AF AM 110
Dr. Colapierto
Civil Rights Roundtable 1963 The round table discussion consisted of James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Joseph Minklelwitz, and Sidney Portier. The topics of discussion were civil rights and the March on Washington. All the men had something in common; all were entertainers in some kind of aspect, and all came to Washington for the March on Washington. As stated in the video, some of these men were long term fights, and others joined very recently. James Baldwin came to the March on Washington because he was born a negro in the U.S and to him, there was no way that couldn’t be involved because he is black. Marlon Brando slowly became involved in civil rights because he “slowly” …show more content…
Harry Belafonte stated he inherited civil rights from his parents and his parents parents. The turn out for the march in his opinion was powerful. He says he believes in our country, but it does not realize its true potential. Our country has not even scratched the surface in his opinion. He is another person in the panel, who stated he needed to be at the march. It is interesting that Marlon Brando went off on a tangent about Native Americans because he is using his platform to bring awareness to another oppressed group. He feel likes everyone will benefit from the march. The problem that is affecting everyone in America, is hatred as Brando states. I also find it interesting how freely everyone refers to black people as negro. I guess it due to time change, because in the beginning I was taken back especially when the white panel speakers were speaking. To strengthen his point, Brando talked about multiple countries who dealt with hate and oppression. The moderator of the roundtable was intrigued by the countries Brando was mentioning. He as well stated that the March on Washington is a task that could not easily occur in the countries Brando mentioned. Joseph Minklelwitz stated “True freedom is not given by government.”as well as “Freedom is taken by the people.” He made some really good points when referring to protestors. He didn’t refer to them as …show more content…
He cut James Baldwin off when Baldwin was going on a tangent, and gave him a realer dose of the reality that was to possibly come. He talked about how the non-violent tactics of blacks have been occurring for some time, but people like Bull Connor still take the time to release the dogs on protestors. If the black people keep getting pushed enough, they will react with violence because a human can only take so much. The moderator did a great job at facilitating the conversation well enough for everyone to get their point out. I did not really care for Charlton Heston’s input. He annoyed me because I feel like he had not done much for black people or black issues, but felt the need to put in his input when I do not feel like it was really needed. The closer the discussion got to ending, the more disruptive the panel speakers became. I guess because they wanted to make sure to get out all of their points. The negro problem shifted into the negro question. In the beginning of the roundtable, the feel between all men was integration, but at the end, I feel like it separated into a black and white thing. Jame Baldwin was the closing part of the roundtable and I thoroughly enjoyed his ending points although he was cut short. “The nature of the problem is so complex” Why was it necessary to create the