Speaker 1: And now watching my mic back, you're like that.
Speaker 2: Strikes with waters and headquarters behind him to the border.
Speaker 1: So if you're just tuning in the Civic Cycer, I
Speaker 1: am your host, Ramsy's job.
Speaker 3: He is Ramsey John, I am h Ward. You are
Speaker 3: listening to Civic Cycler a lot more to stick around for,
Speaker 3: so please do.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: We're going to spend some time discussing standpoint theory. Yeah yeah, so, Uh,
Speaker 1: this is something that is new to me. It's an
Speaker 1: old theory. I think it originated in maybe the seventies
Speaker 1: or something like that. But we just came across it
Speaker 1: and we sat with it and we thought, maybe this
Speaker 1: is a good way to explain some things to our listeners. Uh.
Speaker 1: Certainly it helped us explain some things to ourselves and
Speaker 1: things that we were seeing. And we like things like that,
Speaker 1: things that challenge our way of thinking and help us
Speaker 1: expand our mental framework. And if you are one of
Speaker 1: the people that likes that sort of thing, and definitely
Speaker 1: stick around for that, and of course much much more.
Speaker 1: But first and foremost, we're going to start off with
Speaker 1: becoming a better ally ba Ba Baba and Today's Baba
Speaker 1: is sponsored by Major Threads Get all the finest in
Speaker 1: men'swear and sportswear at major Threads dot com. This article
Speaker 1: comes from Black Information Network. You can find that at
Speaker 1: bionnews dot com. And we are going to shout out
Speaker 1: for becoming a better ally an amazing man. I love
Speaker 1: this guy. I spent a lot of time skateboarding when
Speaker 1: I was in high school. Man, when I was in
Speaker 1: grade school, so this was the coolest dude when I
Speaker 1: was in grade school. He actually had had bikes and
Speaker 1: I was in like gts and Dinos and that sort
Speaker 1: of back in the day. Anyway, he had a Tony
Speaker 1: Hawk bike. Anyway, Tony Hawk. Uh. He has pledged to
Speaker 1: donate proceeds from from autographed photos to a memorial on
Speaker 1: for Tyrie Nichols, whose family said shares the same passion
Speaker 1: as a skateboarding legend. On February third, Hawk said he
Speaker 1: and BMX writer Rick Thorne would autograph pictures to raise
Speaker 1: money for Tyrie Nichols Memorial Fund, which was launched after
Speaker 1: the twenty nine year old black man who was fatally
Speaker 1: beaten by Memphis police. Or the associated price is a
Speaker 1: quote from him. My proceeds from these will go to
Speaker 1: the Tyree Nichols Memorial Fund, which includes plans to build
Speaker 1: a public skate park in his honor. As our worlds
Speaker 1: continue to grieve his loss, Hawk tweeted Friday, he goes
Speaker 1: on he was a talented skater, among other admirable traits.
Speaker 1: Let's keep his legacy alive. That man did not have
Speaker 1: to do that. Tony Hawk is a good man. People
Speaker 1: like him go to heaven all right. Nichols and an
Speaker 1: avid skateboarder and father to a four year old boy,
Speaker 1: died on January tenth, three days after he was pulled
Speaker 1: over by Memphis police Officer's footage released earlier this month
Speaker 1: show's officers repeatedly punching, kicking, and hitting him with a
Speaker 1: baton as he cried out for his mother. Six officers
Speaker 1: involved in the deadly traffic stop. Blah blah blah whatever.
Speaker 1: Half of the proceeds from the talk Hawk and Thorn's
Speaker 1: autograph photos will go toward helping nichols family, building a
Speaker 1: skate parder in his name, and honoring his love for skateboarding.
Speaker 1: So that's how you can become a better ally do
Speaker 1: like Tony Hawk? Man? I love that one, all right?
Speaker 1: Standpoint theory. While I'm here. I pulled this in as
Speaker 1: Layman's the terms as I could find from britannica dot com.
Speaker 1: But I employ you to take standpoint theory. Put that
Speaker 1: in your lap, and at a point when you have
Speaker 1: some time, read it, read the read the the the
Speaker 1: the cerebral academic version of it. I would never be
Speaker 1: able to articulate it here on this show. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have the time, And I don't even know if you
Speaker 1: know my understanding of it is as profound as it
Speaker 1: could be. But we have some certainly have some talking points,
Speaker 1: and I want to share with you. But first I
Speaker 1: want to start with a story. I go for walks
Speaker 1: with some frequency, we'll call it five days a week,
Speaker 1: and let's be honest, an affluent neighborhood. And I have
Speaker 1: friends who never have to worry about money. In fact,
Speaker 1: they don't have to worry about money so much so
Speaker 1: that they don't even think about it. And their worldview
Speaker 1: is insulated by their means and the privilege. These people
Speaker 1: are good people, and for a long time I could
Speaker 1: not understand fully and I'm still learning, I'll admit that,
Speaker 1: but I cannot understand fully how you know some people
Speaker 1: could vote for such and such or could have these
Speaker 1: ideas that center you know, profits over people, or were
Speaker 1: so susceptible to what I would consider to be fear
Speaker 1: mongering things that are not based in a real in reality.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about it earlier. CRT is scaring children.
Speaker 1: We've been teaching American history to children since they've been children.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, because of what is it, the
Speaker 1: Great Replacement theory taking center stage and far right QAnon
Speaker 1: message boards online. You know, people are trying to edge
Speaker 1: kate children or rather uneducatedly is what's the word I'm
Speaker 1: looking for? Fail to educate children so that they do
Speaker 1: not become sympathetic and empathetic, and they use the guise
Speaker 1: of oh, this hurts white children's feelings to appeal to
Speaker 1: folks who have no practical, valid certainly not substantial experience
Speaker 1: walking a path that shows full well that these notions
Speaker 1: are unfounded, entirely unfounded. Right, but good people, well intentioned,
Speaker 1: well meaning people. I'm learning myself crazy. I had a
Speaker 1: conversation recently with a woman, beautiful woman, beautiful woman. I
Speaker 1: don't want to put her business out there, but she
Speaker 1: knows who she is. She listens to the show and
Speaker 1: while she's listening, I will say again that I love
Speaker 1: you and I thank you for this inspiration for today's segment. Shoots.
Speaker 1: You may come up one day who knows she's talking
Speaker 1: to me? And she says, why is no one listening
Speaker 1: to each other? Why are we not making progress? How
Speaker 1: is the world the way that it is? Why is
Speaker 1: it not simpler? She's asking questions that deserve to be asked, kay,
Speaker 1: that deserve to be answered and answered absolutely, And I'm
Speaker 1: at a lost for words. I'm like, you know, if
Speaker 1: it was that simple, people would have figured it out
Speaker 1: long before I got here. And she says, like me,
Speaker 1: She's like, well you, She says, you know, black people
Speaker 1: are my angels. I promise she's the person that does
Speaker 1: not need to say that. She says, black people have
Speaker 1: always been kind to me in my life. Black people
Speaker 1: have always looked out for me, cared for me when
Speaker 1: I needed it. Black people are my angels. And I
Speaker 1: wish that the world was better for all of us. Right,
Speaker 1: And it's so simple, but you know, how do we
Speaker 1: get there? Enter standpoint theory? All right? So first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I will speak for myself. I believe that Q is
Speaker 1: of a similar persuasion. But I will speak for myself
Speaker 1: first and foremost, I often speak for you, and I
Speaker 1: just assume so. One of my heroes, historical heroes, is
Speaker 1: a man named Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton is known for
Speaker 1: let's be honest. Now, he's known for getting killed by
Speaker 1: the police in Chicago. Assassinated by the police in Chicago.
Speaker 1: That's a fact that is not me embellished. Assassinated by
Speaker 1: the Chicago police. Look that up. They admitted it, okay.
Speaker 1: But when he was alive, he was a very charismatic
Speaker 1: person who was around during the time of the Panthers
Speaker 1: and so forth. And you have this idea and this
Speaker 1: sort of movement. It was referred to as a Rainbow coalition,
Speaker 1: and the idea there was that he took ideas. He
Speaker 1: basically took everyone who had a struggle in this country
Speaker 1: and set them all down at the table with black
Speaker 1: people to say, Okay, my Asian brothers and sisters, my
Speaker 1: Jewish brothers and sisters, we haven't forgotten you, my Indigenous
Speaker 1: Native brothers and sisters, my Hispanic brothers and sisters. You know,
Speaker 1: my lgbt q I A plus brothers and sisters. Of course,
Speaker 1: they weren't called that back. Then all of us have
Speaker 1: something to gain by creating a meaningful social impact, and
Speaker 1: we can create that change more easily and more effectively
Speaker 1: together in unison. So we're greater than the sum of
Speaker 1: our parts. Right This rainbow coalition was something that I
Speaker 1: really believed in and believe in right now. And again
Speaker 1: I'm speaking for Q if I may that this is
Speaker 1: something Okay, he's nodding his side, this is something that
Speaker 1: we appreciate on the show. With that in mind, I
Speaker 1: will say this, The standpoint theory is a feminist theory,
Speaker 1: and I will credit the author in just a minute.
Speaker 1: So this does not originate with, you know, a black
Speaker 1: power movement or struggle, rather a feminist struggle, but the
Speaker 1: idea sound. And you know, people that are looking to
Speaker 1: create a better world oftentimes look at historical change makers,
Speaker 1: and far be it from us to ignore our sisters
Speaker 1: in the progress that they've made in their struggles. And
Speaker 1: I know that our sisters and everyone, sir, everyone looks
Speaker 1: at what black people do to try to move the needle.
Speaker 1: Everyone else who's kind of born on the strike against them.
Speaker 1: Because we have been traveling this road for a very
Speaker 1: long time and have made meaningful progress throughout history. So
Speaker 1: today we're taking a page out of the book of
Speaker 1: feminism and standpoint theory is a feminist theoretical perspective that
Speaker 1: argues that knowledge stems from social position. That's important because well,
Speaker 1: if you don't know, it doesn't sound like anything. But
Speaker 1: if you break it down, knowledge stems from social position.
Speaker 1: Think about that. You would think, as I would think,
Speaker 1: that knowledge stems from academics. But where do academics come from.
Speaker 1: Often academics come from means, privilege, access, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: they cannot in a meaningful way articulate the reality and
Speaker 1: solutions and approaches for people who have not they who
Speaker 1: where they have not lived in their shoes. Right, So
Speaker 1: this presupposes that your perspective is based on where you
Speaker 1: are in society. Okay, so we have to accept that,
Speaker 1: and I do believe that there is some truth there. Again,
Speaker 1: this isn't I'm not purporting this to be a reality.
Speaker 1: It's a theory that I believe works in helping us
Speaker 1: expand our mental framework and how we choose to approach problems.
Speaker 1: Like my friend asked me, how do we approach these
Speaker 1: problems if you're not from that position? Maybe we could
Speaker 1: listen to people from that position. This is the point
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make, and I'll continue to make it here.
Speaker 1: All right, So the theory emerged from the Marxist Uh oh,
Speaker 1: there's another one of those words that.
Speaker 3: Our country, our government, our leaders have made taboo with
Speaker 3: no context. You hear it, you think it's bad, and
Speaker 3: that's it, thank you. There's no research, there's no studying,
Speaker 3: there's no learning. That word is bad, just like socialists,
Speaker 3: just like communists, just like and I'm not saying that
Speaker 3: any of these words are good or bad. I'm just
Speaker 3: saying there's an auto association with bad when we hear them, Yeah,
Speaker 3: with no understanding of what they actually mean.
Speaker 1: In principle. These things are all good in principle. In practice,
Speaker 1: they all have their advantages and disadvantages, and indeed so
Speaker 1: does capitalism.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they've been classified the way that they have
Speaker 3: been intentionally for people to not push back or question
Speaker 3: the idea of capitalism, which is what we subscribe to, right,
Speaker 3: what we subscribe to is better. Our religion, our class system,
Speaker 3: our you know, way of government, our way of economics
Speaker 3: is better. And to keep you guys from asking us
Speaker 3: too many questions or wanting to venture into trying some
Speaker 3: other way. We'll just make whole thing outright, We'll just
Speaker 3: make all those other ways bad. And if we say
Speaker 3: that they're bad enough times for long enough, you'll just
Speaker 3: agree with us and never ask us any questions.
Speaker 1: And I think that's important. You know. I refer to
Speaker 1: myself as a decadent capitalist pig from time to time
Speaker 1: because I have a sports car and you know, live
Speaker 1: in a decent part of town and have watches it
Speaker 1: are more expensive than they need to be. But I
Speaker 1: also recognize that I can live in this country and
Speaker 1: be critical of certain parts of this country. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that in socialist societies that people don't, you know,
Speaker 1: accomplish great things. I'm a sharer by my very nature,
Speaker 1: and there's a way to walk that line. But the
Speaker 1: way things have been marketed to us in this country,
Speaker 1: and I'll admit that I've been you know, marketed to
Speaker 1: as well, and I had to unlearn a lot of
Speaker 1: things and relearn what I now know and the wise
Speaker 1: of why I was taught what I was taught, so
Speaker 1: that I didn't have to feel awful about myself. I
Speaker 1: didn't have to feel like you know, there's only one
Speaker 1: way to do things, and so I'm grateful for things
Speaker 1: like this. I'm grateful for people like you. Was able
Speaker 1: to articulate when I said, you know, I got to
Speaker 1: Carl Marx's name, and I was like, oh, and he
Speaker 1: jumped in there, because these things often are our emotions
Speaker 1: are manipulated so that we continue to prop up the capitalists. Right,
Speaker 1: and while I and all of us are capitalists, in practice,
Speaker 1: the real capitalists are the ones who are really benefiting
Speaker 1: from this society, and the people at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the siety, of the people that their lives are ruined
Speaker 1: because their mother is sick, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and they have to you know, like that sort of
Speaker 1: thing to keep those people from pushing back, from rebolting.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, you know, there's powerful forces that market
Speaker 1: to us fear. You know. Jim Carey said something recently
Speaker 1: and he's like, why is it that everyone in America
Speaker 1: is afraid of the socialist healthcare that we have in Canada?
Speaker 1: For those who don't know Jim Carrey's Canadian. He's like,
Speaker 1: in my whole life, I've never waited in line, I've
Speaker 1: never had to worry about anything all my medicine was
Speaker 1: paid for. Why in the world, what is the point
Speaker 1: of a government. What is the point of a government
Speaker 1: if not to take care of things like this? And
Speaker 1: in America we have this idea. The people on the
Speaker 1: ground level are like, just do it yourselves. I got
Speaker 1: I did it myself. You do it yourself. And we're
Speaker 1: not caring for each other. And it's because we think
Speaker 1: this is the only way that it has to be,
Speaker 1: because we're afraid of doing it any other way, when
Speaker 1: we literally have examples around the world where it's just.
Speaker 3: It's not just fear, though, the intentional misinformation part counts, right.
Speaker 3: They present that there was some politician and I'm not
Speaker 3: leaving a name to be vague, I just don't remember
Speaker 3: who it was. That their whole thing was, they're going.
Speaker 1: To take your health care from you. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3: And he was saying that about the people that were
Speaker 3: trying to give you health care? Right, His argument was,
Speaker 3: they're going to take away your choice for your own
Speaker 3: health care provider that you have to pay for, which
Speaker 3: isn't it to give you one for free, which isn't
Speaker 3: strictly true. But even if that was absolutely.
Speaker 1: True, that make it seem like it's the worst thing.
Speaker 3: The position that that way was very intentional, So it
Speaker 3: wasn't just making people afraid, it's making people angry. Let's
Speaker 3: tell them the wrong thing, but let's say it really
Speaker 3: loud and really confidently, and they'll just accept it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, they're going to take this from you.
Speaker 1: We'll say the rest of it, sir.
Speaker 3: They're proposing making it something that you don't have to
Speaker 3: go without.
Speaker 1: I think this is the same thing that happened with
Speaker 1: CRT or better said American History, teaching American history in
Speaker 1: school again. I watched at Solano Elementary School in the
Speaker 1: fourth grade, Roots all of them. For those who don't know,
Speaker 1: there was this movie that came out or it was
Speaker 1: like a TV document was in the docu series but
Speaker 1: like a TV series. Yeah, five six episodes, eight episodes
Speaker 1: something like that. It's called Roots and it starred Lvar
Speaker 1: Burton from Reading Rainbow and star Trek Jordi LaForge my man. Anyway, Kinta.
Speaker 1: We watched that in class and I was the kid
Speaker 1: who was black on free lunch, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I didn't feel bad about watching that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's I had to learn to be proud of it.
Speaker 1: But I accepted it. I realized that it wasn't me.
Speaker 1: It was a long time. It was fine, you know.
Speaker 1: But now what has been sold to the public is
Speaker 1: we need to protect our children from these, you know,
Speaker 1: these radical thinkers. And so you know we're going to
Speaker 1: get there. But I'll continue, I'll continue. The Syria emerged
Speaker 1: from the Marxist argument that people from in a pressed
Speaker 1: class have special access to knowledge that is not available
Speaker 1: to those from a privileged class. I think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what government cheese tastes like, if
Speaker 1: you didn't have rats in your house, you didn't have
Speaker 1: roaches in your house, There wasn't shooting outside of your
Speaker 1: house two to three times a week. If you ain't
Speaker 1: never seen it dead body in the street where you live.
Speaker 1: You can't tell me about Compton because I was there.
Speaker 1: You have no idea what it feels like, what it
Speaker 1: feels like to think at age six, that the important
Speaker 1: age is not eighteen, not twenty one, but twenty. The
Speaker 1: important age is twenty. Why is that because the stories
Speaker 1: you hear all the time at age six oh such
Speaker 1: and such died he was only thirteen. She was only seventeen.
Speaker 1: He was only nineteen teen teen teen, teen, teen teen,
Speaker 1: So I thought, if I could just make it to twenty,
Speaker 1: then I will have made it. Those of you that
Speaker 1: can't seem to have a big old afar in my hair.
Speaker 1: I started growing that afro when I turned twenty years old,
Speaker 1: because I made it. I didn't live in Compton until
Speaker 1: I was twenty, but that number stuck with me. I
Speaker 1: didn't start smoking cigarettes when I turned eighteen, never smoked
Speaker 1: a cigarette. I didn't start drinking when I turned twenty one,
Speaker 1: never drink alcohol in my life. For me, the important
Speaker 1: age was twenty. Do you know what that feels like? Then?
Speaker 1: How can you educate me? I need to educate you.
Speaker 1: This standpoint theory, the presupposition is that you don't know everything.
Speaker 1: I want to read this. The philosophy examines the nature
Speaker 1: and origins of knowledge and stresses that knowledge is always
Speaker 1: socially situated. Sandra Harding Grady where It's due coin the
Speaker 1: term standpoint theory to categorize epistemologies that emphasize women's knowledge.
Speaker 1: She argued that it is easy for those at the
Speaker 1: top of social hierarchies to lose sight of real human
Speaker 1: relations and the true nature of social reality, and thus
Speaker 1: miss critical questions about the social and natural world in
Speaker 1: their academic pursuits. In contrast, people at the bottom of
Speaker 1: social hierarchies have a unique standpoint that is a better
Speaker 1: starting point for scholarship. Although such people are often ignored,
Speaker 1: their marginalized positions actually make it easier for them to
Speaker 1: divine important research questions and explain social and natural problems.
Speaker 1: I want to say this, Tony Morrison, the one we're
Speaker 1: talking about all our book span, had a masterful response
Speaker 1: to an interviews like an early nineties interview was a
Speaker 1: white woman interviewing her. The woman asks her, well, will
Speaker 1: you ever write, sorry, will you ever write about white authors?
Speaker 1: Can you ever conceive of a time when white authors
Speaker 1: will make their way into your work? And she says,
Speaker 1: I have done that. But more importantly, you have no
Speaker 1: idea how racist a question like that is to me.
Speaker 1: The interviewer looks perplexed, right, and you would think, well,
Speaker 1: why is she saying? Why has everything got to be racist?
Speaker 1: Here's what she says. Tony Morrison says to her, if
Speaker 1: I was a white author, would you ask me that question?
Speaker 1: When am I going to write about black people in
Speaker 1: my books. Your question assumes that the norm, the status
Speaker 1: quo is white, and therefore, by definition, is racist. It's
Speaker 1: based on race. It's a eurocentric approach. You are the
Speaker 1: center of the earth and I'm doing something that you cannot.
Speaker 1: You don't feel centered in, and therefore somehow you need
Speaker 1: to make it about you. And she didn't say that,
Speaker 1: but that's effectually what was communicated. She was extremely pleasant,
Speaker 1: she didn't raise her nothing. She had to play her
Speaker 1: position rightfully, so she couldn't act the floor on TV.
Speaker 1: I don't think that she would probably not her way.
Speaker 1: But you start to understand where you are in society,
Speaker 1: where you come from, in society where your vantage point
Speaker 1: is absolutely informs your viewpoint. If you've been centered your
Speaker 1: whole life, how can you speak about Compton, California and
Speaker 1: shout out to the D one time, to the motor,
Speaker 1: to the three one three. Right now, it's time for
Speaker 1: the Way Black History Fact? That was Eabie. Today's Way
Speaker 1: Black History Fact is sponsored by the Black Information Network
Speaker 1: Daily podcast Yank This Awful Wikipedia, So you can start
Speaker 1: there if you want to make sure I'm telling you
Speaker 1: the truth not you know, the research is all out there,
Speaker 1: but please read more about these people. We're going to
Speaker 1: bring somebody to life that you may not have heard
Speaker 1: of before. She is the woman who came before Rosa Parks.
Speaker 1: That'll make sense. I'm not talking about Rosa Parks mom,
Speaker 1: talking about the pioneer. Yeah, her name is Elizabeth Jennings Graham.
Speaker 1: I'll read Elizabeth Jennings Graham, Mark eighteen thirty through June fifth,
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one. That means she lived during a hard time.
Speaker 1: It was an African American teacher and civil rights figure.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty four, Graham insisted on her right to
Speaker 1: ride on an available New York City street car at
Speaker 1: a time when all such companies were private and most
Speaker 1: operated segregated cars. Her case was decided in her favor
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five, and it led to the eventual
Speaker 1: desegregation of all New York City transit systems by eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five. Graham later started the city's first kindergarten for
Speaker 1: African American children, operating it from her home on two
Speaker 1: forty seven West forty first Street until her death in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one. By the eighteen fifties, the horse drawn
Speaker 1: street car on rails became a more common mode of transportation,
Speaker 1: competing with the horse drawn omnibus in the city. Elevated
Speaker 1: heavy rail trans insprotation did not go into service in
Speaker 1: New York until eighteen sixty nine. Like the nearly obsolete
Speaker 1: omnibus lines, the street cars were owned by private companies
Speaker 1: which regularly barred access to their service on the basis
Speaker 1: of race. The owners and drivers could easily refuse service
Speaker 1: to passengers of African descent or demand racially segregated seating.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, July sixteenth, eighteen fifty four, Jennings went to
Speaker 1: the First Colored Congregational Church, where she was an organist.
Speaker 1: As she was running late, she boarded a streetcar of
Speaker 1: the Third Avenue Railroad Company at the corner of Pearl
Speaker 1: Street in Chatham Street. I think that's why I say
Speaker 1: that the conductor ordered her to get off. When she refused,
Speaker 1: the conductor tried to remove her by force. Eventually, with
Speaker 1: the aid of a police officer, Jennings was ejected from
Speaker 1: the street car. Horace Greeley's New York Tribune commented on
Speaker 1: the incident. In February eighteen fifty five. She got upon
Speaker 1: one of the company's car ours last summer on the
Speaker 1: sabbath to ride to church. The conductor undertook to get
Speaker 1: her off, first, alleging the car was full. When that
Speaker 1: was shown to be false, he pretended the other passengers
Speaker 1: were displeased at her presence, but when she insisted on
Speaker 1: her rights, he took hold of her by force to
Speaker 1: expel her. She resisted. The conductor got her down on
Speaker 1: the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress, and injured
Speaker 1: her person. Quite a crowd gathered, but she effectually resisted. Finally,
Speaker 1: after the car had gone on further, with the aid
Speaker 1: of a policeman, they succeeded in removing her. The incident
Speaker 1: sparked an organized movement among black New Yorkers to end
Speaker 1: racial discrimination on street cars, led by notables such as
Speaker 1: Jennings's father, Reverend James W. C. Pennington, and Reverend Henry
Speaker 1: Hyland Barnett. Her story was publicized by Frederick Douglass in
Speaker 1: his newspaper, and it received national attention. Jennings's father filed
Speaker 1: the lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against the driver,
Speaker 1: the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railroad Company in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: where the Third Avenue Company was headquartered. This was one
Speaker 1: of four street car companies franchised in the city and
Speaker 1: had been in operation for about one year. She was
Speaker 1: represented by the law firm of Culver, Parker and Arthur.
Speaker 1: Her case was handled by the firm's twenty four year
Speaker 1: old junior partner, Chester A. Arthur, future President of the
Speaker 1: United States in eighteen fifty five. The court ruled in
Speaker 1: her favor and is charged to the jury. Brooklyn Circuit
Speaker 1: Court Judge William Rockwell declared colored persons, if sober, well
Speaker 1: behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others,
Speaker 1: and could be neither excluded by any rules of the company,
Speaker 1: nor by force or violence. The jury awarded Jennings damages
Speaker 1: in the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars, which
Speaker 1: is the equivalent of seventy three hundred dollars in today's money,
Speaker 1: as well as twenty two dollars and fifty cents in costs.
Speaker 1: The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company orders ordered
Speaker 1: its cars desecret As important as the Jennings case was,
Speaker 1: it did not mean that all street car lines would desegregate.
Speaker 1: Leading African American activists formed the New York Legal Rights
Speaker 1: Association to continue the fight. In May eighteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: James W. P. Penning W. C. Pennington Sorry brought suit
Speaker 1: after being forcefully removed from the car of the eighth
Speaker 1: Avenue Railroad, another of the first four companies. After steps
Speaker 1: forward and back a decade later, in eighteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: New York's public transit services were fully desegregated. The last
Speaker 1: case was a challenge by a black woman named Ella Anderson.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. These are names you need to
Speaker 1: know because these people fought and it's important to say
Speaker 1: their names. So Ella Anderson, a widow of a fallen
Speaker 1: United States Colored Troops soldier, a fact that won public
Speaker 1: support for her all right. On January TEWOD twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: jennings first biography was published, written by Amy Hill Hurt,
Speaker 1: entitled Street Card g Justice. How Elizabeth Jennings Won the
Speaker 1: Right to Ride in New York and intended for middle
Speaker 1: grade to adult readers. The book was published by HarperCollins
Speaker 1: Greenwillow Books in New York. Jerry Mcarinda authored America's First
Speaker 1: Freedom Writer, Elizabeth Jennings Chester a Arthured and the Early
Speaker 1: Fight for Civil Rights, about the legal fight which arose
Speaker 1: from her Forcible Removal Out of the street Car published
Speaker 1: in December tween nineteen by Rowan in Littlefield, And in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Shelaine McCrae announced that New York City would
Speaker 1: build a statue honoring Graham NewYork Graham Central Terminal. So,
Speaker 1: like we said, you know, it's important for us to
Speaker 1: discuss have any excellence, because that's important. We get an
Speaker 1: hour with you every week. You're probably on a station
Speaker 1: that uses black culture in a meaningful way, and if
Speaker 1: nothing else, in a profitable way. Yes, and even if
Speaker 1: that's not the case, we appreciate our hour with you.
Speaker 1: We realize that that's that's not nothing. And in that
Speaker 1: time we have to make you smile, we have to
Speaker 1: make you think, and we also have to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: we are a lot of people recently have tried to
Speaker 1: make us in the heroes, and we look back and
Speaker 1: we see our heroes and we see real heroes. We
Speaker 1: see people like this No Elizabeth Jennings, Graham, Ella Anderson.
Speaker 1: You know. So the way black history fact is very
Speaker 1: important too. It's a very important segment and an important
Speaker 1: part of our clock. We appreciate the opportunity we have
Speaker 1: to share this stuff with you, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to sit here and pretend like I knew all this stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm learning with you and many and we learned a
Speaker 1: lot from this segment. We do know, but a lot
Speaker 1: of it we're learning in real time with you. So
Speaker 1: uh so, yeah, not as heavy of a show as
Speaker 1: we normally have, but hopefully made some impact. That's about
Speaker 1: it for us here on Civic Sipher. So once again,
Speaker 1: i'm your host, Ramsy's.
Speaker 3: Jah hears Rams' jaw, I am q ward. To say
Speaker 3: we appreciate you guys, really doesn't say enough. Yeah, man,
Speaker 3: you're if you're here with this and you're trying to
Speaker 3: learn and trying to do better and trying to expand
Speaker 3: your way of thinking, that's something I won't even say.
Speaker 3: That's not nothing. That's something special, you know, And we're
Speaker 3: your brothers and we love you. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: you look like, it doesn't matter what you did yesterday.
Speaker 3: We're going to figure it out together, right, that's the mission.
Speaker 1: Yeah man, And same as Cheryl or what said I
Speaker 1: won't know say her name, but the same as same
Speaker 1: as my friend Cheryl. We're all learning together and we're
Speaker 1: all going to build something special I believe and it
Speaker 1: starts with things like this, So again, we do appreciate
Speaker 1: you listening. Hit the website civic sipher, submitt any questions
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Speaker 1: is I m Q wordon until next week.
Speaker 2: You'll yeah, like yo, we handle li. These brothers are fabulous.
Speaker 2: Our lady showing you where momb travel is. Speak to
Speaker 2: you from sunlight to move, busting on stage like the
Speaker 2: fights and move rove my mic back. You're like that
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Speaker 2: up and the borders the press passing.
Speaker 1: We bring it to you as it happens.
Speaker 2: The streets, love popping from music. You're wrapping the street
Speaker 2: command the slash expando. You're going to fight the slander
Speaker 2: with the proper propaganda. What's happening, it's not you've got
Speaker 2: any questions to ask? If the news is just a
Speaker 2: TV show you're passing. And this from a white wartime
Speaker 2: journalist headlines.
Speaker 1: Wait, you gotta breas and read this like this, like
Speaker 1: what like this, like is us