Emily Green-Cain,
Nashville, TN.
I grew up in the city where James Lawson led teach-ins for non-violence that led to sit-ins throughout the Southeast. No one in my schooling, neither my parents, my church or the local education system taught me anything about these events. I did not know the specifics of what happened here until the series “Eyes on the Prize” did an episode on the Nashville sit-ins in 2006. Is not sharing the pain and difficulties of recent history convenient for the white community who still holds the power to make it invisible? Or is it a willful act to keep their children in the dark about what really happened? Now, the Nashville Public Library has a civil rights room that teaches the historic struggle…I wish it had been there in the 1970’s when I grew up.
