Civil Rights Era: March 7, 1965

March 7, 1965: As a high school student in Elgin, Illinois, I was oblivious to the fact that this day would come to be known as "Bloody Sunday." The March 7, 2009, Wall Street Journal reports about this day in 1965:

(H)undreds of peaceful protesters left Selma [Alabama], heading for Montgomery. As they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, high above the Alabama River, they ran into state troopers and local police wielding tear gas and billy clubs.

Those of you, though, who have followed this blog that started with the publication of my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT know that one of the themes of the novel is how four women of different races and religions had to learn to get together as new officer's wives in the spring of 1970 during the Vietnam War. And that 1970 was only six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Thus I thought it appropriate to mention this anniversary of the 1965 date in my blog.

The article itself -- "Touring the Civil Rights Trail" by Candace Jackson -- describes various sites that are now tourist attractions. According to the article, hanging at the entrance to the sanctuary of the black church in Montgomery where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached is a poster of Barack and Michelle Obama with the words "A New Era."

I believe that the story of four women in 1970 has a lot to say to those of us in 2009 who live in this supposed new era. There are things we take for granted without realizing how few the years have been since those things were not taken for granted.

And here's a children's story that takes place the day after Barack Obama wins the Presidential election and continues the saga of Wendy Johnson, the African-American officer's wife in MRS. LIEUTENANT.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and Civil Rights

Today at my PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge blog -- in honor of Martin Luther King Day and the Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama -- I shared the text of the children's picture book I wrote after the Presidential elections in November. The picture book "continues" the story of Wendy, the African-American character in MRS. LIEUTENANT.

If you have young children in your family, I hope you'll consider sharing with them THE DAY AFTER BARACK OBAMA IS ELECTED PRESIDENT.

Barack Obama’s “Race” Speech

No, I am not discussing politics in this post. I don’t even discuss politics with my friends, preferring to keep them as friends.

Why then bring up this speech given in Philadelphia on March 18?

Because in this speech Obama addresses a history of discrimination against blacks in America that is still present today.

And one of the main themes in my upcoming novel MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL is that very prejudice against blacks, along with one person’s overcoming of her ingrained prejudice.

When I was a new officer’s wife at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, in the spring of 1970, something happened for which no explanation was given. And thus I set out in my novel to find an explanation for myself, an explanation in keeping with the social and political climate of 1970 – only 20 years after the U.S. Army first integrated combat units (in the Korean War).

Regardless of how many World War II movies we’ve seen that may have African-Americans in combat units with whites, this is not historically accurate. (White officers frequently headed a unit of all-black soldiers.) And although some all-black units did amazing feats of bravery in World War II, those feats are not well-known.

The manuscript of MRS. LIEUTENANT was once rejected by a New York publishing house editor because she said there’s no such discrimination against blacks any more so readers wouldn’t find the story pertinent. I’ve always wondered what block of Manhattan the editor lived on to be so totally wrong.

Thus Obama’s discussion of race in America is a fitting background for the introduction of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL. Because prejudice does exist all around us – and we are all guilty of it to some extent.