Gellman traces history of black activism in new book

The sound of pens scratching on paper echoed in the library last Tuesday as several students and audience members took note of Professor Erik Gellman's talk on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gellman, the associate professor of history at Roosevelt, discussed the national holiday in context of his recently published "Death Blow to Jim Crow," a book that was ten years in the making.

From his scholarship on civil rights and the National Negro Congress during the 1930s', Gellman related the historical influence of that time period to MLK's generation in the 1960s' and how the blueprint for action was laid for civil rights activists for generations to come.

The talk focused on the broader goals of both the NNC and civil rights movement of the '60s to correct economic injustice and disparity. He posited that the modern translation of both civil rights movements have been incorrectly boiled down and generalized to just a black-and-white issue in the past.

Following up on this position that civil rights are an ongoing battle, Gellman related the issues of NNC to modern day problems.

"Today, we live in a new era of Jim Crow…There are more African-Americans in prison today than were enslaved in the height of slavery," Gellman said. " Fifty percent of today's prison population is African-American, and 32 percent of young black boys born 10 years ago are predicted to end up in prison. A generation of college students similar to [the Southern Negro Youth Congress], is graduating with fewer opportunities to do meaningful creative work."

He closed the talk with a final note about modern day activism.

"The Occupy movement represents a healthy response to begin to build a cultured opposition and try to understand how to restructure America's financial and cultural institutions," Gellman said. "I think once we recover the blueprint of 1930s and '40s, and other models of protest, we can once again struggle to re-shift priorities from property right of the wealthy and few to basic human rights and economic justice for all."

A noticeable amount of former and current students attended the talk, hoping to take something away from it.

"I thought his views were enlightening," said Tracey Williams-Moore, a current student of Gellman's. She said she found value in "comparing the movement in the '60s to the '30s."

"It helps to see where the activists were coming from, and I appreciate them all the more now," she said.

Erica Vera, 21, also responded positively to Gellman's discussion.

"The message of Martin Luther King, Jr., especially to students of social justice, applies to all minorities; empowering black, white, female and middle class," She said.

The discussion was presented by the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation.