Americans who excuse violence need to see the world through Maxine McNair’s eyes — and soul
It looked like an ordinary room when I visited it years ago, a place you’d pause for a chat in the middle of a work day or to enjoy that lunch packed from home. But it was so much more, a room where memories and emotions overwhelm in the space of a few seconds.
When a business trip took me to Birmingham, Ala., I knew I had to visit, to witness at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where cowards placed a bomb that injured many and murdered four little girls getting ready for a church program on Sept. 15, 1963.
While the church itself is a beautiful sanctuary, the basement space is no less sacred.
That is what violence looks like, violence spurred by hate, violence that ended the lives of Addie Mae Collins, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 14; Carole Robertson, 14, and Carol Denise McNair, just 11 years old. It wasn’t just Ku Klux Klan members whose fingerprints stained that evil and bloody act. Among the guilty were the “good” white citizens of Alabama, the leaders and politicians, who feared any change in the social, economic and political order that solidified their status, their place at the top. Whether silent or vocal, they supported the folks who did the dirty work.
Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the girls killed in the 1963 church bombing, died on Jan. 2 at the age of 93. Any mother, any person, could and should feel a piece of that pain in their bones; they should try to imagine how it might have felt to live nearly 60 years after burying a child, all those years to remember what was and to think of what might have been.
Short-term memories
Instead, a lot of Americans have apparently forgotten that important historical event from not that long ago. It’s not that surprising if you paid any attention to how divided Americans were in their commemoration of an insurrection, a violent attempt to overturn the results of an election judged fair by officials of every political party.
And that was just one year ago, on Jan. 6, 2021.
A recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found that about 1 in 3 Americans believed violence against the government could at times be justified. Though that third included all Americans, who listed a range of said justifications, from vaccine requirements to “protection,” there was a distinct partisan divide — with 40 percent of Republicans, 41 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats indicating approval.
Jan132022
The state of democracy one year after January 6
Talked about the state of democracy one year after January 6 with Charles Blow and Ohio State professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries on BNC’s ‘Prime.’
Jan072022
The fight for Black and brown children
There is a double standard when it comes to the treatment of children of color. They are punished in schools more frequently. They are arrested more frequently. Why is this happening and why are so many Black and brown children robbed of their childhoods? Kristin Henning, author of “The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth,” uses her experiences, data and research to paint an alarming picture. Henning sits down with Mary C. Curtis to discuss the problem and potential policy solutions.
Jan062022
Is Vice President Kamala Harris’ Team on the Outs?
Reports of tension among VP Kamala Harris’ team has many questioning her future and more. To discuss why so much scrutiny is being placed on Harris, Charles M. Blow brought on The Guardian opinion columnist Michael Harriot and #CQRollCall columnist Mary C. Curtis.
Dec192021
The politics of equity 2021
In this wide-ranging, year-end conversation, Mary C. Curtis speaks with New York Times columnist Charles Blow about what he considers the dramatic rollback of the nation’s civil rights and whether President Joe Biden has been proactive enough to help stem inequity.
Dec162021
Local News Roundup: Mecklenburg mask mandate continues; Gov. Cooper will sign NC budget into law; Cam Newton’s return a roaring success
On the next Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup:
Mecklenburg County has not managed to keep its COVID-19 positivity rate low enough for long enough to remove the county mask mandate. We’ll get an update on where the county stands on COVID-19 trends and hospitalizations.
Gov. Roy Cooper says he’ll sign the North Carolina legislature’s budget bill into law, noting that it’s a compromise, but that the good “outweighs the bad.”
Hundreds of parents from Hopewell High School gathered at a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools town hall this week in Huntersville after an incident where guns were found at the school. We’ll discuss what they had to say about how they wanted to see the school district address safety for students.
And Cam Newton is BAAACK. His first game back in a Carolina Panthers uniform last week was a roaring success, and he helped the team put a W on the board. Can he do it again, and will he be the starting QB this week?
Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories, updates on county commission and city council, and all the week’s top news on the Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup.
Guests:
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Katie Peralta Soloff, reporter for Axios Charlotte
Steve Harrison, WFAE’s political reporter
Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter
Nov192021
‘What has come of America?’
Civil rights leader and National Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial says he is “damn worried” about the state of American democracy. Mary C. Curtis sits down with Morial to talk about voting rights, infrastructure, the filibuster and so much more.
Nov172021
‘The flag would still be flying today’
Six years ago, Malcolm Graham lost his big sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, in the Charleston shooting that took nine Black churchgoers’ lives. Now a city councilman in Charlotte, N.C., Graham reflects on the work he did to remove the Confederate flag from its prominent place on the South Carolina statehouse grounds, the future of racial matters in our country and his sister’s legacy.
Jul292021
For GOP, ‘back the blue’ doesn’t matter when there’s an election to be won
It was both politically smart, and the right thing to do.
By opening the hearing of the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol with the testimony of police officers on the front line, still suffering from the effects of the violence of that day, the world got to hear what really happened and to see the human cost.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell compared it with his Army service, “different” because the Jan. 6 attackers were “our own citizens.” He described warning his worried wife away when she tried to hug him on his return home because his uniform was drenched with chemical spray. D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges said white rioters tried to recruit him as one of their own: “Are you my brother?” one asked. Another told Hodges he would “die on your knees.” MPD Officer Michael Fanone thought he would be killed and almost was, before his plea that he had kids moved a few.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who is African American, is still in therapy after being booed and showered with obscenities and racial slurs. “Frankly, I guess it is America,” he said.
Jul292021
