Award-winning journalist visits campus

Talk links Civil Rights Movement to upcoming Inauguration

By: Elise Phillips

Posted: 1/15/09

Just days before Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, award-winning journalist and author Charles E. Cobb visited campus yesterday with a message to students and staff alike: The Civil Rights Movement ignited the flame for the election of the nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama.

Cobb's visit was sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity as a part of a series of events designed to remember Rev. King, and took place in the Science and Tech building on campus at 6 p.m.

Cobb, a one-time member of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, focused his speech on the parallels between the past and present, citing prominent members of the civil rights movement, many from North Carolina.

"North Carolina has been so important to the Civil Rights struggle," Cobb told the crowd of approximately 200 staff, faculty, students and members of the community. "Though I don't know if North Carolinians know this. There are figures all through North Carolina that have had a major impact on the Civil Rights Movement."

One of those civil rights activists was Littleton, N.C. native Ella Baker, who worked with King, Thurgood Marshall, Diane Nash and W.E.B. du Bois throughout her almost five decades of working toward a more equal United States, whom Cobb mentioned several times in his speech.

Cobb mentioned several parallels between the Civil Rights Movement and the ever-nearing Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20, citing that much of Obama's success can be linked to the movement that Cobb was a part of over four decades ago.

"Barack Obama's political achievement has its roots in that Civil Rights struggle," Cobb said, saying that the influx of young voters and community involvement in last year's election is similar to what was going on during the years when Rev. King "had a dream."

Cobb said that although many people have images of what the movement was like-"a mass movement of protests led by charismatic leaders," were his words-he says that much of the work was done by regular citizens fighting quietly in the nooks and crannies of the American South.

"Ordinary people that were normally spoken for began speaking for themselves," he said.

Cobb says that Obama's use of Facebook and other community organizing tools is a modern-day version of the community involvement that many Southerners took part in during the Civil Rights Movement.

Cobb pointed out that although he might not always agree with Obama legislation, he hopes that the change will come as a result of his presidency, something that the community must ban together to make sure the president-elect is accountable for.

To young people, Cobb says: "Act on your issues. I know from my own experience that at least one of the advantages of being young is being unencumbered to act."

After Cobb's speech, a light reception sponsored by the School of Communication was held, along with a book signing by the author.

Cobb is the senior analyst for allAfrica.com, a Web site that contains news and information about Africa and its countries. Cobb is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and has worked for National Geographic magazine, where he was the first black staff writer, and National Public Radio, where he brought the first regular coverage of Africa to the station.

Cobb will be visiting and speaking to students in several classrooms throughout campus today.

This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.