Marion s trikosko photos of segregation drinking
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A Century of Black Youth Activism
Can you tell me about the genesis of this book?
I graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2020, and was the winner of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, which allows recipients to travel and report stories from anywhere in the world. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the money, but just a few days after graduation, George Floyd was killed. I remember watching how he died and thinking, what did this Black man do to deserve this, other than being Black?
I’m a Black immigrant from Nigeria, and I came to this country not really having any sense of how race worked in America. I decided to use the money to take a cross-country trip, traveling to thirty states in thirty-two days, to talk to people about how they were feeling in that moment. While I met hundreds of people and heard hundreds of stories, I was particularly inspired by the tradition of Black youth protest and wanted to explore that further.
There are activists of all ages making a difference. Why did you decide to focus on young people in particular?
One stop on my trip really stood out: Portland, Oregon. I came across a group of young people gathered in a public square, and followed them as they marched in honor of Patrick Kimmons, a Black man who had been
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Articles
In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white writer, dyed his skin in order to experience life as a black man in the segregated South. For thirty-seven days, Griffin traveled through the Deep South living as an African American laborer. The memoir he published in 1961 about his experiences, Black Like Me, sold over ten million copies, but also triggered immense hostility from those whose prejudices Griffin had exposed.
Through his writing, Griffin hoped to counter the white perception that American blacks “led essentially the same kind of lives whites know, with certain inconveniences caused by discrimination and prejudice.” Griffin’s experience taught him and millions of readers that living as the Other changes all aspects of one’s life: “Everything is different. Everything changes. As soon as I got into areas where I had contact with white people, I realized that I was no longer regarded as a human individual. . .I am not speaking here only of myself. This is the mind-twisting experience of every black person I know.” Griffin discovered that despite his educational qualifications, he was only able to obtain the most menial jobs. He also found that “an important part of my daily life was spent searching for the basic things that all whites take for granted: a place to
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