Posted: Fri 04 May 2007 12:51 Post subject: Albert Einstein, Civil Rights activist
Quote:
Albert Einstein, Civil Rights activist
Little-known aspect of physicist’s life revealed
By Ken Gewertz
Harvard News Office
4/12/07
Einstein’s response to the racism and segregation he found in Princeton was to cultivate relationships in the town’s African-American community. Jerome and Taylor interviewed members of that community who still remember the white-haired, disheveled figure of Einstein strolling through their streets, stopping to chat with the inhabitants, and handing out candy to local children.
Here’s something you probably don’t know about Albert Einstein.
In 1946, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist traveled to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the alma mater of Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall and the first school in America to grant college degrees to blacks. At Lincoln, Einstein gave a speech in which he called racism “a disease of white people,” and added, “I do not intend to be quiet about it.” He also received an honorary degree and gave a lecture on relativity to Lincoln students.
The reason Einstein’s visit to Lincoln is not better known is that it was virtually ignored by the mainstream press, which regularly covered Einstein’s speeches and activities. (Only the black press gave extensive coverage to the event.) Nor is there mention of the Lincoln visit in any of the major Einstein biographies or archives.
In fact, many significant details are missing from the numerous studies of Einstein’s life and work, most of them having to do with Einstein’s opposition to racism and his relationships with African Americans.
That these omissions need to be recognized and corrected is the contention of Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor, authors of “Einstein on Race and Racism” (Rutgers University Press, 2006). Jerome and Taylor spoke April 3 at an event sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. The event also featured remarks by Sylvester James Gates Jr., the John S. Toll Professor of Physics, University of Maryland.
According to Jerome and Taylor, Einstein’s statements at Lincoln were by no means an isolated case. Einstein, who was Jewish, was sensitized to racism by the years of Nazi-inspired threats and harassment he suffered during his tenure at the University of Berlin. Einstein was in the United States when the Nazis came to power in 1933, and, fearful that a return to Germany would place him in mortal danger, he decided to stay, accepting a position at the recently founded Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He became an American citizen in 1940.
But while Einstein may have been grateful to have found a safe haven, his gratitude did not prevent him from criticizing the ethical shortcomings of his new home.
“Einstein realized that African Americans in Princeton were treated like Jews in Germany,” said Taylor. “The town was strictly segregated. There was no high school that blacks could go to until the 1940s.”
Einstein’s response to the racism and segregation he found in Princeton (Paul Robeson, who was born in Princeton, called it “the northernmost town in the South”) was to cultivate relationships in the town’s African-American community. Jerome and Taylor interviewed members of that community who still remember the white-haired, disheveled figure of Einstein strolling through their streets, stopping to chat with the inhabitants, and handing out candy to local children.
One woman remembered that Einstein paid the college tuition of a young man from the community. Another said that he invited Marian Anderson to stay at his home when the singer was refused a room at the Nassau Inn.
Einstein met Paul Robeson when the famous singer and actor came to perform at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre in 1935. The two found they had much in common. Both were concerned about the rise of fascism, and both gave their support to efforts to defend the democratically elected government of Spain against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. Einstein and Robeson also worked together on the American Crusade to End Lynching, in response to an upsurge in racial murders as black soldiers returned home in the aftermath of World War II.
The 20-year friendship between Einstein and Robeson is another story that has not been told, Jerome said, but that omission may soon be rectified. A movie is in the works about the relationship, with Danny Glover slated to play Robeson and Ben Kingsley as Einstein.
Einstein continued to support progressive causes through the 1950s, when the pressure of anti-Communist witch hunts made it dangerous to do so. Another example of Einstein using his prestige to help a prominent African American occurred in 1951, when the 83-year-old W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP, was indicted by the federal government for failing to register as a “foreign agent” as a consequence of circulating the pro-Soviet Stockholm Peace Petition. Einstein offered to appear as a character witness for Du Bois, which convinced the judge to drop the case.
Gates, an African-American physicist who has appeared on the PBS show Nova, said that Einstein had been a hero of his since he learned about the theory of relativity as a teenager, but that he was unaware of Einstein’s ideas on civil rights until fairly recently.
Einstein’s approach to problems in physics was to begin by asking very simple, almost childlike questions, such as, “What would the world look like if I could drive along a beam of light?” Gates said.
“He must have developed his ideas about race through a similar process. He was capable of asking the question, ‘What would my life be like if I were black?’”
Gates said that thinking about Einstein’s involvement with civil rights has prompted him to speculate on the value of affirmative action and the goal of diversity it seeks to bring about. There are many instances in which the presence of strength and resilience in a system can be attributed to diversity.
“In the natural world, for example, when a population is under the influence of a stressful environment, diversity ensures its survival,” Gates said.
On a cultural level, the global influence of American popular music might be attributed to the fact that it is an amalgam of musical traditions from Europe and Africa.
These examples have led him to conclude that “diversity actually matters, independent of the moral argument.” Gates said he believes “there is a science of diversity out there waiting for scholars to discover it.”
Joined: 20 Oct 2006 {Posts: 283 } Location: Akron, Ohio
Posted: Fri 04 May 2007 20:08 Post subject:
Very good read.
As newscaster Paul Harvey is fond of saying ''...and now the rest of the story.'' He also refers to ''page two'' as another way of getting at the story.
In an unrelated but meaningful way, when all else fails read the instructions.
Joined: 29 Aug 2006 {Posts: 24 } Location: Germany
Posted: Fri 11 May 2007 15:02 Post subject: Albert Einstein, Civil Rights activist
The story of German-Jewish refugee immigrants befriending blacks is one of those major unreported stories of all time. At my former university about 15 years ago, there was a symposium on Jews in the South and some of these former refugees spoke on the topic. They essentially said that they had not fled the discrimination of Hitler's Germany to then become the oppressor. The segregation that they observed was so similar to that which they had experienced that it was shocking.
Many of these refugees became teachers at all-black high schools and colleges throughout the south. My Grandmother's 1943 high school yearbook records several teachers with Germanic/Jewish-sounding names and white phenotypes. Given that several students also shared similar phenotypes I often thought that these people belonged to the larger black/mulatto community. However, upon re-examination, I realised that these must have been refugees.
A perusal of my parent's college yearbooks also reveals several refugees among the 1960's staff of Southern historically Black colleges. One of my father's best friends was an outstandingly kind German-Jewish refugee who was his physics professor. They maintained such a wonderful relationship until the latter's death. He was married to a Black woman in his later years and lived in a Southern Jewish neighborhood.
Posted: Fri 11 May 2007 15:24 Post subject: Re: Albert Einstein, Civil Rights activist
Frechesmaedl wrote:
The story of German-Jewish refugee immigrants befriending blacks is one of those major unreported stories of all time. At my former university about 15 years ago, there was a symposium on Jews in the South and some of these former refugees spoke on the topic. They essentially said that they had not fled the discrimination of Hitler's Germany to then become the oppressor. The segregation that they observed was so similar to that which they had experienced that it was shocking.
Many of these refugees became teachers at all-black high schools and colleges throughout the south. My Grandmother's 1943 high school yearbook records several teachers with Germanic/Jewish-sounding names and white phenotypes. Given that several students also shared similar phenotypes I often thought that these people belonged to the larger black/mulatto community. However, upon re-examination, I realised that these must have been refugees.
A perusal of my parent's college yearbooks also reveals several refugees among the 1960's staff of Southern historically Black colleges. One of my father's best friends was an outstandingly kind German-Jewish refugee who was his physics professor. They maintained such a wonderful relationship until the latter's death. He was married to a Black woman in his later years and lived in a Southern Jewish neighborhood.
I saw a documentary on this phenomenon a couple of years ago. I can't remember the name of it! I think that it was on HBO.
While it didn't surprise me to hear that Einstein was not a racist (he was too intelligent, empathetic and independent-minded to succumb IMO) I am happy to see that this important aspect of one of the greatest humans ever to draw breath is being communicated. I'm looking forward to the film.
'
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