Page 18 - February 2017

In Celebration of Black History Month

Disturbers of the Peace:

The Civil Rights Movement - An American Odyssey
submitted by Detective Lieutenant Debra DeRise

The following was Taken from passages written by Jesse Arnell in 1998:

February 5 was the birthday of one of the Civil Rights of all of us. It’s the story about people from all walks
Movement’s most legendary figures: Rosa Parks. We of life and all across the country who at a given time
all know the story of Rosa Parks, how this humble in American history put their safety on the line for a
seamstress in Montgomery Alabama, refused to give common ideal.
up her seat on a segregated bus, her arrest and how that
arrest ignited a movement that would bring enormous So let’s talk for a few minutes about that civil rights
conflict and profound change to our country. And how story. In a larger sense I want to talk about the story of
that moment would ultimately thrust a young black the struggle to perfect those essential rights guaranteed
th
preacher from the south, Martin Luther King, Jr., to the under the 14 amendment to Constitution of the United
forefront of this nation’s collective conscience. States equal protection and equal rights under the law
for all of America’s citizens.

It has been frequently said, “Life is a struggle”. In
many ways, struggle is the very essence of life. If you
live it right and you work to embrace your beliefs in
every action of every day, life is a struggle. It can be a
wonderful, fulfilling and often enriching struggle with
many rewards, but a struggle nonetheless. But in that
struggle, in America, one finds the very essence of a
democracy under our Constitution. In no other country

Rosa Parks was arrested for her peaceful protest on earth would the right to struggle, to protest, to speak,
and to assemble be guaranteed by the Constitution and
No contemporary history of the United States can be enforced by access to the courts in the very jurisdiction
complete without Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil where those rights were being challenged.
Rights Movement which, while appearing as a brief
span of years, ushered out several centuries of injustices. America’s history from late 1940s through the early
1960s was a crucial time for this country, Several
Today, we know a great deal about Dr. King’s life events occurred, some large and some seemingly minor,
before the Civil Rights Movement. Briefly, we know which helped set the environment for the Civil Rights
he was a privileged child of a powerful middle-class Movement to materialize, and the perfection of the 14
th
Baptist Minister, ML King, Sr. Amendment to take place.

We know he left the South for a then predominantly First, many African Americans had served with
white Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, distinction and honor in World War II. America saw
and then to Boston University to complete a Doctorate this. At a time when joining the war effort was the
in Philosophy. We know, too, that he declined to follow ultimate affirmation of patriotism, America saw that
his father’s footsteps to assume the pulpit at Ebenezer black Americans were as committed to this nation as
Baptist Church in Atlanta and chose instead the Dexter any other group of people.
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Black Americans have fought in every war in our country
Although that story is normally and properly associated and for our country since the American Revolutionary
with what we’ve come to celebrate as part of Black War. And in the late 1940s, President Truman signed the
History Month and the black American’s quest for executive order–Executive Order 9981–that effectively
equality in America, it’s much more. It is a story of ended racial segregation in the Armed Forces. With
much broader dimensions. While speaking of Black a stroke of a pen in the Oval Office, an American
Americans, the drama transcends artificial boundaries President from Independence, Missouri, and a former
of ethnicity and involves the rights of a whole nation. artillery captain in World War I and for many powerful
politicians of his time, an accidental president ended
It’s the story of America itself, of the mixing of ideas racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces
and ideals from around the world that forged the destiny forever. President Truman signed that Executive Order

F r en c h·a n d·E le c t r ic·B l ue·F e b r u a r y·2017·p a g e·18