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e-culture: King Inspired a Movement, Super Soul Fest, Chinese New Year, more
January 17, 2004
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King Inspired a Movement
By struggling for equality and civil rights, Martin Luther King improved conditions for many people of diverse races and religions living in the United States.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's approach to nonviolent civil protest in 1948, King would lead the Montgomery Improvement Association into the Civil Rights Movement in 1955. The movement to end segregation resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and went on to inspire the actions of socially conscious organizers like Dennis Banks, of the American Indian Movement, and the boycotts of Caesar Chavez.
In addition to the historically exploited Black population, King concerned himself with the conditions of people across the nation, from Jewish immigrants in the Northeast to Hispanics in the Southwest.
Many have been offered the hand of oppression in the new land they emigrated to for opportunity.
In 1654, Jewish immigrants came to New Amsterdam (later New York) as refugees from a Dutch colony in Brazil that fell into the hands of the Portuguese, who carried on the repressive policies that forced Sephardic Jews from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. The Eighteenth Century saw the migration of Ashkenazic Jews escaping deteriorating conditions in Germanic Europe. Beginning in the 1880s, more than two million Hasidic Jews fled the oppressive pogroms of Russia and Poland, most crowding into four square miles of Manhattan's Lower East Side. In The American Magazine in 1888, Allen Foreman described the tenement building living conditions of the Lower East Side Jewish Quarter: "They are great prison-like structures of brick, with narrow doors and windows, cramped passages and steep rickety stairs. In case of fire they would be death-traps..." Jacob Riis later photographed the horrifying slum conditions.
The dense population of Jews became a force of poorly paid factory and garment workers, and due to rampant class conflict, were even exploited from within their own culture. Though they fit in well as workers in a nation full of immigrants, the diverse Jewish population faced great difficulties in establishing synagogues and community institutions.
Eastern European immigrants came in large numbers to the Gulf Coast. Many Sicilians were lured to south Louisiana to replace slave labor on sugar cane plantations as freed African Americans migrated north following the Civil War. The numbers of Italians emigrating to the U.S. climbed steadily: their numbers fewer than 4,000 in 1850; 44,000 in 1880; and more than 484,000 by 1900.
In the state with the lowest wages and worst living conditions in the nation (the effects of which are still felt in Louisiana today), plantation owners blocked passage of a federal bill in 1907, which would have required a literacy test for immigrants, to ensure continuous unskilled labor for its fields. Many were cheated in land schemes and blamed for an outbreak of yellow fever. Facing dismal working conditions and rising bigotry against Italians and Eastern Europeans, they spread west into Texas and Colorado building railroads and laboring in mines, as they struggled to achieve independence and land ownership.
Rising sentiment against poor European immigrants resulted in harsh laws selectively limiting immigration. The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at sharply reducing the numbers of Southern and Eastern Europeans, such as the Italian field workers and the mostly Jewish Russians. The numbers of "more desirable" English and Irish were increased, while the laws continued to ban nearly all Asian immigration.
The earliest Chinese immigrants of the Eighteenth Century were wealthy merchants, but the race to build railroads late in the Nineteenth Century attracted tens of thousands of unskilled workers from China. 10,000 worked on the Central Pacific Railroad that joined the Union Pacific to become the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. Though 90 percent of the workers were Chinese, none appeared in the famous photograph made at the "Golden Spike" ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah, where the two connected. Chinese immigrants moved into manufacturing, agriculture and domestic work.
With faster transportation, Southern Whites eventually made up one third of the Western population, bringing with them dislike of the Black and Chinese settlers, fueled largely by economic fears. Reacting to rising sentiment against the steady influx of mass cheap labor, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricting Chinese immigration.
Read the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in our Virtual Classroom:
http://www.houstonculture.org/vc/cea1882html
As repressed populations originating from around the world grew and U.S. industries advanced their influence, many diverse peoples suffered from the social ills of the developing nation.
Martin Luther King first recognized that segregation and lack of political influence prevented African Americans from achieving equality. Freed from slavery by civil war, and with segregation abolished by law, African Americans moved up to the ranks of the working poor. As King further studied the conditions of economic repression, he discovered that the largest group living in poverty in the U.S. was White, that laborers of all ethnicities were horrendously exploited and that persecution of religious groups led to further segregation. In the years between winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964 and his assassination in 1968, King worked to build a multiracial coalition, including poor descendants of Whites displaced by the Highland Clearances and struggling Mexican immigrants with the United Farm Workers, to address causes of poverty and powerlessness for all people.
King inspired a social justice movement for African Americans; the gains won during the Civil Rights Movement benefited all oppressed and under-represented people in the United States, and helped us develop an understanding of humanity.
The world view that Martin Luther King developed during a month in India in 1959 is revealed in a speech: "Through our scientific genius, we made of the world a neighborhood, and now through our moral and ethical commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools."
Read more of Martin Luther King's speech:
http://www.houstonculture.org/hifc/quote10.html
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Human Trafficking, Trade Conferences
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of social justice, Texas advocates and educators are offering conferences on important topics.
Texas Fair Trade Coalition Meeting
Saturday, January 31, 2004
10:00am - 3:30pm
AFL-CIO Auditorium in Austin, Texas
Registration is free
The meeting is open to representatives of coalition member organizations and any interested individuals. The agenda for the meeting will include:
1) A review of recent developments in FTAA and a preview of the new bilaterals
2) A presentation on CAFTA--the final version of the agreement and how it will impact Texans
3) Strategizing our public education efforts and mobilization around CAFTA
4) Globalization Basics Workshop training--training for Globalization Educators
Contact Lesley at (512) 472-1915, or email Lesley@texasfairtrade.org
Combating Modern Day Slavery: Houston's Community Conference on Human Trafficking
February 19, 2004
8:00am - 5:30pm
Dominican House
6501 Almeda Road
Houston, Texas 77021
Human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery, is a global epidemic with an impact on our communities. The U.S. government estimates that 18-20,000 individuals are trafficked into the U.S. each year for the purpose of forced labor and sexual exploitation -- violations of or basic human rights. This one-day conference provides participants with the information, tools and resources to combat human trafficking and assist victims.
This community conference is open to non-profits, immigrant service providers, attorneys, social workers, law enforcement, consultants, counselors, victim witness coordinators, government agencies, community leaders and other interested parties.
Topics include: Human Trafficking: An Overview; Models of Responses to Human Trafficking; Protection of the Trafficked; Meeting Their Needs: Services to Child and Adult Trafficking Victims; Eliminating the Scourge of Trafficking/Steps Toward Solutions.
Speakers Include:
March Bell, Trial Attorney and Trafficking Specialist, U.S. Department of Justice
Lauren Engle, Coordinator, International Organization for Migration
Maria Jiminez, Board Member, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Lisa Kubiel, Special Advisor on Trafficking, United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations
Colin Leydon, Legislative Director for Texas State Representative Lon Burmon
JoAnn Schneider, Acting Deputy Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, U.S. Department of State
Carol Smolenski, Coordinator, ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking)
Registration: $50.00 (Includes meals and training materials), Scholarships available. Sponsored by the YMCA International Services, UH Law Center's Immigrants Rights Clinic, Houston Dominican Sister, Lovebridge Foundation, and Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate World.
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Topical Forums and Speakers
KPFT Elections
A Listener Candidate Forum will take place on Sunday, January 18, 2004 from 1:00 to 4:00pm at the Hare Krishna Temple, 1320 W. 34th St., Houston, Texas. For more details, http://www.kpft.org.
Bishop Steven Charleston
Bishop Steven Charleston, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and former Bishop of Alaska, will be the keynote speaker at the dinner celebrating the 75th Anniversary of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Saturday, January 24, 2004. Bishop Charleston, a member of the Choctaw Nation and a leading advocate for justice issues, has been called "one of the best preachers in the Episcopal Church." Location: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1805 West Alabama at Woodhead. Time: 5:30pm reception, 6:30 dinner, 8:00 program. Tickets are $30.00 and may be purchased during business hours at the Church Office (713/528-6665) before January 18. Business attire. Childcare is available, including nursery care and a separate dinner and program for older children ($30.00 per child).
Frederick Starr, "Democracy in Central Asia and Afghanistan: a Lost Cause?"
January 21, 2004, 6:00 to 8:00pm
American hopes for democracy in Afghanistan and Central Asia have taken a beating. Many decry a new "authoritarianism" spreading in the region. The New York Times went so far as to call one state, Uzbekistan, "totalitarian." But are such accusations fair? Is there a basis for the fashionable pessimism? Or are we experiencing a wave of irrational "catastrophizing" that blinds us to promising developments? These will be the subjects of Frederick Starr's presentation. Dr. Starr returns to look at the prospects for the future in this region.
S. Frederick Starr is Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Dr. Starr is research professor at the Foreign Policy Institute of SAIS, John Hopkins University and the pro-tem Rector of the University of Central Asia. He is a leading specialist on the society and politics of Central Asia, including Afghanistan, as well as Russian politics and foreign policy, U.S. policy in Eurasia, and the regional politics of oil.
$10 members; $15 for non-members; Free for students & teachers (with ID)
InterContinental Hotel, 2222 West Loop South Houston
For reservations call 713-439-0051 or Email: txcenter@asiasoc.org
Asia Society Texas
http://www.asiasoc.org/tx
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Festive Events
Martin Luther King Celebrations
The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade will take place on Monday, January 19th, at 10:00am in downtown Houston. A Battle of the Bands competition will take place at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus beginning at 3:00pm.
There will be a second Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade downtown, Monday, January 19th, at 2:00pm.
Super Soul Fest 2004
Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31, 2004
10:00am-6:00pm
Vendors, musicians, poets and visual artists in the park, on the sidewalks, at Chase Bank, on the lots and inside various Host Establishments along Almeda from Cleburne to Binz.
Activities for Young People & Teens at Peggy Park and The Children's Museum
"HISTORY IN 3 DIMENSIONS" - Tours of the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, Black Heritage Gallery, Kathy Coleman Gallery, Ania Boutique, Visual Gallery, D&B, Ananse, artcetra, MeloDrama, McQueen's, African Treasures, etc.
"THE WAGON MEETS THE RAIL" - Hayride shuttles to and from the Blodgett Rail Station and from one end of the festival to the other.
11am-7pm
TASTES OF SOULFUL HOUSTON... Food to tempt your taste buds... including Soul, Health, Jamaican, Delicatessen, Barbeque, Seafood, Fast Food and Diverse Food Vendor Booths!
6pm-9pm-2am
NIGHT LIFE ON THE CORRIDOR... Jazz & Poetry, Reggae & Caribbean, Jazz & Contemporary Music, Country & Blues, and Hip-Hop
8pm-Midnight
Loretta's Creole Zydeco Blues Feast (Location TBA), Admission: $30, Call: 713-522-1479
http://www.supersoulfest.com
GONG XI FA CAI - Happy Chinese New Year
http://www.houstonculture.org/cr/cny.html
January 22 will mark the new year, 4702 (the Year of the Monkey) according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
A Chinese New Year celebration, featuring music, performers, food, kid's games, and Chinese artifacts, will take place at the Chinese Community Center.
10:00am - 4:00pm, January 24
Chinese Community Center
5855 Sovereign Drive
Houston, TX 77036
713-271-6100
http://www.houstonculture.org/listings/ccc.html
See our Cultural Gift Giving Guide for New Year gift ideas:
http://www.houstonculture.org/main/gifts2003.html
Take an educational tour of the Forbidden Gardens:
http://www.forbidden-gardens.com
Thank you for participating in these great programs.
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M a r k @houstonculture.org
Cultural and Community Organization Listings:
http://www.houstonculture.org/listings
2003 Report to Friends and Volunteers:
http://www.houstonculture.org/report
Support Houston Institute for Culture:
http://www.houstonculture.org/giving
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