Thank you for visiting the Camden Civil Rights Project page on Racial Equality. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote, “Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.” Our archive section contains a variety of informative print, audio and video materials which track the evolution of racist ideologies and the disproportionate impact they have had upon Americans based on their minority status. We hope to create a greater understanding of America’s unique cultural struggles in an effort to unite individuals of different races, rather than divide them. Archived articles can be accessed by clicking on the links below. Please feel free to use the comment section below to recommend materials and resources you believe will aid in creating a better understanding of how to address racial discrimination in the United States.
Articles
Race Equality Is Still a Work in Progress
by Sam Roberts (New York Times)
How Can We Fix Unconscious Racism?
by Nathalia Gjersoe (The Guardian)
Driving While Black
by Gary Webb (Esquire Magazine)
The Day President Kennedy Embraced Civil Rights—and the Story Behind It
by Jonathan Rieder (The Atlantic)
Letter from Birmingham Jail
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Maladjusted
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Other America
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What Martin Luther King Jr. Really Thought About Riots
by Lily Rothman (Time Magazine)
Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
W.E.B. Du Bois
The Evolution of Equality: A Comparative Analysis Between the Lincoln and Jeffersonian View of Racial Equality
by L. Christopher Skufca (Camden Civil Rights Project)
Videos
Racism: A History (2007)
Synopsis: This three-part documentary series was first broadcast on BBC Four in March 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series closely examines how modern European racial perceptions were originally shaped by attempts to morally justify the colonial exploitation of indigenous peoples and documents the development of scientific and theological racism which culminated in the Twentieth Century’s Eugenics movement. The filmmakers reveal some uncomfortable truths about how theses racial myths have evolved throughout popular European culture leading to institutionalized racism in the U.K., the Jim Crow Era in the U.S., the Apartheid Regime in South Africa and the mass sterilization and genocide of targeted ethnic populations by countries which have embraced the theories of Eugenics.
View the videos HERE
Slavery By Another Name (2012)
Synopsis: This 90-minute PBS documentary challenges one of our country’s most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The documentary recounts how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged which were tolerated throughout our country, keeping hundreds of thousands of African Americans in bondage by trapping them in a brutal system that would persist until the onset of World War II. The documentary premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
View the video HERE
Japanese Internment During WW II (2011)
Synopsis: After America was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 consigning 127,000 people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps. Fred Korematsu challenged the internment all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In “Korematsu v. United States” (1944), the Court sided with the government. In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”. The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans.
View the video HERE
Freedom Riders (2010)
Synopsis: An award winning PBS documentary which tells the story of a courageous band of civil rights activists calling themselves Freedom Riders, who challenged racial segregation in the American South. The film recounts the harrowing and inspirational story of a tight knit band of civil rights activists that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives— many enduring savage beatings and imprisonment—for touring the South on buses and trains to challenge Jim Crow laws which prevented blacks from utilizing “white only” facilities. The activists were met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, severely testing their faith in the possibility of non-violent change.
View the video HERE
American Experience: Klansvile U.S.A. (2015)
Synopsis: Having been dormant for decades, the Ku Klux Klan reemerged in the U.S. after the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision, gaining momentum in the U.S. as the civil rights movement grew. That the Klan would rise once again wasn’t surprising, but where the reincarnation took place was. North Carolina was long considered the most progressive southern state; its image was being burnished weekly on CBS by the enormously popular “The Andy Griffith Show.” In 1963, North Carolina salesman Bob Jones chartered what would become the largest Klan group in the country, which, under his leadership, grew to some ten thousand members. In the process, the group helped give the Tarheel State a new nickname: “Klansville, U.S.A.”
View the video HERE
The Moral Crisis of Racial Inequality (1963)
Synopsis: President John F. Kennedy’s civil rights address delivered to the nation on June 11, 1963. Following the protests in Birmingham, AL, President Kennedy addressed the “moral crisis” of racial segregation and called for national participation in ensuring that America becomes the “land of the free” that our democracy promises for all of its citizens.
View the video HERE
I Have A Dream… (1963)
There are paradigm shifting moments in human history when our perception of the world is forever changed. When these events occur, humanity’s collective consciousness. irreversibly matures. On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made an impassioned emotional appeal for racial equality which helped change the course of American history. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has motivated generations of Americans to continue the struggle for a better society.
View the video HERE
Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994)
Synopsis: This PBS documentary leads the viewer through the life of Malcolm X – from early adulthood to his untimely death. The story is told via short interviews with friends and family who were closest to the prominent civil rights leader. It reflects one man’s triumphant journey to overcome racial injustice in America while struggling to overcome his own negative racial perceptions.
View the video HERE
Chicano! Fighting For Political Power (1996)
Synopsis: The Mexican American Civil Rights Movement encompassed a broad cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm workers rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights. During this period of empowerment, Mexican Americans defined and took pride in their own identity, asserted their civil rights, and worked toward self-determination by improving their financial, social, and political circumstances. The video documentary Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, is a four-part documentary series which documents the history of Mexican Americans and the rise of the American Chicano Movement. Part 4, “Fighting for Political Power,” discusses the creation of La Raza Unida Party as a third party force for Mexican-American political power which demanded social justice in the Latin American community.
View the video HERE
We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee (2009)
From the award-winning PBS series American Experience comes We Shall Remain, a provocative look at the historical relationship between Native Americans and the United States government. In 1973, American Indian Movement activists and members of the Lakota Indian tribe residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota occupied the town of Wounded Knee, demanding the removal of a corrupt tribal council leader and a redress of past grievances. The 71 day stand-off between approximately 200 American Indians and the U.S. Government brought national attention to the institutional assault against the cultural identity of American Indians and the poverty and corruption on Indian reservations. The courageous stand by the activists led to a groundswell of public support allowing thousands of assimilated Indians across the country to reaffirm their cultural pride.
View the videos HERE
Who is Black in America? (2012)
Black In America is a multi-part series of documentaries hosted by reporter Soledad O’Brien on CNN. The series focuses on black culture in America and includes panel discussions on issues facing the black community. The fifth installment in the series, Who is Black in America? focuses on how skin tone and mixed ancestry affect racial identity. This episode questions whether being black is determined by the color of your skin, society’s perception, the dominant culture of your family, or self-identification? Soledad O’Brien follows the story of 2 young Philadelphia poets as they explore their racial identity through workshops conducted by their mentor, Perry “Vision” Divirgilio of Philly Youth Poetry Movement. Scholar Yaba Blay analyzes the influences skin color can have on racial identity and social opportunity.
View the video HERE
The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy (2012)
An exclusive audio recording obtained by The Nation of a stop-and-frisk carried out by the New York City Police Department reveals the humiliation and degradation caused by broken windows policing strategies which are being implemented in urban areas throughout America. In the first video, The Hunted and the Hated, an audio recording of what NYPD officers describe as a typical stop-and-frisk, documents the level of degradation in these encounters as a seventeen year old is assaulted and threatened with serious bodily injury and arrest for simply asking why he is being stopped. The second video, The Targets, documents the adverse psychological impact these type of stop-and-frisks have on targeted individuals and their families in poor urban communities.
View the videos HERE
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013)
Synopsis: This Emmy Award-winning PBS series explores the cultural identity of African-Americans. Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces viewers to the variety of religious, cultural and social perspectives which have shaped the African-American culture throughout our nation’s history, by consulting America’s top historians on African-American history, visiting historical sites, and interviewing individuals who have helped to create social reformation. Dr. Gates highlights the tragedies, triumphs and contradictions experienced by the African American community and sheds new light on what it means to be African-American in contemporary America.
View the video HERE
Camden Civil Rights Project 