Civil rights activist Cornel West discusses black freedom movement at TCNJ

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Cornel West, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, spoke today at the College of New Jersey in celebration of Black History Month.

(Cristina Rojas/The Times)

EWING — Cornel West, a civil rights activist and professor emeritus at Princeton University, said at a lecture celebrating Black History Month that one of the greatest lessons learned from the black freedom struggle of the 1960s is the courage to think critically, love and hope.

A political commentator, author and spoken-word artist, West left Princeton in 2011 after his third stint teaching there and is now a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

He told an audience at The College of New Jersey today to learn from the experiences of those in the black freedom movement and embark on their own quest for truth and social justice.

The movement, he said, was about unarmed truth and unconditional love, taking a line from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in 1964.

“The black freedom movement has never been a movement solely about black people,” he said. “It’s about raising these questions about what it means to be human, questions of truth and questions of love, knowing, of course, that justice is what love looks like in public.”

Blacks did not respond to 400 years of slavery and the Jim Crow-era segregation by creating a black al Qaeda, he said, but instead responded with courage and compassion.

“The voices of black freedom said, ‘We’d rather be defeated momentarily with our integrity, honesty, decency and virtue ... than be gangsters like those who gangsterized us,’” he said.

West said those who say Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela were great men because they forgave white people are missing the point. They were great men, he said, because they loved people and allowed that love to spill over in such a way that led to forgiveness.

“They weren’t sitting in that jail saying, ‘I can’t wait to forgive my vanilla brothers and sisters,’” he said. “They said, ‘I’m here because I’m willing to sacrifice, I’m here because I have a calling, I’m here because I’m raising my voice.’”

Today, he said, people need to empathize with the suffering of others and raise their voices. Unlike their elders, young people nowadays are more concerned with celebrity, position and money, West said.

“Thank God the black freedom movement never had that peacock obsession,” he said. “We had our problems and challenges, but the aim was not to be a peacock center stage but to be an eagle. ... An eagle flies with dignity but also keeps track of what’s on the ground.”

People in the movement, he added, were not obsessed with breaking glass ceilings, but with lifting up others who were less fortunate than them.

West, referencing the black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice,” urged the audience to be themselves and speak up for themselves.

“It doesn’t say lift every echo,” he said. “Your voice is like your fingerprint. You have a distinctive voice. ... You’ll never be able to lift your voice if you don’t straighten up your back and ask questions about yourself and society.”

He said people should look to the movement for examples of people who rose above their circumstances and lived a life full of integrity, honesty, decency and virtue.

“Keep the compassion, keep the critical intelligence and imagination and keep your vision, and lo and behold, you might be able to touch somebody so that they’re willing to think critically, love courageously, organize and mobilize and maybe make the world just a little bit better than they found it,” he said.

Contact Cristina Rojas at (609) 989-5688 or crojas@njtimes.com.

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