Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was a famous lawyer and jurist.  Marshall first gained notoriety when he successfully argued and won the very famous landmark case that declared that a separate but equal education to be unconstitutional – Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954.  He was the first African-American to be a Justice in the United States Supreme Court.  His accomplishments are in no small measure due to his hard work and persistence having to overcome many of the obstacles placed in his way due to the color of his skin.

Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore Maryland in a political climate that was permeated with Jim Crow – the body of local and national laws and customs designed to deny African-Americans the full rights entitled to them as citizens.  His parents were Willie and Norma Marshall.  It would be of value to provide a cursory view of race history in the United States. 

 

Slaves were first brought into the colonies in 1670 and the institution of slavery flourished with the United States for 270 years until the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.  

Prior to this historic pronouncement there were many instances of laws and rulings that were designed to deny African-Americans equal rights.  For example, in 1705, the Virginia legislature passed legislation that effectively equated Negro, Mulatto and Indian slaves as real estate with no legal rights or legal identity.  This was in comparison to states like Massachusetts and Vermont that guaranteed the rights of all of its citizens.  In addition, on a number of instances, Supreme Court decisions upheld the widespread belief in the inferiority of Blacks. 

The famous Dred Scott Decision of 1856 validated the belief that slaves were to be treated separately.  Dred Scott was a slave who lived with his owner in the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin.  When his owner died in 1843, Scott sued for his freedom.  The Supreme Court eventually heard the arguments and in 1857 decided that an African-American slave or free had no constitutional rights.

In the words of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, "People of African descent are beings of an inferior order and are altogether unfit to associate with the white race in social or political relations, and are so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and legally be reduced to slavery for his benefit."

To reclaim the inherent rights of all U.S. citizens, the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution were passed beginning in 1868.  They were as follows:

AMENDMENT XIII

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

AMENDMENT XIV

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

AMENDMENT XV

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--

These amendments were passed to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves.  It was Jim Crow that effectively attempted to subvert these newly-held rights.  It was into such a racially charged environment that Marshall was born.  His grandfather was born into slavery.

In spite of these additional guarantees written into the constitution, the Supreme Court once again ruled in favor of segregation.  In 1892, Homer Plessy, one-eighth African-American, purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad purposefully to challenge state law.   He was ordered into a "black car;" he refused and was subsequently thrown off the train and convicted of violating the law.   The Supreme Court heard the legal arguments in 1895 and during the next year voted 7-1 against his appeal.   In the Court's opinion, as written by Justice Henry B. Brown, "Legislation is powerless to eradicate social instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation."  In his descent, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote, "…U.S. government laws must protect all citizens."  The nation would endure sixty more years of racial discrimination and segregation.

 

America at the time of Marshall's birth had a population of eighty-nine million and was composed of forty-six states.  Ten percent of the population was African-American and in Baltimore African-Americans constituted twenty percent of the population.  Jim Crow was everywhere evident.  Additionally, less than half the population of the country enjoyed full legal writes; this was before women's suffrage, and child labor was very common with workers as young as seven or eight years old – making as little as ten cents per day.

The Marshall family valued education.  Willie Marshall taught his children tolerance and pride in their black heritage.  Norma graduated college – an unusual achievement for a woman, especially being African-American.  There were limited expectations for a young black person seeking a college education.  The most that could be hoped for was a professional career such as medicine, dentistry and teaching where the graduate could not hope to serve the white community.  In order to further understand the obstacles felt by African-Americans, especially males, in that era, it should be kept in mind that between 1889 and 1918 there were 2500 lynchings in the United States with 15 of those reported in the state of Maryland.  There were race riots in Atlanta, Georgia in 1906 and Springfield, Illinois in 1908.  This was the daunting environment into which Marshall was born.

In spite of these fierce and uncompromising racist attitudes, there were African-Americans courageous enough to stand their ground in opposition.  One of these was W.E.B. DuBois who founded the Niagara Movement for the purpose of opposing segregation and the oppression of black people.  This organization ultimately failed, but he went on to merge with like organizations to found the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The Marshall family moved to New York's Harlem in 1910.  Marshall remembered vividly a banner that read, "This part of 135^th Street guaranteed against Negro invasion."  He started working when he was only seven years old.  The family eventually returned to Baltimore where the racial tension was exceedingly high and the city was highly segregated.  At that time, there were no toilet facilities of any kind available to African-Americans.  Marshall had an horrific personal experience as a child in this regard.  He also remembered as a child a story out of Washington D.C. in which two African-American males accosted a white woman and grabbed her umbrella. As a consequence, the woman's husband and his friends decided to lynch the two men.  The mob of white vigilantes roamed the streets indiscriminately attacking any blacks they found.  The harsh reality of life that Marshall had to endure as a child made him a "tough kid" by his own admission.

In response to these aspects of daily life, his parents emphasized black heritage and his mother especially inculcated the idea of standing up against racism.  Marshall did not apply himself in school and often got into trouble.  On one of these occasions, his punishment was to memorize the U.S. Constitution.  By the time he left school he knew it by heart.  Ironically, this punishment inadvertently exposed him to the egalitarian nature of the document and its potential to reform society.  He ultimately became its undying advocate.

Marshall entered Lincoln University in 1925 in Oxford, Pennsylvania.  He was enamored of his social life and at one point was threatened with suspension.  The famed poet Langston Hughes was a senior at the University at that time and intervened on Marshall's behalf.  He decided to apply himself enough to pass.

On September 4, 1929, Marshall married Vivian Buster Burey.  It was her influence that helped Marshall begin to apply himself.  It was at this point that he developed an interest in the law and finally decided to enter law school.  According to him, "My father never told me to become a lawyer.  But, he turned me into one by teaching me to argue, to prove every statement I made and by challenging my logic in every point." 

He applied the University of Maryland and was denied acceptance on account of race.  He entered Howard University in Washington D.C.  There, he was greatly influenced by Charles Hamilton Houston who brought to his class such notable figures as Clarence Darrow and Felix Frankfurter.  The class also took field trips to police stations, courtrooms, and mental asylums.   Houston emphasized that a lawyer wages battle in court and needs to be a social engineer.   According to his mentor, "We've got to turn this whole thing around.  And the black man has got to do it; nobody's going to do it for you."  Marshall was convinced.

In 1933, he became a licensed attorney.  His attempt at starting his own business; however, was daunting since the nation was in the grips of a Depression in which one out of three workers was unemployed.  He did not even have access to the local Bar Association; he was denied membership on account of his race.  He was forced to use the court library to gain access to the legal books so essential in a lawyer's career.  Finally, in 1934, he was hired by the NAACP.

It was in this role that Marshall, as lead attorney, presented the evidence to Earl Warren's Supreme Court to support the argument that a separate but "equal" education was unconstitutional in the renowned case of Brown et al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954.  He was, of course, successful in his endeavor.  Marshall and his team of lawyers had worked for four years to perfect their case.

On account of his illustrious career at the Bar and as an avid supporter of civil rights, Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 2, 1967.  Marshall resigned from the Supreme Court on October 1, 1991 having resided on the court through six different presidential administrations.  Ironically, his position was filled by Clarence Thomas appointed by President George Bush.  Thomas views on matter of social equality and justice are counter to those of Marshall.  Marshall was not terribly happy regarding this choice.  He died on January 24, 1993.

 

As a demonstration of Marshall's commitment to the Constitution, in a speech made as a commencement address at the University of Virginia on May 21, 1978, he said the following.

"The democratizing aspects of the Constitution cannot be overstated.  For me, its cardinal principle is that all persons stand in a position of equality before the law.  The Constitution gives to each and every one of you an equal right to your own opinions and to participate in the process of your own governance.  These are precious rights that we must continually strive to preserve, and whose promise we must seek to attain.  There are still far too many persons in this country who cannot participate as equals in the processes of Government – persons too poor, too ignorant, persons discriminated against by other people for no good reason.  But our ideal, the ideal of our Constitution, is to eliminate these barriers to the aspirations of all Americans to participate fully in our government and society.  We have realized it far better than most countries, but we still have a long way to travel and we must continue to strive in that direction."

12th Annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

The city of Chicago hosted the 12th annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates from April 23-25, 2012.  More than a dozen prominent laureates attended the summit whose theme was to, "Speak Up, Speak Out for Freedom and Rights" through discussions and presentations over the three days of the event.  The aim of the summit was to help motivate the young, civic leaders and the general public concerning matters of peace and social justice.

A Meditation on Humanity

From the magical darkness

of the womb

into the abrupt light of

human contrivance.

 

In the dome of the implacable skull

the torch of consciousness

passed down through generations

and fashioned into

the protoplasmic wonder called human.

 

Dark, wild images implanted

in layers of distant memories

in the labrynth of brain.

 

Sleepless nights of

tumultous storms

tossing lightning through the skies

at the ground in haphazard folly,

trees snappig like helpless twigs,

rivers raging with their burdens of

relentless driving rain,

nights filled with utter darkness,

volcanic fury ripping the earth

as if it were paper,

sky overwhelmed by distant points of light and

moon, mysterious moon

casting pale shadows on the midnight earth,

howling beasts that break the silence

and impregnate the unsuspecting mind

with avenues of fear and deep distrust

of nature so capricious.

 

Lush rich beauty  of the world

enveloped by the seasons,

filled with wondrous creatures

gave pause to awakening spirit

to rest and meditate

upon the possibility of meaning,

to considere cause as well as effect.

 

Conflict between the inexplicable and the known,

horror of predation and joy of the kill,

fear and understanding,

health and disease,

plenty and the relentless pain of hunger,

harmony and upheaval,

rapture of sweet love and rage towards the enemy,

living and the end of life,

gave sustenance to the idea of the capricious gods

who hold creation in their playful hands

who can change the course of life

in an instant.

 

Born with the hunger to understand,

born with the relentless desire for harmony,

wrapped in mother's arms and

held sweetly at the breast,

we seek each other out

to enrich the joy,

to placate the suffering

that begins to unwind from first breath.

 

We are a vast tribe

grown from few to billions,

we carry the emotions

bundled in our minds like fire,

we have great capacity for

living fruitfully or

giving sway to ignorance

and a thirst for chaos and dissolution.

 

We are a vast tribe,

grown from few to billions,

we can continue to nurture hatred

sustain the idea of enemy,

need for mortal combat or

take the noble idea of equality

and give it true birth

in the human heart.

 

We are a vast tribe,

grown from few to billions,

we can hold on to pernicious ideas

that arose from a darker age

where ignorance resided or

embrace our capacity for wonder,

and enfold the whole of humanity

to our breast like the ancient mother that

gave birth to us all.

Jonathan Kozol

As In so many other areas of the economic and social life of American citizens, there is a large and growing disparity between the quality of education afforded to those who happen to grow up in households of significant means and those who are in families struggling to survive.  In spite of the mandate for public education, millions of children are deprived of the kind of quality education so vitally important in the twenty-first century.  Jonathan Kozol has been an outspoken critic of this grievous imbalance for decades.

 

Jonathan Kozol was born on September 5, 1936 in Boston Massachusetts.  He graduated from Harvard University in 1958 with a degree in English Literature.  He was subsequently awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.  He did not complete his studies at Rhodes, however, but journeyed on to Paris in search of his dream of becoming a novelist.  He ultimately published his one and only work of fiction entitled, The Fume of Poppies. 

Following his graduation from Harvard and on his return from Paris, he began to tutor children in Roxbury, an economically depressed and racially segregated area of Boston, and eventually began to teach in the Boston Public Schools.  He was profoundly impacted by his experience teaching in a segregated school.  As he describes, "I had begun to teach in 1964 in Boston in a segregated school so crowded and so poor that it could not provide my fourth grade class with a classroom.  In the spring I was shifted to another fourth grade class that had had a string of substitutes all year.  The thirty-five children in the class hadn't had a permanent teacher since they entered kindergarten.  That year I was their thirteenth teacher."

He was so appalled by these conditions that he attempted to introduce material to the children that might inspire their interest.   He awakened them to the poetry of Robert Frost and Langston Hughes.  He was fired on this account, for it was the school's determination that, "…the poets he chose were too advanced for children of that age…" for Hughes was considered to be too inflammatory.  He subsequently went on to teach at a prosperous school in the Boston suburbs.  He was impressed and appalled by the stark difference in the quality of education available to those children born into families of means as compared to their underprivileged counterparts.  This set of experiences made him acutely aware of the issues of civil rights and social justice.

 

Jonathan Kozol has been an unfaltering advocate for the education of poor and underprivileged children for over forty years.   He has written numerous books on this issue including, The Night is Dark and I am far from Home, Savage Inequalities, Ordinary Resurrections and Amazing Grace.

In the fall of 1988 through 1990 he visited students throughout the United States.  He was struck by the extent of racial segregation and the stark differences that existed regarding the quality of education provided that was wholly dependent upon the racial character of the neighborhood.  In his experience, most of the urban schools were predominantly non-white.  This was particularly troubling, since the historic Supreme Court decision regarding Brown versus Board of Education was made some thirty-five years previous in 1954.  In that decision, the Court proclaimed that the argument posed by segregationists that education should be "separate but equal" was untrue and, more importantly, unconstitutional. 

 

In his book, Savage Inequalities, he describes his experiences visiting the public schools that serve poor and minority children in such diverse places as Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Texas.  He presents in vivid detail the environment of East St. Louis in Illinois.  At the time, this book was written (1991), the city was 98% black and in the author's words, "…has no obstetric services, no regular trash collection, and few jobs.  Nearly a third of the families live on less than $7,500 a year; 75 percent of its population lives on welfare of some form.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development describes it as, 'the most distressed small city in America.'  Nearby, Pfizer and Monsanto have chemical plants severely impacting air quality.  As a consequence, East St. Louis has one of the highest rates of child asthma in the country.  This city lies on the floodplain of the east side of the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis.  The concentration of black communities in lowland areas susceptible to flooding seems to represent a pattern within the United States."  As an example, Kozol compares East St. Louis to the Mississippi delta town of Tunica, Mississippi in the black community of Sugar Ditch where the residences live in close proximity to open sewers and incidences of liver tumors and abscesses found in children are remarkably high.  The devastating and disastrous impact of hurricane Katrina on the black communities living close to the Mississippi River also attests to this pattern.

Amid this backdrop of appalling social conditions, Kozol draws the reader's attention to the condition of the public schools.   The following are some examples of what he found –

"The science labs at East St. Louis High are 30 – 50 years out of date.  John McMillan, a soft-spoken man, teaches physics at the school.  He shows me his lab.  The six lab stations in the room have empty holes where pipes were once attached.  'It would be great if we had water,' says McMillan.

"The biology lab, which I visit next, has no laboratory tables.  Students work at regular desks.  'I need dissecting kits,' the teacher says.  'The few we have are incomplete.'  Chemical supplies she tells me, in a city poisoned by two chemical plants, are scarce.  'I need more microscopes,' she adds.

As part of Kozol's investigation, he also interviewed students to gauge their feelings and analysis regarding the environment in which they were expected to learn.  The following are comments made by such students:

"I don't go to physics class, because my lab has no equipment."

"The typewriters in my typing class don't work."

"The women's toilets…I'll be honest, I just don't use the toilets.  If I do, I come back into class and I feel dirty."

The following statements clearly show that the students are also very aware regarding the broader socio-economic issues that confront them.

"Well, the two things, race and money, go so close together – what's the difference?  I live here, they live there, and they don't want me in their school."

"On one side of us you have two chemical corporations.  One is Pfizer – that's out there.  They make paint and pigments.  The other is Monsanto.  On the other side are companies incinerating toxic waste.  So the trash is comin' at us this direction.  The chemicals is comin' from the other.  We right in the middle."

 

Even though these observations were made in 1991, the city of East St. Louis continues to suffer from the catastrophic hardships that are a direct consequence of severe economic devastation.

 

In his travels, Kozol discovered and reported on similar conditions in the inner-city and minority rural communities that he encountered.  He was profoundly touched by these stories and has devoted his life to bringing these situations to the widest possible audience through his books, lectures, speaking tours and conversations.  He has left an undeniable impact, but there is so much more that needs to be done.

The Legacy of Colonialism

There are many nations throughout the world that are plagued by internal conflict.  The underlying source of the social and economic instabilities that are responsible for these civil wars can often be traced to the disastrous effects of colonialism.  The following are a few examples of the deleterious consequences of the imposition of foreign rule on the future prospects of an occupied country.

 

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Mathaai described her personal experiences growing up in Kenya.  She was born when Kenya was ruled by the British.  She watched as the beliefs and traditions of her people gradually died away as a result of the Western idea of progress.  The degradation of her local environment had a profound impact on her sensibilities.  Throughout the nineteenth century, western missionaries came to Africa followed by explorers, adventurers and fortune seekers in service of the European powers.  Missionaries came to Kenya towards the end of the nineteenth century.  They taught that God did not dwell on Mount Kenya, but in heaven.  The missionaries and the colonial administrators who followed them introduced new methods of exploiting natural resources such as logging, clear-cutting, creating plantations of imported trees, the commercial hunting of wildlife and commercial agriculture.  As a consequence of the implementation of these practices, hallowed landscapes were exploited.  In 1885, Britain and the other major colonialist European powers met in Berlin at the Berlin Conference to draft what came to be known as the "Scramble for Africa."  This conference formalized plans to achieve its ultimate goal - to lay claim to all of Africa within thirty years.

In Kenya, the British subdivided the country into different areas based upon the populations of different religious denominations who inhabited those regions.  In Maathai's region, there were Scottish Presbyterians and Italian Catholics.  In the 1910's, the British government encouraged British citizens to settle in Kenya, especially in the fertile highlands; these settlers received title deeds and the natives were relocated to the Rift Valley.  The British settlers introduced commercial agriculture and grew wheat, maze, coffee and tea.

As a result of colonial exploitation, the following changes in the natural environment took place:

·         Decimation of native plants for the purpose of growing so-called "cash crops" like tobacco

·         Importation of exotic plants for purely commercial purposes; this practice played havoc with the delicate ecological balance

·         Soil erosion as a result of extreme logging practices, especially clear-cutting

·         Imposition of agribusiness methods led to over cultivation and pollution of the soil and local environment with chemicals designed to improve crop production

·         Creation of commercial plantations supporting non-native trees i.e. Pine, Eucalyptus and Black Wattle, a species of Acacia normally found in Australia, for the timber and building industries - this had a profound impact on the natural ecosystem and its capacity to retain rainwater.

 

The impact of colonial rule on the native population was equally disastrous.  In the highlands, the area where Maathai was born, large British plantations usurped the native agriculture.  Although crops like tobacco brought in sizeable profits for the white settlers, native Kenyans were allowed to raise only pyrethrum as a cash crop.  In addition, the British imposed an income tax to be paid in money effectively transforming the livestock-based economy to a cash-based economy.  This kind of restriction imposed so much hardship; it was akin to slavery.

These practices imposed on the people of Kenya against their will solely for the purpose of exploiting the riches derived from the country's natural resources, had a destabilizing impact upon the nation's future.

 

As a nation, Nigeria was an artificial construct as a result of colonization by the British.  It was created from the remains of the Niger River Trading Company.  The Europeans helped themselves to vast territorial holdings in Africa as a result of the Treaty of Berlin as described above.

Northern Nigeria was populated by Muslims – the Hausa Fulani ethnic group ruled by emirs.  The people of northern Nigeria were relatively easy to control on account of the hierarchical nature of their social structure. The peoples of southern Nigeria, on the other hand, were more difficult to subjugate – they were fiercely democratic.  In order to subdue them, the British used religion, bribery, the influence of missionaries, and the power of the military.  It was British administration driven by economic considerations that carved out the Nigerian borders.  It was through the clever application of divide and conquer that the colonialists used the differences between the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Yoruba peoples in the west and the Ibo in the east to control the country and extract the economic resources of the region.

When the country won independence from the British in 1960, the bureaucratic and administrative organization of government remained in place allowing for future problems.  Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1958.  For over 30 years oil has provided over 30 billion dollars to the Nigerian economy.  However, this revenue fed corruption and enriched a small and well-connected minority of the nation's population.  The Ogoni people received no real benefit from their oil-rich land.  Quite to the contrary, they had no reliable electricity, no pipe-born water and they were not the beneficiaries of any significant social or economic projects.  In addition, their language was disappearing and they were effectively pushed into slavery as their environment became increasingly assaulted by irresponsible practices on the part of the oil industry.  The famed Nigerian author and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed for his attempt to mobilize opposition to the economic and environmental devastation wrought by oil production in his country.  Nigeria remains plagued by problems that had their roots in the practices established and employed by their previous colonial masters.

 

The examples cited above share numerous aspects in common with many other troubled spots throughout the world.  The excesses of colonialism have effectively outlived the colonial powers such as Great Britain, Portugal and Spain whose empires are no longer extant.  

President Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 in the provincial southern farming town of Plains Georgia.  His father was a farmer and businessman and his mother was a nurse.  As a young child he moved with his family to a farm in the neighboring town of Archery.  Carter grew up in a rural community; their home was without electricity and his neighbors were predominantly African-American. 

Although at the time of his birth the highly segregationlist and prejudicial cultural and legal climate that collectively was referred to as Jim Crow was everywhere in evidence, his mother, Lilian, volunteered her nursing services as a midwife and health care provider to her black neighbors.  Her generous and caring nature had a profound influence on the young Carter.  His father was an astute businessman and expanded his farm to include 4,000 acres; he subsequently became a peanut broker and a retailer of farm supplies and equipment.

Carter was educated in the public schools and went to the Georgia Institute of Technology before he enrolled in the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland.  His professional interest initially gravitated towards science and technology.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and ultimately pursued graduate studies in nuclear physics.  It was shortly after his graduation from the Academy that he married Rosalynn Smith of Plains, Georgia.  After earning his doctorate in nuclear physics, Carter was chosen as an engineering officer on the Sea Wolf – the second nuclear submarine commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

Carter's military and professional career was suddenly cut short by the sudden death of his father in 1953.  In response to this tragedy, he resigned his post and returned to Plains with his family - that now included three sons – to assume the responsibilities of his father's various family businesses including the family farm.  His father had served in the Georgia state government as a House Representative.  Carter, like his father, felt a responsibility to serve his community and consequentially ran for a seat in the Georgia Senate.  At first, it appeared that he had lost the election, but a transparent fraud was uncovered in which his opponent had registered fictitious voters some of whom had died.  Once the fraud was exposed, Carter became a member of the Georgia State Senate and readily won reelection.

In 1966, Carter ran for governor of his state, but was defeated by the overt racist and segregationist Lestor Maddox.  Following this defeat, he was inspired by his sister Ruth Carter Stapleton to reevaluate his life and had undergone a spiritual reawakening that he later describe as being, "born again."   Four years later he became Georgia's governor and during his acceptance speech made the exceedingly controversial and unprecedented statement that, "the time for racial discrimination is over."

During his term as governor, he implements many reforms including:

·        Increasing the percentage of African-Americans in Georgia's civil service by 40%

·     Equalizing the public funding for rich and poor school districts in the state and, thereby, greatly enhancing educational opportunities for those most in need

·  Increasing educational opportunities for prisoners and the developmentally disabled

·         Streamlining government and eliminating wasteful project

·  Canceling construction projects that would be detrimental to the natural environment.

His progressive programs drew the attention of the Democratic Party and he was chosen to be the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Campaign Chairman for the 1974 congressional campaigns.  On account of the disastrous presidency of Richard Nixon of the Republican Party and the lack luster administration of President Gerald Ford, the democrats did well in the 1974 elections.  Since the constitution of the state of Georgia barred Carter from running for a second term as governor, he decided to run for the Presidency of the United States.  With highly focused energy and resolve, he campaigned rigorously in the democratic primaries throughout the country and did so well, that he won the nomination on the first ballot at the party's convention in Madison Square Garden, New York City.

Jimmy Carter became the President of the United States.  His effectiveness has been called into question by some who felt that he was not strong enough especially in regards to how he dealt with our adversaries.  Although he was instrumental in getting the leaders of Egypt and Israel, President Anwar El Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin, respectively, to agree on a plan for peace – the so-called Camp David Accords (a peace that is still in existence) - he had the misfortune of being president during the successful Fundamentalist Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 that led to the toppling of the Iranian monarchy under the Shah.  This ultimately led to the taking of American hostages.  The resulting standoff lasted for 444 days beginning on November 4, 1979 and lasting to Jan 20, 1981.  Coming under considerable domestic pressure, Carter authorized a rescue mission referred to as Operation Eagle Claw that took place on April 24, 1980.  This mission was an abysmal failure.  It should be noted, however, that all the hostages were ultimately returned safely and that no war ensued.  However, Carter lost the support of the American people and he failed in his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.  The hostages were released within minutes of Reagan's swearing-in ceremony.

Unlike many presidents who have gone before him, Carter has devoted his post-presidential life to the causes of peace and social justice throughout the world.  He has accomplished this through the creation of the Carter Center.  He describes this work in the following way, "Our most dedicated investments of time and energy have been among the poorest and most forgotten people of Guyana, East Timor, Haiti, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Niger, Liberia, Cote d'lvoire, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Ghana and other communities throughout Africa, Latin America and the Middle East."

The Carter Center recruits experts for the purpose of dealing with following kinds of issues that plague many parts of the human world:

·         Conflict Resolution

·         Human Rights

·         Mental Health

·         Agriculture

·         Disease Control and Prevention

·         Promoting Democracy.

These experts analyze complex political relationships that underlie trouble spots around the globe and meet and exchange information through intelligence briefings.  The Center also employs interns from some 350 different universities worldwide.  The staff of the Center works closely with local governments and meets with those local homes and villages that are in need of assistance.  The Carter Center is a non-profit enterprise and depends upon individual and corporate donations in order to function.  Carter sold the remainder of the family businesses in order to help finance this monumental endeavor.  The site of the Center along with the Carter Presidential Library is located in Atlanta, Georgia.  As stated on the Carter Center website (cartercenter.org), the Center's mission is based on the following five principles –

·   "The Center emphasizes action and results. Based on careful research and analysis, it is prepared to take timely action on important and pressing issues.

·         The Center does not duplicate the effective efforts of others.

·         The Center addresses difficult problems and recognizes the possibility of failure   as an acceptable risk.

·         The Center is nonpartisan and acts as a neutral in dispute resolution activities.

·        The Center believes that people can improve their lives when provided with the necessary skills, knowledge, and access to resources."

It is not so much a think tank as it is an action agency.  Thanks to Carter's careful and judicious planning and conservative economic development, the Carter Center now has an endowment of over 250 million dollars, and programs do not proceed until the funding is assured.  Some of the programs that have been put into play through the Center include the fight against diseases endemic to the tropics, especially malaria, river blindness and trachoma and improving food grains in Africa. 

In addition, considerable efforts have been made towards conflict resolution.  For this purpose, the Center employs Dr. Doyle Powell a fellow in conflict resolution.  As a result of an analysis done regarding the nature of conflicts, it has been found that nearly all the thirty-four conflicts studied, involving battle deaths of at least 1000 individuals, are civil wars.  In order to help settle these conflicts nonviolently, the Center has often called upon some of its more influential members including Desmond Tutu, Oscar Aria, the former President of Costa Rica, and Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor.  In the course of its work, the Carter Center has monitored almost 70 elections throughout the world in the course of 18 years.

On account of these extraordinary efforts President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October of 2002.   The decision was based upon the following reasons as stated by the Norwegian Nobel Committee -

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter, for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

During his presidency (1977-1981), Carter's mediation was a vital contribution to the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, in itself a great enough achievement to qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize. At a time when the cold war between East and West was still predominant, he placed renewed emphasis on the place of human rights in international politics.

Through his Carter Center, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2002, Carter has undertaken very extensive and persistent efforts at conflict resolution on several continents. He has shown outstanding commitment to human rights, and has served as an observer at countless elections all over the world. He has worked hard on many fronts to fight tropical diseases and to bring about growth and progress in developing countries. Carter has thus been active in several of the problem areas that have figured prominently in the over one hundred years of Peace Prize history.

In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation based on international law, respect for human rights, and economic development."

President Jimmy Carter's devotion to the causes of peace and social justice has certainly earned him such an honor.  His tenacity is so formidable that his efforts continue to this day.

Xiaobo Liu

In December of 2008, 303 Chinese activists, lawyers, intellectuals, academics, retired government officials, workers and peasants supported and signed a manifesto, Charter 08, that called for an end to autocratic rule and a move towards a constitutional government that would respect human rights and institute democratic reforms.  Despite the obvious threat this posed to the Chinese government and its continued repression of those holding disparate views, Charter 08 gained a nation-wide audience through the Internet.  The signatories to this charter reached ten thousand; the government's response was both swift and brutal.  Dozens, if not hundreds, were called in for questioning, and a handful of those regarded as the incipient movement's "ring leaders" were detained.  Promotions of professors were held up, research grants denied and travel abroad was curtailed for those who were considered to be the instigators.  Newspapers and publishing houses were ordered to blacklist any signatories.  Liu, a prominent writer, vociferous dissident and one of the important drafters of the Charter was arrested on December 2009 and was subsequently sentenced to eleven years in prison.

The following is an excerpt taken from the preamble of the Charter: "China, as a great nation of the world, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and a member of the Human Rights Council, ought to make its own contribution to peace for humankind and progress in human rights. Regrettably, however, of all the great nations of the world today, China alone still clings to an authoritarian way of life and has, as a result, created an unbroken chain of human rights disasters and social crises, held back the development of the Chinese people, and hindered the progress of human civilization. This situation must change! We cannot put off political democratization reforms any longer. Therefore, in the civic spirit of daring to take action, we are issuing Charter 08. We hope that all Chinese citizens who share this sense of crisis, responsibility, and mission, whether officials or common people and regardless of social background, will put aside our differences to seek common ground and come to take an active part in this citizens' movement, to promote the great transformation of Chinese society together, so that we can soon establish a free, democratic, and constitutional nation, fulfilling the aspirations and dreams that our countrymen have been pursuing tirelessly for more than a hundred years."

 

Before we examine Liu's life in greater detail, we will embark on a cursory examination of recent Chinese political history.  China is a vast country that has the longest continual history for any human civilization.  We will, however, restrict our attention to the era encompassing the latter part of the ninteenth century to the present. 

Between the years 1894-1895 China was involved in a war with Japan – the first Sino-Japanese War, in which it suffered defeat.  At that time the Qing Court was ruling the country and it was involved in a brutal suppression of all attempts at reform.  The Xinhai Revolution (1911) supplanted the imperial system that had been extant for over 2000 years and established Asia's first republic.   Attempts at democratization and political reform were curtailed, however, by foreign invasion and civil conflict. 

China ultimately became victorious in the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945), and the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949 after the Communist defeat of nationalist forces under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, whose efforts were supported by the United States.  Mao Zsetung was instrumental in leading the communists to victory and became the country's chairman.

Once in power, Chairman Mao instituted a number of radical national policies that proved horribly disastrous.  One was the so-called, Great Leap Forward (1958-1963) and the other was the Cultural Revolution (1965-1968).

The Great Leap Forward was instituted in order to develop China's agriculture and industrial base.  To implement this ambitious goal, China was restructured into a series of communes according to Mao's vision.   

The size of the communes were not fixed, but most consisted of about 5000 families.  Within these communities, tools, agricultural equipment, farm animals were all shared.  Everyone worked for the commune - the life of the individual was thoroughly constrained and controlled.  Families were divided into teams – each team consisting of twelve families and twelve teams made up a brigade.  Every aspect of living was under the direct management of the party.

By the end of 1958, 700 million individuals had been placed in 26,578 communes.  In the beginning, the progress towards the goals of agricultural and industrial development seemed impressive.  However, the pragmatic aspirations of this radical approach eventually became subsumed by an extremist political agenda that placed an emphasis on reaching impossible goals rather than on real and reliable production.  This reality was exacerbated by poor growing seasons in 1959 and 1960.  As a result, it has been estimated that some nine million people died of starvation by 1960.  This number had risen to twenty million deaths by 1962.  Ultimately, Chairman Mao admitted that the Great Leap Forward had been a failure.

The other notable failure of the Communist Party under the direction of Chairman Mao was the Cultural Revolution that occurred between the years of 1965 and 1968.  It is believed that Mao instituted this policy in an attempt to reassert his absolute authority that was beginning to dissipate.  The movement was initiated with a speech by Lin Piao, the Chinese Communist military commander (1907-1971), who encouraged students from schools and colleges to actualize the basic precepts of the revolutionary movement.  These students were also encouraged to openly criticize liberal elements of the Party. 

Beneath the rhetoric was the underlying fear that intellectuals, academics and the professional class were accruing too much power.  Mao was concerned that a new class of Mandarins was beginning to emerge in the new China.  The propaganda that was promulgated as an essential aspect of the Cultural Revolution inspired the creation of so-called "Red Guards."  Members of the Red Guards were encouraged to openly attack those who were suspected of having a superior and condescending attitude.  Chief among these was Mao's rival, Liu Shao-chi. 

The supposed rationale for this movement was the desire to create a truly classless society.  However, the movement rapidly got out of hand and the social climate became dangerously chaotic.  It was then that Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China until his death in 1976, urged a return to normal conditions.  Finally, in October of 1968 Liu Shao-chi was removed from the party.  Once Mao's main rival was no longer a threat, he saw no need to continue the Cultural Revolution.

Mao died on September 9, 1976.  After his death, there were major social, economic, and political reforms instituted.  The era dominated by the cult of personality finally came to a close.  In regards to the post-Mao Zedong era in China, Liu addresses it this way:

"The "Reform and Opening Up" of the late 20th century extricated China from the pervasive poverty and absolute totalitarianism of the Mao Zedong era, and substantially increased private wealth and the standard of living of the common people. Individual economic freedom and social privileges were partially restored, a civil society began to grow, and calls for human rights and political freedom among the people increased by the day. Those in power, while implementing economic reforms aimed at marketization and privatization, also began to shift from a position of rejecting human rights to one of gradually recognizing them. In 1997 and 1998, the Chinese government signed two important international human rights treaties.² In 2004, the National People's Congress amended the Constitution to add that "[the State] respects and guarantees human rights." And this year, the government has promised to formulate and implement a "National Human Rights Action Plan." But so far, this political progress has largely remained on paper: there are laws, but there is no rule of law; there is a constitution, but no constitutional government; this is still the political reality that is obvious to all."

 

 Liu was born in December of 1955 in Changchun, Jilin and grew up during this tumultuous era.  He was born into a family of intellectuals.  As a matter of fact, his father took him to Inner Mongolia in the rural countryside – a move that was mandated as a part of the Cultural Revolution as discussed earlier.  As a young man Liu was accepted into Julin University and graduated with a B.A. in literature.  From there, he received in M.A. degree in literature from Beijing Normal University in 1984 and became a teacher.  It was during this time that Liu began to openly express in writing his criticism of Chinese culture and especially the authoritarian nature of the Chinese political system as he had begun to understand it.  In June of 1988, he received his PhD in literature, and published his thesis entitled, Aesthetic and Human Freedom.  He subsequently travelled to Columbia University in New York and the Universities of Hawaii and Oslo where he was guest lecturer.

He returned to China abruptly in 1989 when the now famous protests at Tiananmen Square began in earnest.  He was unabashedly pro-West in his political views and sentiments to the extent that he was quoted as saying, "…Westernization is not a choice of a nation, but a choice for the human race."  As part of the protest movement, Liu began a three day hunger strike along with three others.  He encouraged dialog between representatives of the government and students.  Although his efforts could not prevent the massacre that occurred on the night of June 3, he did manage to facilitate negotiations between the army and students that allowed several thousand students to peacefully withdraw.  On June 6, Liu was arrested and held in Qincheng Prison and subsequently expelled from Beijing Normal University; all his publications were also banned.

In January 1991, some nineteen months following his original arrest, he was convicted of, counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement."  He was not jailed, however, on account of the fact that the judiciary recognized the actions that he took at Tiananmen Square that helped avoid significant bloodshed.  After his release, he returned to writing; although, he was not allowed to publish on mainland China.  This did not deter him; he published his first book, The Monologues of a Doomsday Survivor in Taiwan.

Liu was considered such a serious threat to the government that he was subject to constant police harassment and within the space of the next fourteen years he was arrested twice, put under house arrest and at one point a police sentry post was constructed next to his residence.  In spite of all of these attempts to suppress his influence in regards to the pro-democracy movement, Liu never relented or altered his resolve to encourage reform.

As mentioned earlier Liu played an instrumental role in the inception and writing of Charter 08 which was released on December 10, 2008 – a date that purposefully coincided with the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  This document called for greater individual freedoms, an end to human rights abuses, more democratic elections and Western-style economic reform.  This document was met with such popular approval that 10,000 signatures were collected by September prior to its release.  As a consequence, Liu was arrested for his participation.  On December 25, 2009, he was sentenced to eleven years of imprisonment.  The charge was, "Inciting subversion of state power."

 

 

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".  Being in prison, he was unable to attend the award ceremony.  In his absence, the following is an excerpt of what was read on his behalf:

"…For hatred is corrosive of a person's wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and block a nation's progress to freedom and democracy.  I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with best of intentions and defuse hate with love…"

Although Liu may currently be incarcerated, the ideas he has fostered and encouraged among his own people cannot be as easily silenced.  Over the long term, his efforts will prove to be of significant value, for the human thirst for liberation will eventually be heard.