MLK Day: My introduction to politics

This Substack newsletter from Blue Ear Books features occasional articles from authors of the books we publish. This newsletter is free, but consider supporting our work with a paid subscription at just $50 per year or $5 per month.

Note: The short piece below is adapted from Eugene Smith’s memoir Back to the World: A Life after Jonestown, published in 2021 by TCU Press. I was Eugene’s collaborator. 70 percent of the people who died in the mass murder-suicide of Peoples Temple members at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 were Black, including Eugene’s wife, mother, and infant son. Back to the World can be purchased directly from the publisher here or via Amazon here. - Ethan Casey, Publisher, Blue Ear Books

When I got into ninth grade, I felt that Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a holiday, so I organized a march. I said, “We’re leaving at lunch. If you don’t leave at lunch, I’m gonna come into class and drag you out.” This was January 1972. I told them that if they didn’t walk out of class, we were going to kick their asses the next day. When lunchtime came, it’s like, “Come on, let’s go.” We all walked off the school grounds and down to the bus stop and caught the bus downtown to Fresno Mall. We didn’t know what to do. We just knew that we had to leave school. We went to Perry Boys Smorgy. I think it was like a dollar ninety-nine for all you can eat. So we go to Perry Boys Smorgy and we eat up. We go home at the regular time. Didn’t tell our parents.

Next day we go to school, and the truant officer is there, Mr. Finley. He says, “I’ll let you guys get away with this. I could’ve arrested all of you.” And we snickered. Mr. Finley was Black, and everybody hated him because whenever you skipped school he was the guy that would pick you up and take you to your parents and make sure they beat you. He said, “I didn’t want to do it, but don’t do it again.” Then we’re all let out of the library to go back to class. That was my introduction to politics, and understanding that when you take a stand, other people take a stand too, and their stand most likely is going to be against what you’re standing for.

I watched the news growing up, but in terms of political conversations that my mom and Mr. Gibson would have, it wasn’t that I wasn’t allowed to be part of them, I just wasn’t. It wasn’t discussed at dinner. It was discussed after dinner, when I’d be doing my homework or playing with the dog or the cat or whatever, and they would get into political discussions. So I wasn’t politicized. I didn’t become politicized until I was fourteen years old. At fourteen I’m starting to see all these different riots throughout the country, and the Vietnam War. And then I organized that walkout, because I thought Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a holiday.

In the picture for my ninth-grade graduation from Hamilton Junior High that year, 1972, I’m in the fifth row up, with my arms crossed and the two fingers like Wakanda on my shoulders, and my middle fingers. The first two hundred copies that came out showed my fingers. When I looked at it later in high school, they had fizzed it out or something. I laughed at that.

Back to the World can be purchased directly from the publisher here or via Amazon here.

This Substack newsletter from Blue Ear Books features occasional articles from authors of the books we publish. This newsletter is free, but consider supporting our work with a paid subscription at just $50 per year or $5 per month.