Matthew Little

My name is Matthew Little I was born on August 21st 1921. I'm retired now and my energy goes to my nonprofit civic adventures, which I am involved in several of them. Del: What was your occupation before you retired? Matthew: I had two major occupations one as a supervisor with the post office. I was a superintendent of two different stations in the Minneapolis post office system and then I left there and founded my own business a landscaping and gardening center in South Minneapolis. Del: The interview consists of two parts one part questions,there are five questions. And the other part consists of words that I would like you to give me some feedback in the form of a comment on how you feel they relate to the Civil Rights Movement or the condition of African Americans today. Del: What is your definition of the Civil Rights Movement? Matthew: My definition of Civil Rights Movement would be a movement about African Americans that allowed, with several others, changes to the American landscapes as far as African Americans are concerned. I think it was the liberation of African Americans from a system that had been a part of their lives since slavery. Del: Would the public protesting and boycotts of the past be an effective way to make change today? Matthew: Yes, I think that American consciousness requires a shock of some sort in order to make a real change to people's attitudes. Because it is so easy to take things for granted and overlook real injustice. And it becomes a way of life for people. And sometimes it requires some kind of a shock to bring to people's conscience the fact that unjust things and injustices are happening right before their eyes. So, I think that kind of thing is necessary, that type of activity, it's a kind of a awakening of what is happening right in front of you is necessary. ThatŐs what was the eloquence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the leadership of his time, they brought consciousness to America, as a whole, that as far as black people are concerned, they are not living up to their promises of the Constitution of the United States, and so forth. I believe we forget very quickly. I think at times it's necessary to remind people again. The message behind the marches and the sit-ins, they are a visual reminders of those facts. And I think they have a great impact, as far as changing the ideals and customs of people's, because if it were not for the Civil Rights Movement things would not have changed. I think it was that shock factor that brought about the consciousness. Del: How would you define the relationship between the Black Arts Movement and the Civil Rights Movement? Matthew: Are you talking about the Renaissance arts movement? Well, I think they are all interrelated. There are several movements within and adjacent to the Civil Rights Movement but the hub of of the Movement was an the sixties, there were other movements in existence in the fifties and sixties, but under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King in his eloquence it brought it together so that the whole country and the world became conscious of the injustice which led to making some concrete steps in changing things. Del: What do you think is the most important issue African Americans have to address today? Matthew: Today I think the most important thing that African Americans have to face is self empowerment. And then of course racism is a continuing thing in this country, always has been and it still exist, so we have to fight back. It is necessary and important for African Americans today to empower themselves by taking advantage of the changes that have been made as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. And take advantage of that by moving forward as far as education is concerned. I think that is very important. Del: What do you think of the Civil Rights Movement today? Matthew: The Civil Rights Movement is not as strong as it should be. There is a tendency for us to take things for granted and not continue the stride as we should to reach the point Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the movement had envisioned. We have fallen short of that. I think there is a bit of complacency there also, to feel that we have made it, when we still have a long ways to go. I think the movement is not as strong as it has been, or it should be at this time. Del: Control Matthew: As far as this Civil Rights Movement is concerned, I think it is very important for us to gain control of the our own destiny and not be dependent upon the community at large. Because I think it is very important, I think that relates very much to the Civil Rights Movement. Del: Dehumanize Matthew: Dehumanize was where the Civil Rights Movement came from because of the conditions in the apartheid South that African Americans lived in. They really were actually dehumanizing. We had to drink at separate fountains, went to separate inferior schools, when going to major stores people were unable to try things on, we had to buy it by size alone. Those things were a part of the everyday lives of African Americans in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement that were certainly dehumanizing very dehumanizing of individuals. Del: Stigma Matthew: It is a stigma living as an African American in this society. If Europeans fraternized with African Americans they were stigmatized because of the inferiority that being black in America implied. Del: Traumatize Matthew: There were plenty of incidents that certainly traumatized us as second-class citizens. There were several times when I, for example, was very much traumatized. But that was the kind of things we had to live with, and had the feeling that we would overcome some day. Del: Loss Matthew: Well, I think that several generations of African Americans were lost. Lost their whole life. All of the good things that they could have accomplished that were completely lost as a result of the system of segregation that was forced upon them. So there are several generations of African Americans that lost a lot of good things about America because of the system of segregation that was forced upon them. Del: Identity Matthew: There was the time when African Americans more or less felt that the answer to making himself whole was to look more like white people or Europeans, therefore they resort to such things as straightening their hair, bleaching their skin, and all of those kind of things, and those of mixed parentage actually tried to pass and lose themselves due to the fact they became ashamed of themselves and their blackness. Again because of the stigma. And so another part of the Civil Rights Movement was reclaiming our identity and being proud of our blackness and we came up with such phrases as "black is beautiful". Del: Survival Matthew: Survival is part of the history of black people from the time of slavery. It was important to survive. And as a matter of fact when we start to think about slavery the conditions of the ships that they came in. Traveling down in the hulls of the ships only the strongest ones surveyed. Whether it was deliberate or not, some history books give average that only about 45 percent of those shipped actually survived to reach America. So those that did survive were the strongest and the most capable of doing the slave work and then, of course, along with the inhumane treatment that they had to endure as slaves, and then the segregation after. All of those things required a lot of strength and capacity to survive adverse conditions. So that is part of our heritage. Survival is part of our heritage. Del: Inspire Matthew: People like Martin Luther King, George Washington Carver, Ida B. Wells, and so many others that in spite of adverse conditions inspired many of us to continue to fight. So that we would not give up the fight. To continue to hold our heads up we would make it to end of the rainbow. So our heroes of our past and present that continue to inspire me. Del: Hope Matthew: Hope was a part of our inspiration. It was part of our religious tradition. We were always taught religion and a matter how bad we were treated here. There is always hope for us on the other side. And that inspiration did a lot to keep us going during our deepest moments of despair. To keep that hope alive that one day we would make it. As Martin Luther King so eloquently put in his "I Have A Dream" speech that was strictly a speech of hope and aspiration. Del: Closure Matthew: Closure. We are still looking for closure. We have not found that closure yet, but again with the hope that I expressed, we still strive for that hope. And one day we will reach the promise land and that is what is driving us. Hope is the thing that gives us the drive to move forward.

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