I have wanted to get this off my chest for a long time now, and felt inspired by the Rosa Parks mention in another post.

James Meredith ( http://www.olemiss.edu/de...ith_james/ ) fliers began to appear on bulliten boards, and elsewhere at the college I am attending. They were distributed about a month in advance and were everywhere.

Jessie Ventura added a last minute stop at our college, with us knowing about it like a week in advance - and fliers were posted too.

Upon seeing that a person of such historical value was going to appear, and of whom we'd be able to speak to directly, I booked time out of my busy schedule to see Mr. Meredith. I was mildly interested in seeing Mr. Ventura.

Anyways, the day came for me to see Mr. Meredith, and I was very excited! They booked out the auditorium, which holds a couple hundred people. I got there, and was surprised to see no more than 10! :O Of course, I was early, but...later a bunch, about 20 strolled in with one of my English professors(he later explained they were in his Urban Teacher program, and he required attendance).

They showed a couple of short films to get things rolling, clips of the civil rights movement, and of Mr. Merediths famous walk with the marshalls.

To summarize his speech, he spoke heavily of how important the basic fundamentals of education was, and that it should be top priority amongst "minorities" today, and always.

Why did I post this? Mr. Meredith had 30 people in attendance. A man whom I feel deserved much more. Especially in a college where minorities are the majority. When Jesse Ventura arrived...there were so many people in the room, they had to send folks away! I was floored...I later heard some of the students who were "forced" to attend the Meredith lecture say how "boring" it was to listen to that "old man" piss and moan about the past! I felt special knowing I was able to shake this mans hand and thank him for his part in the road towards equality, and the good advice he was giving people regarding getting an education!

Any ideas why folks would practically ignore Mr. Meredith and bring the house down to listen to Ventura? Maybe someone can shed some light.

LaVisHh said:

I would venture to say that we are too focused on personalities, and that even for many popular history is driven by reductive icons and symbols.

MLK -- "I have a dream"

Malcolm X -- "By any means necessary"

George Washington -- never told a lie

Abe Lincoln -- freed the slaves

Rosa Parks -- refused to give up her seat

History is much more complex than that, and I honestly believe that people would be able to connect better with the human story if they learned the details.

But we live in a microwave culture that generates fast food for people too impatient... so soundbytes give us the news. And if we can come up with cute sayings, catch phrases and slogans then folks will remember and celebrate.

Sadly James Meredith does not have that for him or his history

It comes down to marketing.Jessie Ventura is famous right now for being a wrestler turned polititian.Think of Justin Timberlake and Prince right now.Justin can sell out anywhere right now even though he can't hold Prince's musical jockstrap.People are sheep and don't want to think or do anything on their own.They want others(usually the media)to tell them what is hip.





Choose the edit
[This message was edited Mon Dec 2 7:16:51 PST 2002 by 4LOVE]

Thanks NuPwrSoul and 4LOVE for responding. I figured as much. Mr. Meredith has no "celebrity" status.

The amount of "views" this thread has gotten sort of tells a story to, eh?