Our speaker meeting began with the presentation of our Diamond Engineering Award of £250 to Georgia D’Ath. Georgia, a former pupil at John Warner School, Hoddesdon, has taken up a place on an engineering apprenticeship.
We had hoped to hear “Remembering Srebrenica” but sadly our speaker couldn’t make it, So President Sarah stepped in and gave us the illustrated talk she was due to give in February – “Free at Last?” on the anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King Jnr. and how much has changed in the southern states over the years since segregation ended. She also looked at the current situation in Alabama, one of the poorest states in the Union and how some of the hangovers of segregation still continue.
Members heard about several key events which occurred in Montgomery, Alabama’s state capital, during the civil rights movement. This was where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, which sparked the bus boycott of 1955, leading to segregation on buses finally being ended. It was where the Freedom riders were attacked at the Greyhound terminal, prompting Robert Kennedy to become involved in the fight to end segregation. It was where Martin Luther King, Jnr, preached. It was where Nat King Cole was born but refused to return to because of the racism he had met with there.
Members discussed some of the segregation issues which occurred in our lifetime, such as the first black actor to receive an Oscar, Hattie Daniels, who played Mammy in “Gone With the Wind” not being allowed to sit with her co-stars at the ceremony, as it was for “whites only”.
We then spent some time discussing whether things have really changed and what the situation in the USA is like now. This was a very thought provoking talk and reminded us all of events which have happened in our lifetimes.
