The veterans of the civil rights movement made history, but they are eager for you to know something: They didn’t set out to be heroes or icons. On two recent occasions, these brave men and women gathered to reflect on their experiences and the legacy they're leaving. Some of them are names you know, some aren’t — but all of them have stories that need to be told while they're still here to tell them. This series from “Cape Up,” a Washington Post Opinions podcast, brings you the stories and reflections of some of these leaders, and their lessons on where we go from here.
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The veterans of the civil rights movement made history, but they are eager for you to know something: They didn’t set out to be heroes or icons. On two recent occasions, these brave men and women gathered to reflect on their experiences and the legacy they're leaving. Some of them are names you know, some aren’t — but all of them have stories that need to be told while they're still here to tell them. This series from “Cape Up,” a Washington Post Opinions podcast, brings you the stories and reflections of some of these leaders, and their lessons on where we go from here.
"They’re doing it, and they’re making all the mistakes, and they’re doing it right." Civil rights leaders old and young describe how activism is different today than for the leaders of the 1960s movement — but still as important.
"The violence trained me to be nonviolent." A longtime civil rights activist and a leader from a younger generation discuss the tension that exists when discussing the most effective paths to change.
"Without songs, we couldn’t have had a movement." Civil rights activists describe how in jail, music was the one thing that couldn’t be taken from them — and it propelled the movement forward.
"He was the epitome of the legacy of a slave master, and this man kept my people down." Rep. Barbara Lee and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Alabama governor George Wallace, recount how Wallace renounced his segregationist views.
"The movement never would have happened had it not been for these heroic women." Rep. Barbara Lee and Andrew Young explain why women are so often eliminated from civil rights stories — and why that’s so wrong.
"I called it good trouble. I called it necessary trouble." Congressman John Lewis and others who were there recall marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to protest the suppression of black votes.
"The Letter from Birmingham Jail became immortal from this combination of very odd circumstances." Clarence B. Jones, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and occasional speechwriter, describes how he smuggled the letter.
"No one ever said to me, Are you okay? Are you afraid? Because I was." A member of the Little Rock Nine and a survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing both lost the illusion of safety in their young lives.
"You can only choose what it is you give your life for." Andrew Young, King’s chief strategist with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others who were close to King recall the moment they heard of his assassination.
The veterans of the civil rights movement made history, but they are eager for you to know something: They didn’t set out to be heroes or icons. On two recent occasions, these brave men and women gathered to reflect on their experiences and the legacy they're leaving. Some of them are names you know, some aren’t — but all of them have stories that need to be told while they're still here to tell them. This series from “Cape Up,” a Washington Post Opinions podcast, brings you the stories and reflections of some of these leaders, and their lessons on where we go from here.
