Portside

Reader Comments: Passing the Torch; Calling All Students Going Off to College -- Get Your Absentee Ballots Now; Bernice Johnson Reagon; Ending Taxes On Tips; Record Breaking Corporate Profits - Not Inflation; March To End Climate Destruction-July 27

It is impossible to separate liberation struggles from song. And in the 1960s — at marches, and in jailhouses — the voice leading those songs was often Bernice Johnson Reagon. She died Tuesday at the age of 81.

"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard." [March 14, 1968]

"Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens," Ella Baker(1964). Responses to trial of George Zimmerman; NAACP petition has over one million signers; "Justice for Trayvon" vigils in 100 cities; Stevie Wonder won't play in Stand Your Ground states; Bruce Springsteen dedicates song to Trayvon; Portside readers responses