Mario Marcel Salas

Last updated

Mario Marcel Salas (born July 30, 1949 in San Antonio, Texas) is a civil rights leader for over 30 years, and an author and politician. His parents were an Afro-Mexican father and a mixed race mother.[ citation needed ] He graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School, an African American segregated school, which like many black schools across the country remained segregated long after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. [1]

Contents

Early and personal life

Soon after high school, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He entered San Antonio College and graduated with two associate degrees, in Applied Science-Engineering Technology and Liberal Arts.[ citation needed ] He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in 1987. He received two graduate degrees. one in Education and the other in Political Science. He is a retired Assistant Professor of Political Science, having taught Texas Politics, Federal Politics, Political History, the Politics of Mexico, African American Studies, Civil Rights, and International Conflicts. He is a current lecturer at UTSA. He also served as a City Councilman for the City of San Antonio, and was very active in the Civil Rights Movement for many years. He is also a life time member of the San Antonio NAACP. He has authored several textbooks including, Foundation Myth in Political Thought: The Racial Moorings of Foundation Myth. Professor Salas helped to develop the first economic relationship with an African country for the City of San Antonio with Mafeking, South Africa. He championed the establishment of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Texas state holiday and served as Vice-President for the Judson Independent School Board of Trustees. He is the President of San Antonio Community Radio (KROV) and is active in San Antonio Politics. He is a 300-Year Tricentennial Commissioner for the City of San Antonio and a member of the Bexar County Historical Commission. He is married to Edwina Lacy Salas and has two children, Angela and Elena and 3 grandchildren. He is considered an expert in the history of African Americans in San Antonio [ by whom? ].


He married Edwina Lacy, of Chicago, Illinois, on July 9, 1988. They had two children, Elena Patrice and Angela Christine. [2]

Career

Salas organized most of the Black student unions on San Antonio college campuses in 1969, and was co-founder of the Barbara Jordan Community Center in San Antonio. Along with former SNCC member Rick Greene and former Speaker of the Texas House Gib Lewis, he negotiated the Martin Luther King Jr. state holiday. [3]

Salas writes for several African American newspapers, and was the chief negotiator for the first cable television franchise in San Antonio. [4]

Salas was involved in the liberation of Grenada as a supporter of the movement against Grenadian prime minister Eric Gairy in 1979. Salas has been critical of the Iraq War and has formulated a concept he calls the colonial matrix. In this theory, Salas says that Foundation Myth is what every American is raised up with and consists of half-truths, omissions, lies distortions and erasures of how the United States was formed. Racial myths are at the core of American education and serve as a mechanism to control the thought processes from birth to death, seeking to present a false narrative in history, culture, and the belief systems of individuals. He cites several examples, one being the Battle of the Alamo. In supporting Dr. Phillip Tucker's[ clarification needed ] research, Salas argues that the Battle lasted only about 20 minutes and most of the Alamo defenders ran and were killed outside of the walls. Hence, the Alamo story is basically white racialized fiction. [5] Under this theory, Salas claims that the racist colonial structures that were in place when America was settled are still operating in a "morphed form."

In addition to teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio, as of 2017 he has been writing for the San Antonio Observer [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil rights movement</span> 1954–1968 U.S. nonviolent social movement

The civil rights movement was a nonviolent 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</span> Largest student-led civil rights organization during the American Civil Rights Movement

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress of Racial Equality</span> Civil rights organization in the United States

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about equality for all people regardless of race, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or ethnic background."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stokely Carmichael</span> African American activist (1941–1998)

Kwame Ture was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, 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 (BPP), and last as a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom Summer</span> 1964 voter registration campaign in the U.S. state of Mississippi

Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. Blacks had been restricted from voting since the turn of the century due to barriers to voter registration and other laws. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools, Freedom Houses, and community centers such as libraries, in small towns throughout Mississippi to aid the local Black population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Christian Leadership Conference</span> African-American civil rights organization

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March Against Fear</span> 1966 demonstration in the US Civil Rights Movement

The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi via the Mississippi Delta, starting at Memphis's Peabody Hotel and proceeding to the Mississippi state line, then continuing through, respectively, the Mississippi cities of Hernando, Grenada, Greenwood, Indianola, Belzoni, Yazoo City, and Canton before arriving at Jackson's City Hall. The total distance marched was approximately 270 miles over a period of 21 days. The goal was to counter the continuing racism in the Mississippi Delta after passage of federal civil rights legislation in the previous two years and to encourage African Americans in the state to register to vote. He invited only individual black men to join him and did not want it to be a large media event dominated by major civil rights organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Forman</span> American civil rights leader

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Six (activists)</span> Group of six civil rights leaders in 1963 in the US

The Big Six—Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young—were the leaders of six prominent civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Claude William Black Jr. was an American Baptist minister and political figure. Black was born in San Antonio, Texas, which was segregated at the time. Black's parents are Claude Sr., who served as the Vice President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Cora Black, who was a housewife.

Gloria Richardson Dandridge was an American civil rights activist best known as the leader of the Cambridge movement, a civil rights action in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Recognized as a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement, she was one of the signatories to "The Treaty of Cambridge", signed in July 1963 with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and state and local officials. It was an effort at reconciliation and commitment to change after a riot the month before.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of slavery in Texas</span> Aspect of history

The history of slavery in Texas began slowly at first during the first few phases in Texas' history. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. The use of slavery expanded in the mid-nineteenth century as White American settlers, primarily from the Southeastern United States, crossed the Sabine River and brought enslaved people with them. Slavery was present in Spanish America and Mexico prior to the arrival of American settlers, but it was not highly developed, and the Spanish did not rely on it for labor during their years in Spanish Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clayborne Carson</span> American historian (born 1944)

Clayborne Carson is an American academic who is 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Lafayette</span> American civil rights activist

Bernard Lafayette, Jr. is an American civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma Voting Rights Movement; was a member of the Nashville Student Movement; and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Friends Service Committee.

Prathia Laura Ann Hall Wynn was an American leader and activist in the Civil Rights Movement, a womanist theologian, and ethicist. She was the key inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sherrod</span> American civil rights activist (1937–2022)

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.

This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.

McCree L. Harris was an American educator and political activist leader. Harris worked at the all-Black Monroe Comprehensive High School, where she taught Latin, French, and Social Studies. She is best known for her participation with the Freedom Singers and for encouraging her students' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through voter registration marches and by leading groups of students to downtown Albany, Georgia, after school hours to test desegregation rulings at local stores and movie theaters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of African Americans in San Antonio</span> Aspect of history

The African American population in San Antonio, Texas has been a significant part of the city's community since its founding. African Americans have been a part of the Greater San Antonio's history since the late 1800s. San Antonio ranks as the top Texas destination city for Black professionals.

References

  1. ↑ Guide to the Mario Marcel Salas Papers at the University of Texas at San Antonio Archives
  2. ↑ An African American Writer, Civil Rights Warrior, It's About Time - Black Panther Party Legacy & Alumni
  3. ↑ Mario Marcel Salas, Patterns of persistence : paternal colonialist structures and the radical opposition in the African American community of San Antonio, Texas 1937-2001, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2004. OCLC   56776850
  4. ↑ Mario Salas, Historical effort to address Black radio Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine , African-American News and Issues , July 18–24, 2007
  5. ↑ Mario Salas, FBI Spied on Civil Rights Leaders Archived 2008-02-02 at the Wayback Machine , African-American News and Issues
  6. ↑ "Mario Salas using own history to reach young people – saobserver".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.