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Labor and Religious Movements
Question One
The film The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today talks about Vashti McCollum, an atheist who aimed to stop religious instructions in schools. Later she was considered as a humanist and served in the American Humanist Association for three years from 1962 to 1965. Organized religion and church meant little to her. Vashti faced several challenges in her campaign, where she tried to protect her son. Vashti describes her encounter as “three years of headlines, headaches, and hatred.” His son was forced to attend an instruction lesson every once a week at the school he studied. She tried to complain to the school, but no action was taken. She then decided to pull him out of the class and sue the board for forcing his son to take the religious classes. After she did that, it was when all hell broke loose since she faced a lot of public opposition from the neighbors who called her awful woman or the newspapers that referred to her as an atheist. In the process, even an attempt was made, which was aimed at outlawing both McCollum and her husband from teaching again at the local university.
The son also faced a lot of abuse and bullying from other kids until his mother was forced to transfer him to a private school. The son recalls a time when he was chased from Dr. Howard’s school to his home by other students. The students managed to take his shoes and had to walk home in the snow. During those times, not going to church was seen as unpatriotic, and therefore the actions were seen as a rebellion, and one was seen as a communist(The Lord Is Not On Trial Today 13.10). The family even received threats from the community; for instance, one time, their cat was abducted, and the next day, it was found hanging from a tree dead. While at school, the son was once made to sit in the hall alone where undisciplined children were asked to stay. After his son came home crying, it was then that she decided that her son would never have to face such challenges again just because he had different religious beliefs and a different standpoint. It was then she decided that she had to file a lawsuit against the school, and this was in the spring of 1945. Since she did not have the funds to file the laws suit on her own, she approached a group that also shared the same beliefs who helped her through the process. After the first attempt, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled against McCollum. However, she did not give up, but she went on to the US supreme court, where she won. She had to take the risk of putting her son at the stand, and at the time he was ten years old and could be charged with perjury.
Question Two
There are many challenges that religious minority groups face when trying to achieve their civil rights, and these can be categorized under political, economic, and social barriers. Some of the political barriers that can be seen to prevent the Vashti and her family from achieving civil rights include the laws that had been enacted that considered being an atheist, a form of political resistance. Most of the people who were atheists were considered communists and therefore were against the political order. The court system managed to humiliate the family and made them look bizarre. (The Lord Is Not On Trial Today 28.53). When his son was put on trial, he was challenged, and he was made to look like a disturbed and rebellious kid who, therefore, should not be listened to or considered. During that time, there was also the Second World War, which became a barrier since most people thought this was a rebellion during such a hard time.
The social barriers include the lack of community support. The better part of the community was against the family, and they were considered outcasts. The hate towards the family was so much to a point where Vashti had to send her son to live with her grandparents since she feared for the life of his son. Another social barrier is that of the group conformity and social norms that were there during that time. Being an atheist at that time was considered to be ethically wrong and was against the social norms that had been put in place. Everyone had to behave in a way that made them fit in the community, and therefore, by declaring that one did not believe in God made one an outcast. People would then suppress the views and intimidate them, making it hard for religious groups to express their opinions freely. The economic barriers include the finances required to hire the right lawyers to take the case.
Question Three
Cesar Chavez was the founder and leader of the United Farm Workers and fought for farmers from California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida since they were being exploited. He wanted better pay and working conditions for the farmers. He resigned to form a well-paying and steady job to start the organization. To meet the day to day needs of his family, he had to work on the farms like the other workers, and during the rest of the time, he would go around asking the farmers to join his organization. (Cesar 1.23). He faced challenges such as racism where he was a Latino living in America, and therefore he was discriminated against due to his race. He was also challenged by poverty since he was born in a small adobe house, and his family worked in California, where they worked as migrant workers and paid minimal wages.
He, therefore, suffered the exploitation of workers first hand, which included poor wages and poor working conditions that the immigrant workers were being subjected to. Some of the poor working conditions include the fact that the crops were being sprayed pesticides while they were still working, and this was dangerous to their health. In the farms where they worked, there were no bathrooms; therefore, they were subjected to poor living conditions. During his revolution, he walked 340 miles, protesting the exploitation of immigrant workers.
Some of the economic barriers include the fact that the revolution was during the great depression. It would have been hard for the farmers’ wages to be increased, especially because of the hard economic times. The social barriers include racism, where he was a Latino and was discriminated against since he was the minority group and fought for the immigrant workers. Poverty was also a barrier in that when he worked on the farm, he was paid low wages, one that could barely meet his needs, let alone financing the revolution. The dangerous working conditions he was exposed to also led to the fight since he considered the conditions inhuman and dangerous to the immigrant workers. The low wages that the workers were paid in addition contributed to the revolution since compared to the work they did, they were paid too little. The political barriers include the high levels of corruption in the country at the time.
Question Four
The struggles identified in the videos are both civil rights movements and individualized struggles. In the case of Vashti, she led the cause due to the discrimination that her son faced at school after refusing to take the religious classes. Her struggle was mainly motivated by personal motive, and later it became a civil right movement after suing the school board. It was mainly the son who was affected by the revolution and the family and not a group of people. Therefore the family is the only one who seems to be affected by the situation since they faced a lot of opposition from the community. The son, for instance, was bullied at school and sent letters that had threats to their home. All the heat was focused on the family even by the media who tainted their family and described them as atheists. In court, for instance, the defenders posed the son as a child who did not fit in and had issues when he was being brought up to prove that their quest for civil rights was not reasonable.
On the other hand, the struggles of Cesar can be identified as civil rights movements since he fought for the rights of a group of people who were the immigrant workers. The rights included the right to good working conditions and better pay for the workers in the agricultural farms. The problems affected a group of people who were the minority, and therefore it did not only affect Cesar. The legal battles are represented, for instance, when Vashti goes to court against the board of directors of the son’s school. The case is firs taken to a court where she loses after it is presented before the Supreme Court and won. The political battles are similar to the other videos relating to race, sex, and sexual orientation in that they all fight for the recognition of diverse groups of people. They are aimed at passing laws that protect people from discrimination and exploitation due to their different views.
The legal and political battles are a result of the oppression of a group of people and hence the need to rise and fight for their rights. For instance, political battles for race concern the discrimination of certain races, and the same case applies to political battles concerning the immigrant workers who were being oppressed (Sanders 2.14). The political battles are different in that the laws were passed, and there are fewer cases on the matters represented in the videos as opposed to the struggles represented in the first three movements. Some of the propositions were not made to the law, and therefore they are still being debated, and for some, they were done away with.
Works Cited
Chavez, C. (2020, May 07). Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist Video. Retrieved June 02, 2020, from https://cet.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/americon-vid-cesar-chavez/video/
Sanders, B. Bernie Sanders Explains Unions to Young People – YouTube. Retrieved June 2, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7YT7sAZbY
The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today – Top Documentary Films. (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2020, from https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/lord-trial-here-today/