“Freedom on My Mind” is a film that chronicles the compelling and complex history of 1961 to 1964 regarding the struggles of black people in registering as voters. In 1961, the blacks were treated in a very inhumane way; they were not allowed to vote in the country, and voting could lead to a hefty punishment. Voters Registration Project was begun when a young man called Moses went to Mississippi. Herbert Lee, a farmer and the first person to accompany Moses to register at the courthouse, died later after being shot by the state legislator. The maids and sharecroppers were treated cruelly simply because they could not vote. Because of being barred from voting, the black organizers formed their party called Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and recruited other white students. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, with the help of the students, then brought together a group of people including domestic workers and farm laborers to challenge the white delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 (“Freedom on My Mind”).
The above film depicts racism as the main problem that affected most of the societies in the large nations in the past, including in Mississippi. In all its horrific forms, racism was transmitted to generations, and was manifested in institutional norms, practices, cultural values, and individual behaviors (“Freedom on My Mind”). Racism served to rationalize the dominion of one ethnic or racial group over the other groups. It encouraged the domination of material, and social advantages for the dominant group. Both passive acceptance and active racism disrupted the psychological functioning of both perpetrators and victims of racial injustice. As a result, there were many causes of racism in the society.
Feelings of unworthiness, lack of self-love and the desire to be superior were some of the examples of the causes of racism. The racist individuals tended to lack self-esteem and self-love. On the other hand, the racists would throw the feeling of superiority to other people who were seen as vulnerable and weak. When a person appreciates and loves himself or herself, it becomes very easy for him or her to love and understand the other person as well. However, the reverse was true. The feeling of a person seeing himself or herself as a failure forces him to look for a scapegoat to make himself better as the others.
The second example that caused racism was the fear of displacement and loss. Humans fear to loose what makes them who they are; it can be status, job, territory, possession and even their own identity. The fear of being replaced by those seen as the desirable and the more appealing imposes fear on humans, and this causes them to see the other person as a threat to his or her rights.
All these factors are examples that caused the racists to treat the other people in a very inhumane way; as a result, the minorities were deprived the right to vote, and others were killed by the racists. This led those who had the courage to rise and start fighting for the discriminated.
Martin Luther King is an example of the courageous men who rose to fight for the African Americans that were being discriminated. The doctrine of the white supremacy was introduced and maintained in America. King believed that it would take many years for the concept of sovereignty to cease and become a judgmental factor. He also noted that eradicating racism, to a large extent, depended on the moral resolve and the will of the white community.
Whites in the rest of the world and the United States had to take unearned privilege and racism seriously, cease minimizing it, stop the pretext of its non-existent or treating it like it is not serious than other social problems (Burrow and Tunstall 146). Failure in this regard, Martin King believed that the Western civilization would be destroyed. He always insisted that the White needed to confess their racism and takes steps for its eradication.
King had an understanding of the power of the spoken words and his audience. He knew it was difficult to communicate to every audience in the same way and, therefore, used to tailor his language whenever communicating with them. To preach protest to the church people, he could use relevant scriptures. To an audience that is highly learned, he preached protest by engagement of philosophical and historical discourses.
King's attempt to eradicate racism was faced with many challenges because he was a charismatic leader. For instance, the FBI tried to blackmail him because they took him as a threat to the status quo. They threatened to reveal King's extramarital affairs, but King did not yield their attempts in damaging his credibility. Many states governments were also hostile to civil rights movement. However, this did not stop him; he even launched the first civil rights campaign in Montogomy, Alabama in the year 1965 where he emphasized the necessity of equality. However, despite all his effort to end racism, he was assassinated in Mephis, Tennessee while on a trip to fight for the rights of the black sanitary workers. His death led to riots and panic across the country, but this did not cease the civil rights movement from fighting for African American for equality.
Conclusively, as evidenced in the film “Freedom on My Mind,” getting the right to vote was a struggle. African American leaders had to stand up for the rights of the minority groups, and Martin Luther King was one of those leaders. However, sentiments of racism did not die down immediately. For his struggle, King paid with his life after he was assassinated while on a trip. However, the civil rights movement would not have made significant gains without this courageous black leader.
Works Cited
Burrow, Rufus, and Dwayne A. Tunstall. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Theology of Resistance. 2015. Internet resource.
Freedom on My Mind. Connie Field, Marilyn Mulford, 1994. film.
