VOA慢速英语2014 Remembering a Civil Rights Hero and His Powerful Protest

 

Remembering a Civil Rights Hero and His Powerful Protest

From VOA Learning English, this is As It Is. I'm Caty Weaver¹.

Today on the show we remember two important Americans, both activists² in the cause of civil rights.

Franklin McCain launched a successful protest in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960. It made popular demonstrations³ called sit-ins. And it was instrumental⁴ in the effort to pass a civil rights law.

Pete Seeger was America's most famous folk musician. But he also was active in civil rights, anti-war and other social-political issues.

Franklin McCain and Pete Seeger, their lives and work: our subject today on As It Is.

Remembering A Civil Rights Hero

Franklin McCain made civil rights history with his friends Joseph McNeil, David Richmond and Jabreel Khazan, who was known then as Ezell Blair Jr. The four men are remembered now as the Greensboro Four. But in 1960, they were students at the North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College. 

On February 1, 1960, the four young men met in front of the school library. They prayed together. Then they walked into town. The night before they had decided⁵ to take action to end racial separation.

At Franklin McCain's suggestion, the students planned to order a meal at the "whites only" restaurant at the local FW Woolworth's store. Most eateries in the southern United States barred African-Americans from eating with whites.

The students knew what they planned was dangerous. They grew up in a time of violent opposition⁶ to the 1954 Supreme⁷ Court decision to end racial separation in public schools. 

The friends promised each other that they would sit at the Woolworth lunch counter even if they were attacked. When they arrived at the store, they bought school supplies. Then, they walked to the eating area and sat down together.

Restaurant workers ordered Franklin McCain and his friends to leave. People in other parts of the store stopped to watch. 

The police came but did not arrest the students that day. The young men sat at the lunch counter until the store closed.

The next day, they returned. The number of student protesters grew each day. They came from both black and white schools. Soon the protesters were holding sit-ins at other restaurants in Greensboro.

The Greensboro protests launched a sit-in movement that spread across the southern United States. Within 10 days, students in 13 states had organized lunch counter sit-ins in 55 cities. 

In the summer of 1960, Woolworth agreed to end separate eating areas in its Greensboro store. Today visitors to Greensboro will find a road named for the day the sit-ins began. February One Street is in the center of town. It leads to Elm Street, where the old Woolworth building is now home to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

Franklin McCain was 19 years old when he launched the sit-in that helped change the South. In the years that followed the Greensboro Sit-in, reporters and researchers often asked McCain if he had been afraid that day. He always answered that he had grown tired of being afraid. He felt angry. He said when he finally sat at the lunch counter he felt very calm and powerful.

The protests and other events led to the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Remembering an Activist-Artist

Pete Seeger, the famous banjo-playing folk singer and songwriter died Monday at the age of 94. Pete Seeger made American folk music popular. He also fought for social change. VOA's Katherine Cole remembers his career.

For many, Pete Seeger will be remembered as America's most famous folk singer. He grew up believing that song has the power to change the world. As a young man in 1938, Pete Seeger left Harvard College in Massachusetts.

In the early-1940s, Seeger formed The Almanac Singers. The singing group was known for recording⁸ songs about labor⁹ rights and against war.

Pete Seeger served in the army during World War II. After the war he formed The Weavers¹⁰. The group soon became one of America's favorite singing groups.

One of the most famous recordings¹¹ by The Weavers is the Hebrew language song "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena." Just five years ago, at 89, Pete Seeger re-recorded the song. The words are sung in Hebrew as well as English and Arabic. And as Pete Seeger describes it, all the parts harmonize well.

Pete Seeger also played an important part in the civil rights movement. He not only attended protests but he helped provide the movement with its anthem¹², "We Shall Overcome." The song was created from an old spiritual called "I'll Overcome Someday."

The words were changed over time and Seeger and other folk singers sang it at protests. Singing "We Shall Overcome" became a tradition at civil rights gatherings¹³ in the 1960s. 

In 1994, then President Bill Clinton awarded the musician with Presidential Medal of the Arts, the nation's highest honor for artists. Two years later Seeger was admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And in 2009, he performed at the Lincoln Memorial in a concert to celebrate the presidency¹⁴ of Barack Obama. 

When he died, Pete Seeger had a list of honors longer than the neck on his beloved banjo. Not bad for a man who said he never meant to make music his career.

"I did not want to be a professional musician. I liked to sing, but I thought the music business was full of hypocrisy¹⁵. I did, though, go sing in the schools and in summer camps. And then some of the kids grew up and went to college. And I, during the ‘frightened ‘50s' when the blacklist was in the popular music business, I just went from college to college to college to college to college to college to college."

I'm Katherine Cole.

And that's As It Is for today. I'm Caty Weaver. Thanks for joining us.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

4 instrumental   

adj.仪器的，器械的，乐器的，起作用的，有帮助的

参考例句：

• It is an instrumental work.这是一部可以用乐器演奏的作品。
• He was instrumental in catching the criminal.在捉拿那个罪犯的过程中，他起了作用。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

7 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 weavers   

织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Navajo are noted as stockbreeders and skilled weavers, potters, and silversmiths. 纳瓦霍人以豢养家禽，技术熟练的纺织者，制陶者和银匠而著名。
• They made out they were weavers. 他们假装是织布工人。

11 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

12 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

13 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

14 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

15 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。