On a chilly Tuesday morning, students lined up to get a seat inside the Temple of Deliverance Church. Glad to have a few hours away from school, the teens waited to see this year's recipients of the Freedom Awards - Al Gore, Jr, B.B. King, and Diane Nash.
Many were born during the years that Gore, the recipient of the International Freedom Award, served as vice president of the United States. Living in Memphis, they had definitely, at some point, heard the music of the blues boy, B.B. King, this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. But as for the recipient of the 2008 National Freedom Award, many of the teens had never heard of Diane Nash, nor did they realize how she had impacted their lives. But, after watching a brief film of Nash's historic role during the civil rights movement, the students immediately rose to their feet, giving Nash a standing ovation as she took the stage, prepared to inspire a new generation to take action against social injustice.
"In a few years, this country will be in your hands," said Nash. "It will be what you make it or don't make it. I hope you trust yourselves to make the right choices and do what you know you need to do."
While the students didn't know who Nash was, Gore, who grew up right outside of Nashville, definitely did, saying it was "an incredible privilege to be mentioned in the same sentence as Diane Nash," as he began his speech.
"The turning point of the civil rights movement in Nashville was when a young Diane Nash confronted the mayor of Nashville," said the Tennessee resident.
Nash, on the steps of the city hall, asked the mayor of Nashville "Do you think it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color?"
The confrontation, Gore said, forced the mayor to admit that discrimination was wrong. Within a few weeks, several lunch counters around Nashville had become desegregated.
A native of Chicago, Nash had moved to Nashville to attend Fisk University. Once there, she helped to organize one of the most important organizations in the civil rights movement in America during the 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC organized college and high school students, both black and white, to participate in protesting nonviolently against desegregation. Students participated in sit-ins that led to the desegregating of several lunch counters in the Nashville area, thus shifting the movement to include the mobilization of students. The following year, Nash took over the responsibilities for the Freedom Rides which traveled from Birmingham, Ala., to Jackson, Miss.
Although the organizations used nonviolent tactics, many protesters, including Nash, were often arrested. While she was four months pregnant, Nash was sentenced to two years in prison for teaching nonviolent tactics to children in Jackson, Miss., but served a shorter sentence due to an appeal.
Nash, along with civil rights activist John Lewis, encouraged those protesters who were arrested not to pay bail, on principle. Representing her fellow protesters before a judge, Nash said by paying the fines, they would be contributing to and supporting the injustices and immoral practices that led to their arrests.
Nash, who insists she was in the right place at the right time, became a leading figure in the civil rights movement. President John F. Kennedy appointed Nash to a national committee which helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Addressing the packed crowd, Nash said even though there were times when members of the movement knew the chances were very good that they could be attacked, injured and even killed, they knew they couldn't give up. She said they comforted each other by remembering that what they were doing was important and they were protesting for generations to come.
"We did not know you, but we loved you," Nash said. "Generations in the future are going to depend on you to do the same thing."
The Public Forum, which is free to the general public, is hosted annually by the National Civil Rights Museum as a way to honor those who have made positive changes in civil rights. This year's theme was "A Climate of Change."
