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1. Watch the YouTube video "Bridge to Freedom" (3:44) about the civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that helped to galvanize support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
2. Watch Bob Dylan's "Only a Pawn in their Game"
3. Jody Feder, "Federal Civil Rights Statutes: A Primer"'
This discussion forum has two parts. First listen to and comment on Bob Dylan's song, "Only a Pawn in Their Game". What does the song mean? How would you interpret it? You will find a separate link to the lyrics themselves in case you want to study them in more detail.
Also, describe in detail the events portrayed in the Bridge to Freedom video. How did the civil rights march across the bridge, and the response by the local and state authorities, affect the progress of voting and civil rights in the U.S? What do you learn about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (rendered much less effective by Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court decision) from the video. Information about the Voting Rights Act is provided in the Feder reading. Other information about the content of the act is widely available on the Internet.
At the beginning of the semester we explored the ideas raised by Robert Dahl in On Democracy. The right to vote in free and open elections, and the right to do so free from intimidation, is an important element of democracy but voting rights have not always been a reality in the United States. This problem was also discussed by Woodward in the The Strange Career of Jim Crow. How does The Bridge to Freedom help us to understand this history?
Lesson 13 includes a video about a march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960's. It portrays how the issue of voter registration remained a significant problem almost a decade after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. As you watch the video note how it emphasizes both the importance of the right to vote and how that right had been systematically denied to African Americans in states like Alabama (Think back as well to ideas about the importance of the right to vote presented in the Dahl and Woodward books). Note also how Alabama responded to the marchers. Up to that point the issue of voter registration had, in our federal political system, been largely a local and state matter. The violence that erupted in Selma nationalized the issue by bringing attention to what was happening in Alabama and across much of the south. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which as the video shows was passed quickly by Congress, remains a major piece of federal legislation that emerged the events in Selma. The law transformed American politics by effectively ensuring the right to vote to many African Americans. The movie "Selma" (2014) is an excellent dramatization of these events. The video also provides background to the political and social problems that are the basis of Mississippi Burning, the film you will be watching next week as part of lesson 14.
Lesson 13 also includes a link to a video of Bob Dylan performing a song called "Only a Pawn in Their Game". Music can be a powerful means of communicating political messages. Because Dylan was wildly popular in the 1960s he was able to use music to communicate the political and social commentaries about civil rights and inequality in his lyrics to countless millions of people. As part of the discussion board assignment you should comment on the meaning of the political and social meaning of the song.
Paraphrase this section
The Bridge to Freedom video recounted the story of three separate marches on across the Edmund Bettus bridge to go to Montgomery. In pursuit of voting fairness the initial march was intended as a peaceful protest to see the governor of Alabama and demand truly equal voting rights. The governor responded by denying a meeting and sending in the national guard. Video of the resulting violence, which came to be known as bloody Sunday, sparked national outrage and MLK Jr. was quick to organize a second march. When they encountered the national guard this time they simply stopped, prayed, and turned around. A white civil rights activist was murdered in Selma following the second march. President Johnson began the process of having the voting rights act passed, a federal judge lifted the ban on the march, and the national guard was sent in to protect the marchers this time. The Bridge to Freedom underscores the importance of equal voting rights in both the civil rights movement as a needed victory and as a necessity for good democracy and governance.