Whatever happened to the civil rights movement?
That was the question Dr. Mary Frances Berry tried to answer in this year’s
Berry, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania who helped lead the movement to free South Africa, was appointed by Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. After Ronald Reagan fired her for criticizing his civil rights policies, she sued him and won reinstatement in federal district court. In 1993, President Clinton designated her Chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission, where she served until late 2004.
She said in her speech in Harris 108 that the civil rights movement never fully succeeded because the movement had economic goals that were never reached.
Berry said that we need to think about having an economic justice movement and reassessing affirmative action to provide basic rights to all Americans.
Her prescription for affirmative action? “Call it banana.”
She said that the term “affirmative action” has such a negative connotation today that it needs a new name with the same goals. The public has large misconceptions about what affirmative action actually accomplishes.
She said that the solution to obtaining civil rights is through a “human rights initiative” with provisions for better healthcare and education: a movement that could gather universal public support while still accomplishing the goals of the civil rights movement. Gaining support won’t be easy though.
“The struggle for justice does not always go forward,” Berry said. “Sometimes you take steps back, but you never go all the way back.”