Clayborne Carson | |
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![]() Carson in 2017 | |
Born | Buffalo, New York, U.S. | June 15, 1944
Spouse | Susan Ann Carson |
Children | 2 |
Academic background | |
Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BA, MA, PhD) |
Academic work | |
Era | 20th century |
Institutions | Stanford University |
Main interests | Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King Jr. |
Clayborne Carson (born June 15,1944) is an American academic who was a professor of history at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King Jr.,Research and Education Institute. Since 1985,he has directed the Martin Luther King Papers Project,a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Martin Luther King Jr.
Carson was born on June 15,1944,in Buffalo,New York;son of Clayborne and Louise Carson. He grew up near Los Alamos,New Mexico,where his was one of a small number of African-American families. He attributes his lifelong interest in the Civil Rights Movement to that experience. "I had this really strong curiosity about the black world,because in Los Alamos the black world was a very few families. When the civil rights movement started,I had this real fascination with it,and I wanted to meet the people in it." [1]
After graduating from Los Alamos High School in 1962,Carson attended the University of New Mexico for his first year on college during the 1962–1963 school year. At age 19,Carson met Stokely Carmichael at a national student conference in Indiana. Carmichael convinced him to attend the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC,pronounced "snick"). [2] On August 28,1963,Carson was overwhelmed to find himself among hundreds of thousands of African Americans at the March. This was the first big thing Carson had done in contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. [3] Recalling the March,at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial,Carson says,"I have a lot of vivid memories,but not of King's speech." What left the biggest impression,he says,were "the people I met there." [1] The March was also the only time Carson had ever heard Dr. King speak in public. [2]
It wasn't until 1964 after Carson had transferred to the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA) that he became more active in what he calls the "northern version of the southern struggle", [3] and continued with SNCC. [2] At UCLA Carson Changed his field of study from computer programming to American History. Here he earned his B.A. (1967),M.A. (1971),and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Stokely Carmichael and SNCC which earned him his Ph.D. (1975). [2] While studying at UCLA,he was also involved with anti-Vietnam War protests. He speaks of that experience in his current writing,highlighting the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American freedom struggle.
Carson was a professor at Stanford University for more than 40 years,where he primarily taught U.S. History and African American History. [4] [5] He teaches and lectures about Martin Luther King,Malcolm X,the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),the Black Panther Party,and other subjects related to the black struggle and civil rights. He has been a frequent guest on Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley,California,and has also appeared on programs like NPR's Fresh Air ,the Tavis Smiley Show, the Charlie Rose Show, Good Morning America, and the CBS Evening News . Carson is a member of the global council of the California International Law Center at the University of California,Davis School of Law. [6]
Carson has also written several books and articles regarding the Civil Rights Movement,and has made contributions to many more as well as documentaries,and interviews. [7] His first book In Struggle:SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s was awarded the Fredrick Jackson Turner Award in 1982. [8] Carson was also the Historical Adviser for the film Freedom on My Mind ,which in 1995 was nominated for an Oscar. [8]
In 1985,Coretta Scott King asked Carson to lead a project to publish King's previously unpublished works. [4] In an interview conducted in 2008,Carson explains that he initially declined to work as Senior Editor to Dr. King's works,Carson had "never really thought of [himself] as a King biographer. [He] was a SNCC person," he said,referencing the discord between SNCC and Dr. King that occurred during the movement. Carson eventually agreed to oversee the project mentioning that he would not have accepted the job if the family held control over Dr. King's works. Carson and his staff has spent over 20 years working to edit and publish Dr. King's works. [9]
Carson retired from Stanford in 2020. [10]
In 2021,Carson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as a member of the newly formed Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board. [11]
Carson married Susan Ann Beyer in 1967,who at the time was a librarian. [2] Until her retirement,she was the managing editor of the King Papers Project,and lives in Palo Alto,California. He has a daughter and son.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A black church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
The civil rights movement was a social movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country. The movement had its origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century and had its modern roots in the 1940s, although the movement made its largest legislative gains in the 1960s after years of direct actions and grassroots protests. The social movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee, the Committee sought to coordinate and assist direct-action challenges to the civic segregation and political exclusion of African Americans. From 1962, with the support of the Voter Education Project, SNCC committed to the registration and mobilization of black voters in the Deep South. Affiliates such as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama also worked to increase the pressure on federal and state government to enforce constitutional protections.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. At the march, final speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism and racial segregation.
Kwame Ture was an American activist who played a major role in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad in the Caribbean, he grew up in the United States from the age of 11 and became an activist while attending the Bronx High School of Science. He was a key leader in the development of the Black Power movement, first while leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party, and last as a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).
James Morris Lawson Jr. was an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
James Forman was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. As the executive secretary of SNCC from 1961 to 1966, Forman played a significant role in the Freedom Rides, the Albany movement, the Birmingham campaign, and the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Authorship issues concerning Martin Luther King Jr. fall into two general categories: Plagiarism in King's academic research papers and his use of borrowed phrases in speeches.
Robert Parris Moses was an American educator and civil rights activist known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As part of his work with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations, he was the main organizer for the Freedom Summer Project.
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. Under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott, a successful campaign that focused national attention on racial segregation in the South and catapulted King into the national spotlight.
The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups were assisted by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was meant to draw attention to the brutally enforced racial segregation practices in Southwest Georgia. However, many leaders in SNCC were fundamentally opposed to King and the SCLC's involvement. They felt that a more democratic approach aimed at long-term solutions was preferable for the area other than King's tendency towards short-term, authoritatively-run organizing.
Ralph Edlin Luker was an American historian, teacher, and the author of several books about race, religion and the Civil Rights Movement.
Vincent Gordon Harding was an African-American pastor, historian, and scholar of various topics with a focus on American religion and society. A social activist, he was perhaps best known for his work with and writings about Martin Luther King Jr., whom Harding knew personally. Besides having authored numerous books such as There Is A River, Hope and History, and Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero, he served as co-chairperson of the social unity group Veterans of Hope Project and as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. When Harding died on May 19, 2014, his daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, publicly eulogized him on the Veterans of Hope Project website.
The Freedom Singers originated as a quartet formed in 1962 at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. After folk singer Pete Seeger witnessed the power of their congregational-style of singing, which fused black Baptist a cappella church singing with popular music at the time, as well as protest songs and chants. Churches were considered to be safe spaces, acting as a shelter from the racism of the outside world. As a result, churches paved the way for the creation of the freedom song. After witnessing the influence of freedom songs, Seeger suggested The Freedom Singers as a touring group to the SNCC executive secretary James Forman as a way to fuel future campaigns. Intrinsically connected, their performances drew aid and support to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the emerging civil rights movement. As a result, communal song became essential to empowering and educating audiences about civil rights issues and a powerful social weapon of influence in the fight against Jim Crow segregation. Their most notable song “We Shall Not Be Moved” translated from the original Freedom Singers to the second generation of Freedom Singers, and finally to the Freedom Voices, made up of field secretaries from SNCC. "We Shall Not Be Moved" is considered by many to be the "face" of the Civil Rights movement. Rutha Mae Harris, a former freedom singer, speculated that without the music force of broad communal singing, the civil rights movement may not have resonated beyond the struggles of the Jim Crow South. Since the Freedom Singers were so successful, a second group was created called the Freedom Voices.
The Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, or Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, was a 1957 demonstration in Washington, D.C., an early event in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It was the occasion for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Give Us the Ballot speech.
Charles Melvin Sherrod was an American minister and civil rights activist. During the civil rights movement, Sherrod helped found the Albany Movement while serving as field secretary for southwest Georgia for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He also participated in the Selma Voting Rights Movement and in many other campaigns of the civil rights movement of that era.
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