1955: an observation
It was not the most mind-shattering year of the 20th
century, but 1955 was a space/time marker that deserves pondering after sixty
years. The Bandung Conference was a
forum for Asian and African nations who would become architects of new world
orders. Emmett Till was murdered in
Mississippi. Rev. George W. Lee
(Belzoni) and Lamar Smith (Brookhaven) were also lynched. The mustard seed for
contemporary, religion-flavored terrorism might have been planted at Bandung,
Indonesia. Strong analyses of what happened there must consider such a
possibility. Equally strong analyses of
lynching in Mississippi might not move any pretense at “race and reconciliation”
an inch from where it Is stuck. A hot
tear resides in your right eye as you read Julius E. Thompson’s Lynchings in Mississippi: A History, 1865-1965 (2007); a question marches in
your mind as you read Richard Wright’s The
Color Curtain: A Report on the
Bandung Conference (1956): do major
planners in the Obama administration recall that Bandung happened? If you try
to sing “We Shall Overcome,” your heart will be stabbed with artificial feelings. Unless you are a God-blessed idiot, you
remember that in 1955 two white males in Mississippi were praised, found not
guilty, and paid for murdering an uppity young boy; those who killed Lee and
Smith celebrated; and you remember that the echoes of that obscenity grow
louder and more lurid in 2015.
Twenty years after 1955, Bernard Grun published The Timetables of History, his
translation, revision, and
updating of Werner Stein’s Kulturfahrplan (1946).
According to the entries for 1955, Walter White,
Albert Einstein, Ortega y Gasset, Charlie “Yardbird”
Parker and a few other notable people died.
Teilhard de Chardin published Le Phénomene Humain (The Phenomenon of Man), a magnum opus, and
Vladimir Nabokov published Lolita, a curious classic. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. announced
they would
race to launch satellites. “The Seven Year Itch,” “Marty,”
and “The Rose Tattoo” were shown in movie
houses. Artificial diamonds were manufactured at 2,700
degrees C. Salvador Dali shocked the art
world
with “The Lord’s
Supper.” “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” was one of the most popular songs.
Sixty years after 1955, you look back and wonder why
Bernard Grun chose to say nothing about Emmett Till and Bandung. And, of course, the answer was broadcast on
the evening news today.
Jerry W. Ward, Jr.
June 16, 2015
