June 25, 2014

UN human rights expert at BCRI seeks the oral histories of those who tolerated or even approved Birmingham segregation.

In the 20 years Tammi Sharpe has worked with people who have suffered horrific human rights violations, she’s learned a thing or two about moving forward. She’s convinced that in order to do that, you first have to understand the past. She’s also a firm believer that you can’t truly understand the past until you’ve looked at if from all perspectives.

That’s why Sharpe, a Human Rights Fellow with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, believes her next project is a crucial one.  She wants to interview members of Birmingham’s white community who passively or actively opposed integration and the Civil Rights Movement.

“I appreciate it’s a sensitive topic and it will not be easy for people to come forward and talk about it openly and honestly,” she said, “but I think it will be invaluable for the future.”

The interviews will be added to BCRI’s Oral History Project, a collection of more than 500 recorded interviews with foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement.  The project was launched in 1994 and includes the recollections of such leaders as Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and lesser-known activists, both black and white. What’s missing, Sharpe said, is the voice of the white witness.

“I think that bystander element is very important,” she said. “Some of them may have been uncomfortable with segregation but didn’t speak out. Others may not have been comfortable with the idea of integration and had the concerns and fears that come about with changes in society. We’ve seen that there’s not a lot on trying to understand the perspective and views of the white community.”

That’s what brought Sharpe to Birmingham. On sabbatical from the United Nations, where most of her work has been with the High Commissioner on Refugees, she first came to the Civil Rights Institute in November 2012 as an advisor on human rights issues, with the aim of examining peace-building lessons from the history of slavery and segregation. After six months, she started a fellowship with the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability at Columbia University.

This next phase of the Oral History Project, “Reconciling with the Past – A Legacy of Segregation,” will be conducted in partnership with the two agencies. After being sent on a four-month emergency mission in the Central African Republic, Sharpe returned to Birmingham earlier this month to begin the project, and she hopes to finish the interviews by September.

Sharpe’s interest is twofold.  Her work with the UN has been dedicated to humanitarian issues and peace-building efforts, and she has served in a number of countries, including Angola, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Before joining the UN, she worked on immigration policy in Washington, DC, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.

She also comes to the project as a native of the eastern shores of Maryland.  Her family lives within miles of where Harriet Tubman, one of the most prominent conductors of the Underground Railroad, was born and later helped slaves escape to freedom.

“Slavery was definitely a gross human rights violation,” Sharpe said. “Segregation was equally a gross human rights violation.”

The question, Sharpe said, is what we learned from it. “What did we do right? What did we do wrong? How did we go from slavery to segregation? Where are we now? How have we reconciled with that past?  How have we not reconciled with that past? I ask those questions at home to get a little understanding,” she said.

“To understand that history, we have to understand both sides,” she added. “It can’t be just a simplistic understanding, you’ve got to really understand it.  Otherwise, I don’t think you can achieve sustainable peace.”

The desire to get reflection from the white community isn’t a new one, Sharpe said. “I think it’s always been there, but the time has not always been right,” she said. “It is sensitive. In some ways, you’re asking people to come out and say, ‘I was on the wrong side of history,’ and that isn’t easy.”

After witnessing last year’s events commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Sharpe said she believes the time has come. She said she was particularly impressed with the dialogue that took place after the week remembering the anniversary of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the letter Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote during his incarceration in 1963.

“I got the impression that there was quite a bit of honest reflection that took place, and we want to build on that,” Sharpe said.

In addition, time is of the essence, she said, because the witnesses to segregation and the movement to integrate are aging. “There’s still an opportunity here, with regard to segregation and the Civil Rights Movement and what happened in the 1950s and 1960s, but it won’t be here much longer,” she said.

Participants in the project will be asked to reflect on their lives in Birmingham before, during and after the Civil Rights Movement, Sharpe said. They might discuss their thoughts about the Movement, their remembrances of key moments when they encountered racial issues, and how positive and negative interactions with the African-American community may have shaped their views.

All views will be welcome, Sharpe said, including those of people who look back on the events in Birmingham and still feel no regret. “If you want to move forward and correct history, you’ve got to hear what you want to hear and what you don’t,” she said.

No matter what, Sharpe said that she hopes the interviews will offer insight and create new opportunities for dialogue, as well as lessons for reconciliation that can be applied to action in other countries.

“If you get some reflections and thoughts that would help to stimulate a dialogue about that past and help people understand each other better, maybe we can get a harmonized view on how to look back at that past and how to remember it,” she said.

If you want more information about “Reconciling with the Past – A Legacy of Segregation,” the next phase of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Oral History Project, or if you would like to volunteer to be interviewed for the project, contact Tammi Sharpe at tsharpe@bcri.org or (205) 328-9696.