Rep. Keith Ellison

Occupation: Lawyer-Legislator Field of Interest: Equal Justice for All Year of Birth: 1963 What is your definition of the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil Rights Movement is the post WWII movement lead by Black people, but participated in by many more, to advance freedom, justice, and equality for all people, through legal challenges to the Jim Crow system, civil disobedience, boycotts, marches, protests of all kinds. This movement was successful, though its gains must constantly be defended and extended. I believe that the spirit of resistance did not begin in the civil rights movement and certainly has not dissipated since Jim Crow segregation was defeated. However, the spirit of struggle and resistance emerges wherever people are oppressed and denied their God given right to fulfill their potential due the oppression, greed, and violence of others in power. How do you participate in activism today? I participate in a number of ways: As a lawyer by representing people in a racially biased criminal justice system. By defending certain criminal defendants and by bringing actions to vindicate the rights of those who have been victims of oppression and injustice. By organizing in the community on a range of issues including police brutality, the death penalty, environmental justice, and economic justice. By fighting for the ideals of the civil rights movement in the state legislature. Make use of the media to organize the people through writing articles, volunteering for public radio, and other means. I also translate the history and values of the struggle to my four children. What are some of the obstacles you encounter today when advocating for social issues? I supposed the greatest obstacle is convincing people that working for justice, for a voice, and for a better, fairer world is in their interest. My obstacle is getting people to look beyond their narrow, immediate self interest to view the greater benefit the community could receive through combined, sustained action. In your opinion would the public protesting and boycotts of the past be an effective way to make a change today? Certainly yes. But is depends on the goal and the issue. Public protesting and boycotts are great tools for certain situations, and these tools remain important today. However, the tools of public protesting and boycotts do not simply "go out of fashion" through the passage of time. However, our struggle is more complex today. We don't have a very concrete and visible segregation law to knock down. We have system of oppression that express themselves through the economy, the criminal justice system, the policing systems, and other system. Therefore, we cannot simply automatically turn to protest. We have to examine the problem to see what tools are warranted. What do you think is the most important issue African-Americans have to address today? Lack of awareness of the silent killers that are effecting us. See, if we all knew what was killing us, and we all knew what to do, then police brutality, poverty, lack of economic opportunity, health disparities, and other problems would disappear. However, because the enemy is no longer plain, the collective struggle is harder to organize. However, that is why we need leaders to emerge to speak to the pain and need of the people. What do you think of the Civil Rights Movement today? Well, because I define the Civil Rights movement as a discrete movement to defeat racial segregation, I don't think it's going on today. In fact the civil rights movement gave way to the Black Power Movement in 1968. That Movement lasted until about 1975. Before the civil rights movement was the anti-lynching movement and the abolitionist movement. All these movements have one thing in common the fight for human dignity and human rights. This is why I speak in terms of the spirit of the civil rights movement. The actual civil rights movement is now a historic phenomenon. But we have an over abundance of things to struggle for today. I think historians and political scientists name movements, not activists. Activists are too busy fighting for justice. No matter what we call the movement, we still have to move and to fight to rid the world of militarism, environmental degradation, police violence, and other oppressive systems. The following words are from a book for schools about relating to new immigrants that are victims of torture or traumatic situations in unstable countries. Please comment on how you feel each word relates to the civil rights movement or the condition of African Americans today. Control- something everyone need over his or her own life; if someone else has it, then you're a slave or a subject or a serf. Dehumanize - something that is necessary to oppress. Before a people or person can be oppressed, the oppression must remove them psychologically from the human family. This is done through demonization and vilification usually through media, religion, indoctrination. Stigma - the end result of the dehumanization process. The dehumanizer is trying to attach a stigma to the victim. The stigma is the negative connection that is the justification for the oppression. Traumatize - the is the psychological result of being oppressed. Loss - to be deprived of something formerly in your possession. Identity - who you are. In the process of dehumanization the target or victim must have his, her, their identity deprived or altered. The oppressed must fight to maintain their identity and this identity must be rooted in their experience, history, and culture. Survival - to make to the next fight or struggle. Inspire - to breathe life into the struggle, the movement for human dignity. This is done by example, by art and culture, by prayer, and by other means. The struggle must have inspiration, and great speaker often provide this. However, they are not the only ones. Hope - the idea that things are going to be better no matter what the present looks like. Closure - Closing a chapter in a traumatic period in a person or people's life.

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