Sensible People Have Got To

Many Of Us In Nashville Accepted Nonviolence As A Way Of Life, A Way Of Living, Not Simply As A Technique Or A Tactic.

Maybe, Just Maybe, There Should Be A Graphic Novel Dealing With The Contribution Of The Women Of The Civil Rights Movement, To Tell Their Story. The Pain, The Hurt. They Raised Their Children. Some Were Working As Maids, But When They Left Those Kitchens, Those Homes, They Made It To The Mass Meetings. And They Put Their Bodies On The Lines, Also.

The Civil Rights Movement Was Based On Faith. Many Of Us Who Were Participants In This Movement Saw Our Involvement As An Extension Of Our Faith. We Saw Ourselves Doing The Work Of The Almighty. Segregation And Racial Discrimination Were Not In Keeping With Our Faith, So We Had To Do Something.

I Thought I Was Going To Die A Few Times. On The Freedom Ride In The Year 1961, When I Was Beaten At The Greyhound Bus Station In Montgomery, I Thought I Was Going To Die. On March 7th, 1965, When I Was Hit In The Head With A Night Stick By A State Trooper At The Foot Of The Edmund Pettus Bridge, I Thought I Was Going To Die. I Thought I Saw Death, But Nothing Can Make Me Question The Philosophy Of Nonviolence.

Even In The Civil Rights Movement, There Were So Many Unbelievable Women. They Never, Ever Received The Credit That They Should Have Received. They Did All Of The, And I Cannot Say It, They Did All Of The Dirty Work. Hard Work.