Week 10:Civil Rights

Voices: Hermina Hendricks, Professor of Music
Seminar: Triangle: the Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle
Images: Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed

Professor Hendricks spoke to us about growing up in Civil Rights era Lynchburg: what it felt like to live under segregation and how the Civil Rights Movement came to Lynchburg.

Triangle: the Fire that Changed America, provides a detailed account of the blaze at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 which is set in the context of the Labor Reform Movement in the United States. Von Drehle says the deaths of almost 150 workers, mostly poor immigrant women, eventually led to improvements in the lives of millions of working people.

Mumbo Jumbo was written in 1972 but takes place in 1920’s New York City. The book reflects on the Harlem Renaissance – a period of African-American cultural movement that is part of the larger Civil Rights struggle.