Introducing Unheralded Heroes

In looking at more Unheralded Heroes I go back to time of the Memphis Sanitation strikes in 1968. This strike was a big movement for the Negro at that time. Dr. Martin Luther King saw this a chance to continue the message of non-violence in Memphis. But a group of young men had energized the youth of this area and looked at non-violence as not working and wanted to change the approach of being treated like any other American. This group was called the Invaders and they are the Unheralded Heroes I want to feature today. "Inspired by militant black leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, a new, radicalized generation of civil rights activists made up of young college students, Vietnam vets, musicians, and . intellectuals emerged in Memphis in 1967. The Invaders espoused Black Power and, when pushed, did not limit themselves to non-violence"(http://www.prichardsmith.com/portfolio/the-invaders). Because the vocabulary and the actions of the Invaders were about Bla...

One of the things that a person has to do to affect change is to be part of change. In the state of Louisiana like other states of the south, Black children could not attend any public schools alongside their white counterparts. But on November 14, 1960, a six year old girl, with two federal agents to her front and two in back, began a Walk of Change into the William Frantz School in New Orleans to become the first Black person to be admitted to an all-white elementary school. Young Ms. Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown Mississippi. Raised on a farm with her parents and grandparents who were sharecroppers (sharecroppers were people who would pick cotton or whatever crop grew by the owner and would receive food and lodging for their work which was still similar to slavery). After moving to New Orleans she took a test to enter into the school and began her educational journey. Ms. Bridges was jeered everyday by parents of white students, one who threatened to poi...