Yale Janitor's Act of Civil Disobedience a Stand Against Racism
By ChandelisDuter
Year after year, as he meticulously swept the dining hall floors at Yale University, Corey Menafee passed beneath the stained glass window depicting African American slaves carrying bales of cotton in a snowy white cotton field.
And year after year, as black students protested the window's presence and the school refused to remove it, Menafee kept his head down and just kept on sweeping. His job as a maintenance worker in the school's Calhoun College, named after former Vice President John C. Calhoun who advocated for slavery, depended on it.
Then one day, Menafee said he just decided he couldn't take it anymore.
He swung the broomstick and shattered the glass.
"I thought, I'm tired of looking at this, I'm about to break this," Menafee said. "It's the 21st century, why do I have to go to work and look at this?"
His solitary act of civil disobedience in breaking that window initially cost him his job and made him a celebrity on a campus that, like many places in the country, has found itself in the midst of tense conversations on race.
Yale University has since said it is not pressing charges nor seeking restitution and his working with his union "to resolve this as compassionately as possible".
Earlier this week, the school said it will allow him to return to work on July 24.
The school is no stranger to controversy and has received backlash for Calhoun College's name. In April, the university announced the change of the title of faculty living in residential halls from "master" to "head of college" saying it"no longer felt it appropriate to be addressed in this way,"according to the school.
"After the window was broken in June, the Committee recommended that it and some other windows be removed from Calhoun, conserved for future study and a possible contextual exhibition, and replaced temporarily with tinted glass," Yale said in a statement. "An artist specializing in stained glass will be commissioned to design new windows, with input from the Yale community, including students, on what should replace them."
However, the name of Calhoun College, the school has said, willremainto "confront, teach, and learn from slavery."
Imani Perry, an African American Studies professor at Princeton University, said Menafee's destruction of an image that he sees as glorifying slavery is not only an act of civil disobedience, but an example of how African Americans are speaking out more broadly against institutional racism.
She and her husband attended Yale and, for them, Menafee's act has special significance. Her husband even protested at his graduation to have the stained glass window removed.
"What Corey did is meaningful and as an alum it's moving," she said. "We had to look at the stained glass images and for years students protested but the school wouldn't remove them. The images made you feel like you didn't belong."
There is a direct arc from Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus to recent incidents of hundreds of people marching in the streets across the country to protest police brutality, African American studies experts say. However those individual protests which were connected to a broader movement.
"In the 1940's and '50's, there were tight organizations in black communities and acts of civil disobedience were connected," Perry said. "We don't have that now and acts are not connected to a larger strategy that everyone agrees on like back in the day. Communities aren't connected now like they were before."
And while the protests in such places at Baton Rouge and Dallas have been large and public and Black Lives Matter has been effective in highlighting police brutality against minorities, Menafee's act was silent, singular and unexpected.
Though he is sorry he broke a rule and lost his job for a while, Menafee is glad no one else has to see a picture reminding them of one of the horrors of slavery. He encourages others to speak out on things that offend them.
"If you see something, say something," Menafee said. "Speak up for yourself if you feel degraded."
Students at Yale and others around the country have praised Menafee as a champion for civil rights. Menafee doesn't consider himself a hero and didn't do what he did for recognition.
"I'm not an activist," he said. "What I did is not on the level of Rosa Parks and other greats like Martin Luther King. I'm just regular guy who had enough and I broke it."
Susan B. Anthony Dares to Vote!
ByIra Peck
The courtroom was packed for the trial of Susan B. Anthony, the foremost leader of the women's rights movement in the United States. What crime was she accused of committing? In November 1872, she and 15 other women in Rochester, New York, had demanded to be registered and had voted in the national election. Soon after, all 16 women were arrested. In 1872, women could not vote in New York or in any other state.
Of the 16 women, only the leader, Susan B. Anthony, was put on trial. Hers would be a test case. If she could convince the jury that she had a right under the U.S. Constitution to vote, she would be found not guilty. Then all U.S. women would win the right to vote.
The U.S. District Attorney, Richard Crowley, charged Anthony with violating the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. That amendment, adopted in 1868 after the Civil War, was intended to guarantee blacks the same rights as whites. It forbade any state to deny "the right to vote ... to any of the male inhabitants" who were 21 or older. It was the first time that the word male had ever been written into the Constitution, and it bothered Anthony plenty.
Anthony saw in the amendment a legal case for the right of women to vote. The 14th Amendment also said that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge [lessen] the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Well, said Anthony, weren't women citizens of the United States? And if citizens could not be denied the right to vote, it seemed plain enough that women could not be denied that right.
"She Is Indeed A Woman"
The District Attorney's opening statement to the jury caused many of Anthony's supporters in the courtroom to laugh. After charging her with voting on November 5, 1872, he added, "At that time she was a woman." Even some members of the jury smiled.
Anthony's lawyer, Henry Selden, a former judge, did not let this remark pass. He said "Your honor, gentlemen of the jury, the defense wishes to concede that Miss Susan B. Anthony is indeed a woman." Then he pointed to the defendant, who was wearing a plain back silk dress with a white lace collar.
Selden argued that his client was on trial simply for being a woman. "If this same act [voting] had been done by her brother, it would have been honorable. But having been done by a woman, it is said to be a crime... I believe this is the first instance in which a woman has been arraigned [accused] in a criminal court merely on account of her sex."
The judge, Ward Hunt, was known for his opposition to women's "suffrage" (the right to vote). He shocked Anthony and her lawyer by refusing to let her take the witness stand to testify in her own defense.
When the attorneys had finished arguing the case, Judge Hunt read a prepared statement. "The 14th Amendment," he said, "gives no right to a woman to vote, and the voting of Miss Anthony was in violation of the law." He directed the jury to find a verdict of guilty.
Selden protested, reminding the judge that in a criminal case the jury must decide on the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Hunt ignored him. He ordered the court clerk to record a verdict of guilty, even though the jury had not voted.
There was an uproar in the courtroom. Not everyone there supported women's suffrage. But all agreed that Anthony had been denied her right to a fair trial.
"I Shall Never Pay A Dollar!"
The next day, Judge Hunt was about to sentence Anthony. But he made one mistake. He asked Anthony the usual question: "Has the prisoner anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced?" This was the opportunity that Anthony was waiting for.
"Yes, your honor," she said. "I have many things to say. In your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights are all alike ignored."
Judge Hunt became furious. "The court orders the prisoner to sit down," he shouted. "It will not allow another word!" Then Judge Hunt said, "The sentence of the court is that you pay a fine of $100 and the costs of prosecution."
"May it please your honor," Anthony replied. "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women... that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
The judge could have put her in jail until she paid the fine, but he didn't. If he had, she could have appealed her case to a higher court. She probably would have won, because she had been denied a proper trial by jury. Instead, her case was closed for good.
Although Anthony lost, the trial was a turning point in the struggle for women's suffrage. Until then, people had ridiculed Anthony as an "old maid" who wanted to upset the traditional authority of men. But the courage she had shown at her trial won her new respect. Gradually, public opinion swung in her favor. It would take years of struggle, but women one day would win the right to vote.
Suffragist Alice Paul Kept in Hospital During Hunger Strike
By David Dismore
November 18, 1917: Suffragist Alice Paul has finally been transferred out of the psychopathic ward of Washington, D.C.’s District Jail, and today succeeded in smuggling a note out of the hospital ward where she is now being kept during her hunger strike and force-feedings.
Her confinement to the psychopathic ward was never really about her sanity. She was singled out for extra punishment as the leader of the suffragists who have been picketing President Wilson by standing along the White House fence with large banners each day since January 10th.
These “Silent Sentinels” are highlighting the contrast between the President’s untiring advocacy of democracy around the world and his lack of any meaningful effort to help win it here for the female half of his own country. He has yet to even endorse the Susan B. Anthony (nationwide woman suffrage) Amendment, or use his considerable influence to help get it passed by Congress and then sent to the States for ratification.
Over the past few days a number of prison officials have admitted that they had no doubts about Alice Paul’s sanity, and at that point, the policy of subjecting her to the conditions of the psychopathic ward became so obviously punitive, unjustified and illegal that her confinement there could no longer be continued. In a note to Doris Stevens, who is temporarily heading the National Woman’s Party in Paul’s absence, Paul wrote:
“Miss Winslow and I are at opposite ends of the building, each locked in her room, with an iron barred door. I saw her as they brought me on a stretcher from the psychopathic ward, but I have not seen her since. We are each in a ward with three windows. Today they nailed two of my windows shut so that they cannot be opened. The third window has been nailed shut at the bottom, so that the only air I have now is from the top of one window.
“This was done by the order of Dr. Gannon. He seems determined to deprive me of air because air was one of the things we demanded in our letter asking for recognition as political offenders. We have, of course, been deprived of everything else that was included in our original demand – letters, books, visitors, decent food, except as they force it upon is through tubes. Two weeks ago they did give us letters like this one, on the back of which I am writing.”
Despite a large number of letters of support written to her from around the country, the only ones given her by her jailers have been those from her harshest critics. The letter on which she wrote her note said:
“Why not let this miserable creature starve. The country would be much better off without her and the balance of her gang of pickets. They are a rotten lot, and are crazy, and should be locked up for life. If they would starve it would save the expense of keeping them. Let them starve.”
Alice Paul’s note continues:
“I was in the psychopathic ward just a week, and was only released, I think, because of Mr. Malone’s efforts. It was apparently an attempt at intimidation. Dr. Gannon said that if I persisted in hunger-striking he would ‘write a prescription’ to have me taken to the psychopathic ward and fed forcibly. I was thereupon placed upon a stretcher and taken there. Dr. Gannon, another doctor and several nurses then proceeded to feed me forcibly.
“As he was leaving the room Dr. Gannon turned to the nurse and instructed her to ‘observe’ me. The nurse ‘observed’ me once an hour through each night, coming to the door and turning on an electric light, which flashed into my face. At first I wakened each time. After a while I grew accustomed to it.
“In addition to this little device of observing, they used other means to make one know one’s sanity was doubted. A Dr. La Conte came and examined. Dr. La Conte then told me I was not in a mental condition, as I must, of course, know, to judge things for myself. He and two other doctors and three nurses fell upon me and took samples of my blood by force.
“I was locked in my room, so I did not see the other inmates except once or twice, when they came down the corridor and looked through my bars. One could hear them, however. The last morning I was there cries began at 5:30. I turned on the light to look at the time. The cries probably awakened me.
“The morning before, they began when it was still dark. I did not ascertain the time. When one person starts shrieking the others usually join in and continue for an hour or two. Then all would be silent for several hours, when the cries would be resumed.
“One day when I had a new nurse, she introduced herself thus: ‘I know you are not insane.’ She was endeavoring to be kind, but it was staggering to have people express their friendliness to you by assuring you they did not consider you insane.”
Alice Paul has been serving sentences totaling seven months in the District Jail since October 22nd, has been refusing food since November 5th, and has been force-fed three times a day since November 8th. Rose Winslow, another suffrage picket in the District Jail, began her hunger strike at the same time, and is also undergoing the ordeal of force-feeding. Neither they, nor any of the suffragists imprisoned at Occoquan Workhouse have any intention of abandoning either their principles or militant tactics until the battle for the vote is fully successful.
Nashville Sit-Ins
TheNashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to endracial segregationat lunch counters in downtownNashville, Tennessee. Thesit-incampaign, coordinated by theNashville Student Movementand Nashville Christian Leadership Council, was notable for its early success and emphasis on disciplinednonviolence.
Over the course of the campaign, sit-ins were staged at numerous stores in Nashville's central business district. Sit-in participants, who consisted mainly of black college students as well as some white students who oppose segregation, were often verbally or physically attacked by white onlookers. Despite their refusal to retaliate, over 150 students were eventually arrested for refusing to vacate store lunch counters when ordered to do so by police. At trial, the students were represented by a group of 13 lawyers. On April 19, the head lawyer’s home was bombed; however, neither he nor his wife was injured. Later that day, nearly 4000 people marched to City Hall to confront MayorBen Westabout the escalating violence. When asked if he believed the lunch counters in Nashville should be desegregated, West agreed that they should. After subsequent negotiations between the store owners and protest leaders, an agreement was reached during the first week of May. On May 10, six downtown stores began serving black customers at their lunch counters for the first time.
Although the initial campaign successfully desegregated downtown lunch counters, sit-ins, pickets, and protests against other segregated facilities continued in Nashville until passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, which ended overt, legally sanctioned segregation nationwide.