The Power To Reclaim and Engage In History
By Deborah D. Douglas
Deborah D. Douglas is an author, professor, speaker, and leader with The OpEd Project.
The trick about the story of the Civil Rights Movement is we think that it was so long ago—at a time we can barely even imagine. But a lot of us on this earth now, we’re a part of that movement or have family members who were a part of it. And frankly, some our families may have opposed the movement, and we can grapple with that because it’s relevant right now.
My new book, U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events that Made the Movement, encompasses everything that I’ve done and everything that I am as an African American, as a Black woman in this society, as a practicing journalist for several decades.
Traveling to all the cities in the book including Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, Charleston, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Little Rock and more, I interviewed civil rights leaders, local heroes and local business owners. It’s important to engage with these cities as they are now, and I wanted to create a full experience.
For some people, it can be a hard history to take, especially if it’s your particular family. But we also have a lot to celebrate. Too often, our communities are rendered through a deficit frame instead of an asset frame. Even though we live there, or have family roots, we don’t even have the presence of mind to really identify and appreciate the history that is right outside our front door.
Then the powers-that-be curate cultural experiences that don’t really point us in that direction. I feel like curating it in this way is a paradigm shift and asset framing Black communities and the Black experience. it’s a book for allies of all races and ethnicities. For anybody who loves America, or at least the highest possible vision of what this country can be.
You go back, and you realize the risks these people took, and how everyday activists were operating on so many different layers at a given time. And they, even children, were risking their lives to get the right to vote, fair pay and self-determine.
When they got beat back, they got up and they did it again and again and again. This journey made me think: What are the righteous risks that I take in my life on a daily basis? I often feel coddled, and I get the right to feel coddled because they created physical and metaphorical safety zones for me to pursue my dreams day in, day out.
Deborah D. Douglas was featured recently on PBS’ WTTW, “Black Voices.”
““For some people, it can be a hard history to take. But we also have a lot to celebrate. Too often, our communities are rendered through a deficit frame instead of an asset frame.” @debofficially #PowerToChangeStories ”
Deborah D. Douglas is an author, journalist, the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. Her latest book is U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events that Made the Movement and she contributed a chapter to Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019. Register here for her February 23, 5 pm EST, event, "Where We Belong: Writing about Race and Place.” debofficially.com; @debofficially (Twitter + IG) ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/ deborah-douglas-a3495a14/