Apartheid in the United States: a review of CNN’s “A Long March to Freedom”

Not for the squeamish, A Long March to Freedom contains footage of the cruelty directed against African Americans.  The series highlights the various campaigns conducted by civil rights organizations such the SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, and CORE in cities such as Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, Greensboro, and Chicago.  The series tries to give the viewer a glimpse into the day-to-day non-violent grassroots strategies of The Civil Right’s Movement, many of which were borrowed from the passive resistance tactics of Mohatmus K. Ghandi of India. The organisations insisted that participants not fight back no matter how severe the nature of the abuse was. Name calling, food throwing, beatings, attack dogs, water hoses, bombings and murders perpetrated against Civil Right’s demonstrators seem even more intolerable today because the victims would not fight back.

Although Malcolm X’s role is not discussed  due to his non- pacifist ideas, the contributions of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr., John Lewis, Medgar Evers, Stokley Carmichael , Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, as well as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy are featured in-depth. The integration of the schools, the end of discrimination in transportation, legislation forbidding segregation in business and housing, and the passage of The Voting Right’s Act are all discussed. Particularly disturbing in A Long March to Freedom  is the apartheid look and feel of the country  before the success of The Civil Right’s Movement.

“A Long March to Freedom” is an outstanding segment which should be viewed by every American as well as used in the school system to educate our nation’s students. For not only did non-violent resistance obtain civil rights and civil libertiesfor years to come, but the movement  served as the paradigm for other successful campiagns in The United States. Please watch A LONG MARCH to FREEDOM to remember how horrendous the nation’s past history of racial hatred and abuse is; and to remember how glorious her ability was to overcome such a detrimental obstacle.

Ten stars.

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About the Author: Cleo Brown is the movie reviewer for HipHopRepublican.com. She lives in Manhattan and has a Master’s Degree in Contemporary African-American History from The University of California at Davis and has done work on a Ph.D. in education at The University of San Francisco. She has published several poetry books and is featured in Who’s Who in Poetry.