In some places in time, even small challenges to power risked extreme response: a paralyzing beating, loss of one’s job, or being murdered without sanction. But they rarely get out of the kitchen or break room and connect with others in society who feel the same way. People often kvetch in break rooms, kitchens, and bars about what they would like to do to the boss, the police officer, the loan officer or the landlord. In most places and times, the demands of movement-building are simply too great. It’s a paradox, since injustice in human societies is a constant. more Social movements are rare in human history. It’s a paradox, since injustice in human societies is. Social movements are rare in human history. Intent on giving voice to this diversity of perspectives, we invited scholars, writers and activists of different generations, expe- riences, and areas of specialty to write short responses to a statement and a question, given below. The question of the relationship between the election and the Sixties can be approached from a near-infinite variety of angles.

Recognizing this, we thought it important to begin reflecting on the connection between the election and the transformations, problems, and possibilities that defined the Sixties, as well as how the election may reconfigure the public memory of the era. Indeed, America’s election of its first African American president, following a campaign full of Sixties echoes and evoca- tions, may well be the event with the greatest bearing in the United States on the legacy of the Sixties since the Sixties. more The 2008 presidential election in the United States is rich with meaning and consequence, including with respect to the Sixties. The 2008 presidential election in the United States is rich with meaning and consequence, includi. She co-facilitates a partnership between the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke, The SNCC Digital Gateway, whose purpose is to bring the grassroots stories of the civil rights movement to a much wider public through a web portal, K12 initiative, and set of critical oral histories.

Her most recent book, On the Freedom Side, draws a portrait of young people organizing in the spirit of Ella Baker since 1960. She was the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Race Relations at Virginia State University from 2006-2009. Between 2004-2008, she was active with the project bringing together the Algebra Project, the Young People’s Project and the Petersburg City Public Schools, and coordinated an oral history project of the civil rights movement in Petersburg. She writes and teaches the history of youth social movements, human rights, documentary, and oral history. Wesley Hogan is the director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and Research Professor at the Franklin Humanities Institute and History.

Arsnick by Jennifer Jensen Wallach