Claire O'Connor

I'm a director of a nonprofit, interest are many, and the year I was born is 1942. Del: What is your definition of the Civil Rights Movement? Claire: Well, first of all I am just going to give you some words: never-ending; multidimensional. It effected us all. Something that people got passionate about , but we werenÕt the first. It was ongoing since maybe forever. It may be since early history, since we were defined as individuals, back in our history. I don't know, ongoing today. Del: In your opinion, would the public protesting and boycotting of the past be an effective way to make a change today? Claire: I think so, the Civil Rights Movement was a movement of people to make changes and the protest that we typically refer to. I'm sure that when you said the protest and the boycott you got something specifically in-mind, but that wasn't the first time our particular Civil Rights Movement really began at the end of WW2. What happened then and what we have classified, and what the media has classified as the Civil Rights Movement was part of a lot of people's effort and protest. Boycotts were not the only thing that was going on. They are just what captured the media's attention and people's attention and also generated a lot of passion and a lot of involvement. So there were people behind all this and activities behind all this and, by way of coming up to an answer for you. Those methods, the protests and boycotts that got the press, plus all the other the methods that were used together will be effective and as we go along we will add new methods. Del: And what do think is the most important issue African-Americans have to address today? Claire: I don't think African-Americans have a responsibility, as a group, to address any one issue alone. They are issues that effects African-American and effects all people(s). I was often asked, I'm blonde and white my ancestry is Irish, English, and French. And I was often asked when I went, (back then when we were given a lot of attention), to Mississippi, and when I was far more active, you know a university student, and more active in the press, and more active in those things that were capturing attention. I was always asked what was a Minnesotan doing in Mississippi? And I always said that whatever happened to people in my country happens to me, too. And I had lived and experienced when growing up, where I was not free to associate. My family was marginalized and isolated and had a lot of problems in this small town that we lived in. Because we had African-Americans, Jews, Orients, and Asians as friends. So, I knew that was why it affected me at that time. The 2000 election absolutely brought it home for me. That this isn't a problem of one particular group. This is our problem. And that has to do with the fact that a huge percentage of African-Americans were not allowed to vote. I started thinking, you know, what if? What if reconstruction had continued, what if it had not been interrupted by Jim Crow and you know all that happened after that. That ended with our needing to have a movement. What if that had never happened? We would have a very different country. We would have poets and inventors and healers and statesmen, stateswomen that maybe would have solved our countries problems and right now were a world power. I mean what if, what if that hadn't happened? What if that population had not been isolated from contributing. I mean if you spin out the ideas you can think of all kinds of stuff. How would that have effected our gross national product? And on and on and on. I got a sense of how it has effected me directly, how its prevented me from living in the country that I would want to live in, and the world I would want to live in. So I got away from you. Oh yeah, right, your question was what issues are African-Americans facing today? I mean there are lots, I mean we talk about poverty and disease and health access and health care and pregnancy and on and on and on lack of jobs, lack of alternatives and lack of housing. All those kind of things are most directly effecting African-Americans, but also effecting me. Del: How would you define the relationship between the Black Arts Movement and the Civil Rights Movement? Claire: Well you know Ronnie told me you were going to ask that question and so I've been thinking about it. I am not that aware that there was something that was called the Black Arts Movement and I'm not sure what that says to me. It says something. I mean it could be saying a lot of things. The fact that I'm not aware of it . It could be saying, that I could be saying, hey that I've been living in Canada for a number of years. So I wasn't as attune to a number of things that were going on here. I do know of the Native Canadians Arts Movement, but I would not, I can't speak very knowledgeably about it. I can also say the arts tend to be isolated by anti-intellectualism in our country, and that artist in the art community seem to feed into that isolation and create some of the isolation themselves. So, I can't, speak knowledgeably that except to say that's another example of what I was talking about before, that there are things that capture. We talked about ways to continue the movement. Where the movement came from, and that whole history. That happens in every single nook and cranny in our culture, some of it is political, overtly political, and some of it is less overtly political and leads people to art expression. I hope that the Black Arts Movement, (I have to become more aware of it), is speaking to and expressing what is happening in the black community, and it's not a movement because it's a lot of African-American artist. Del: Were you aware of any arts organization or activity that was going on during the time that you were involved? Claire: I know African-American artists. I guess what I would ask them the question that you just asked me. How do you define it? How do you define the Black Arts Movement? Del: Well, it's like defining the Civil Rights Movement everyone has their different perspective of it. And so the question is geared to find out how people were involved in the movement, responded to the art that was around them, the music, the theater, the painting, the poetry , the writings that were coming out of it. Art effects everyone in a different way when they see it or respond to the different media differently. Some effect people more dramatically than others... Claire: Yeah, but that's what you're talking about, are African-American artists and responding to their art. It's not a movement. A movement has to have a self-conscience strategy or you know ... Del: Well it's something that some of the participants, that I've spoken with feel that was a intuitive arm in the Civil Rights Movement. And they worked very closely together to get the message out in the community. To let people know about things that were going on, to influence feelings and to display the frustration that was going on through art . Claire: But you're talking about an artist involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Del: Yes. Claire: Well as far as I'm concerned, I was very aware. I was aware and still am of writers, you know novels, essays, poetry, theater, painters, sculptors, photographers. I was very aware. I've always been aware of artists. I was an artist for twenty years. Del: And what do you think of the Civil Rights Movement of today? Claire: Well, I would say that it's active, it's strong and it has broadened its focus. There are gains that we made and there loss. A good percentage of the people who were involved when they were younger are still involved in a lot of ways. I think it's strong and healthy. I wouldn't measure it by its successes. It's very strongly challenged, and I think it's organizing itself better, coming together better, more effectively than it has been. It's refocusing. I mean until the last three to four years those of us who are committed to activism have been involved in a broad range of things. I know, for myself, I have to give up some of my involvement because what we need to be doing now is absolutely critical. I think it's broadened. As the world has gotten smaller and people are being forced to move from the south to the north. I don't mean in the U.S. I mean in the world and so immigrants are coming to our country we are being enriched by them, but the threat to their Civil Rights now needs to be one of our concerns, so it has broadened. I think Martin Luther King Jr. was about to broaden the Civil Rights Movement to include working people and that's why he was killed. I think that part of the movement was lost and I think it's being picked up now. Del: The second section and these words as I said before are from a book that's distributed to schools on how to deal with the new immigrants victims of torture traumatic situations. Please comment on how the words relate to the Civil Rights Movement. Claire: Can I make a suggestion? Immigrants and refugees are different they come to this country for different reasons. Del: Did I say refugees? Claire: You didn't say refugees only immigrants I think it's important. I don't know what the book includes, but I think it's important not to include refugees in the same category, because they don't want to be here they want to be home. I mean they made choices, but they would rather be home. The categories crossover. Del: The first word is control. Claire: I suppose what we were trying to do was equalize control and power. Del: Dehumanize Claire: This movement was about fighting dehumanization of humans. Del: Stigma Claire: Well, stigma marginaliztion. It's the way of racism, the way that groups of people are separated from others. Others that have common interest from some use stigmatization to marginalize African-Americans skin color has been used in all countries as a stigma other things have been used as well and are being used. Del: Traumatized Claire: Well there was lots of it and it continues, lots of very traumatic things people who are deeply effected by the lack of civil rights. The outcome of our decade of the Civil Rights Movement events that were extremely traumatic. There were people killed and you know by far, more African-Americans than Euro-Americans, but every death and every traumatic situation is traumatic. Del: Loss Claire: I don't know. Del: Identity Claire: Identity. That's a really hard word. Identity in our culture is something that we feel is really important What is identity? It's having to do with what you feel about yourself, and what you're allowed to do, and how you are allowed to express yourself. I suppose what said I before, if reconstruction had never been lost and people (African-Americans) would have been able to achieve their full potential and their sense of identity would things be different? All the words you are talking about: loss and trauma everything you were talking about, stigmatization, are all factors in identity, contribute to people identity. Del: Survival Claire: Are these high-school kids words? Del: No, actually these are from the book. Claire: Survival. You know for some people survival unfortunately is the issue. It's really nice for me to sit here in my living room here and look at my trees and my chipmunks and I don't have to worry about survival for the moment. I can't imagine what it's like. I can't imagine what it's like to worry about survival everyday. There were some times when I was in danger, but to live that way, my God, to live not knowing, with survival as an issue, holly cow that's incredible. Del: Inspire Claire: I feel inspired. In my job, I get to work with people who are refugees and immigrants. And I have talked to people who have been tortured and they don't talk about it in real terms. I could understand why. To survive that and to go on. And to do really wonderful things. People that I know and are acquainted with it's inspirational. I mean it inspires me. It actually shames me as well. Shames me, because, I'm not doing more. Del: Hope Claire: It's at the core. Having common hope. Hope that we can share those people who knew that things had to be different. That's kind of at the core I think of making changes. We don't make changes unless we have hope, and we don't achieve and work together unless we have shared hope. Del: Closure Claire: I don't think there is such a thing. This is my own personal opinion and actually I was trained as a therapist and I know they talk about closure. I don't think closure ever happens. I think people make decisions about moving on. It's not like you close one door and open another door. I don't think we should even try, because it would bring a sense of frustration. The only thing that would come close to it, is for people to be able to say I learned something from this situation, it's going to help in the future, and in making future decisions. The truth and reconciliation commission, I don't think closure is what they get. I don't think so.

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