veterans of the movement, this is an old script, measurable progress followed by a backlash. Clayborne Carson is an emeritus²⁵ history professor at Stanford University, director of the Martin Luther King Papers Project and once a civil rights militant²⁶ in California. He's sitting in his backyard in Palo Alto.

CLAYBORNE CARSON: I don't think any of us who struggled to get civil rights and voting rights in the mid-1960s thought that this was going to lead to this huge political shift in America and that the winners, in a way, were the people who built their careers on that backlash. I don't think Richard Nixon would have won in 1968 if not for this backlash.

BURNETT: Forty-eight years later, Donald Trump²⁷ would build his movement on a backlash to President Obama.

CARSON: The notion that in 2020s we would still be fighting over voting rights just didn't really occur to me. But here we are.

BURNETT: Here we are, back where we started, at the historic Harris House in Alabama. But rather than end on a pessimistic tone, Valda Montgomery says she's encouraged by all the people who tour her home who want to know this overlooked history.

MONTGOMERY: Groups that have come, people with a purpose. They want to be educated. And the majority of the groups are white groups or mixed groups. People are hungry for the actual story.

BURNETT: The story, of course, is not over. The country continues to search for that coherent, positive alternative, as Taylor Branch puts it, that will bring America out of its maelstrom²⁸.

John Burnett, NPR News, Montgomery, Ala.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN BLADE AND THE FELLOWSHIP BAND'S "SHENANDOAH")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 recoil   

vi.退却，退缩，畏缩

参考例句：

• Most people would recoil at the sight of the snake.许多人看见蛇都会向后退缩。
• Revenge may recoil upon the person who takes it.报复者常会受到报应。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

6 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

7 asunder   

adj.分离的，化为碎片

参考例句：

• The curtains had been drawn asunder.窗帘被拉向两边。
• Your conscience,conviction,integrity,and loyalties were torn asunder.你的良心、信念、正直和忠诚都被扯得粉碎了。

8 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

9 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

10 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

11 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

13 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

14 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

15 corroded   

已被腐蚀的

参考例句：

• Rust has corroded the steel rails. 锈侵蚀了钢轨。
• Jealousy corroded his character. 嫉妒损伤了他的人格。

16 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

17 savors   

v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的第三人称单数 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝

参考例句：

• His talk savors, of self-conceit. 他的谈话给人以自负的感觉。 来自辞典例句
• This sauce savors, of lemon. 这个调味酱有柠檬味。 来自辞典例句

18 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

19 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

20 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

21 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

22 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

23 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

24 transparently   

明亮地，显然地，易觉察地

参考例句：

• "Clearly plots,'said Jacques Three. "Transparently!" “显然是搞阴谋，”雅克三号说，“再清楚不过了。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• All design transparently, convenient for the file identification inside the bag. 全透明设计，方便袋内文件识别。

25 emeritus   

adj.名誉退休的

参考例句：

• "Perhaps I can introduce Mr.Lake Kirby,an emeritus professor from Washington University?"请允许我介绍华盛顿大学名誉教授莱克柯尔比先生。
• He will continue as chairman emeritus.他将会继续担任荣誉主席。

26 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

27 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

28 maelstrom   

n.大乱动；大漩涡

参考例句：

• Inside,she was a maelstrom of churning emotions.她心中的情感似波涛汹涌，起伏不定。
• The anxious person has the spirit like a maelstrom.焦虑的人的精神世界就像一个大漩涡。