Word: knighting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first conversations were necessarily political. Knight assumed my inferiority in his territory and wanted to prove it in mine: the white problem. He knew my line of course. He had heard it before. I was working for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, I was "the new Movement cat," and so I could be counted on to talk voter registration and non-violence, and to exonerate white drunks and poor-white cops of ultimate blame for the exploitation of Negroes in this country...
...talked most about the Tift Park swimming pool. It was early summer, hot, and the pool, which the City of Albany was keeping segregated despite court rulings by "selling" to a private party, was a prime symbol of discrimination. Knight wanted to blow it up--white swimmers and all. I argued for demonstrations, saying that these would involve more Negroes than a simple demolition job, and so lead to a longer, wider struggle. And I remarked the possibility of victory and suggested there should be something left to swim...
...know these crackers," Knight sneered. "They'll close it down before they'll let us swim in it. Then I'll have to blow it up anyway, and I won't get nobody...
...jump in an' that sorry little life guard yells, "Hey, hey, hey." Knight slumped down in a chair. "Duv' off that board a few times, he was blowin' that foolsh little whistle, and baby, we walked out just as straight...
People get into the Movement in strange ways. This was Knight's way. Two evenings later, we told about it at mass meeting. The jump was one of those brilliant, total, solid-silver triumphs that satisfy so perfectly a basic human need, and Knight was applauded to the speaker's stand...