Wadau, leo hii mtu wa rangi yeyote akija Marekani, anaweza kula sehemu yoyote, kwenda shopping sehemu yoyote na kuishi sehemu yoyote anayotaka bila kujali rangi. Ni hela yako tu. Lakini si miaka mingi uliyopita maisha hayakuwa hivyo kwa watu weusi. Weusi walibaguliwa Marekani kutokana na historia ya Utumwa. Ingawa utumwa ulifutwa mwaka 1865, ubaguzi dhidi ya weusi uliendelea. Ulipungua baada ya Civil Rights Acts (14th Amendment) ya mwaka 1964.
Miaka ya 1950's mwishoni na 1960's nchi za Afrika zilianza kupata Uhuru. Nchi hizo zilikuwa zinaleta Mabolozi kuwakilisha nchi zao. Mabalozi na wafanyakazi wa ubalozi hizo walikuwa wanaleta familia zao. Walipohamia Marekani walishangaa ubaguzi uliokuwepo. Kulikuwa hakuna kujali kuwa wewe ni balozi. Ukiwa ni mweusi, hivyo mtu wa chini tu. Ubaguzi huo ulisbabisha Waziri Mkuu wa Urusi wa wakati huo , Nikita Khrushchev, kuomba Umoja wa Mataifa uhamishwe nje ya Marekani! Ilibidi Rais John F. Kennedy aingilie. Ubaguzi katika restaurant na mahoteli ulipigwa maarufuku katika sehemu kadhaa Washington, D.C. na Maryland. Fikiria ubaguzi ulikuwa ni shida kiasi kwamba Rais Kennedy alisema kuwa waafrika wapande ndege wakiwa wanasafiri kutoka New York hadi D.C. ili waepuke matatizo ya kibaguzi.
Ubaguzi ulivyokithiri na wazungu walivyoona ni haki yao kubagua, weusi mwenye Mgahawa moja alisema, "Mwache Rais Kennedy awalishe hao WaAfrika! Mimi sitaki kupoteza biashara yangu!"
Mambo ya Ubaguzi dhidhi ya waafrika ulifika kilele, mwaka 1961, Balozi Malick Sow wa Chad alipoenda kula katika restaurant iitwao Bonnie Rae Diner. Alinyimwa huduma na kupigwa na mhudumu kutokana na rangi yake. Balozi Sow alikasirika na kulalamika hadi White House. Yule mhudumu aliyemnyima huduma alipohojiwa na LIFE magazine alisema, "Mimi sikujua ni Balozi. Nilidhani ni mwesui (n-word) wa kawaida!"
Habari ya Baolzi Sow, ulikuwa ni habari ya kimataifa. LIFE magazine ambayo kipindi kile kilikuwa kama CNN ya leo, iliandika habari hizo. Weusi waliporuhusiwa kula mezani pale sawa na mzungu, LIFE magazine walikuwepo. Baba yangu, Dr. Aleck Che-Mponda, ambaye wakati ule alikuwa katika uongozi wa Chama cha Wanafunzi wa Afrika wanaosoma Marekani na Bayo Adekayo wa Nigeria walikuwa wa kwanza kuhudumiwa.
Mnaweza kusoma habari kamili katika toleo ya LIFE MAGAZINE ya tarehe 8 Desemba, 1961 kwa KUBOFYA HAPA:
BOFYA picha ukitaka kuona picha kubwa zaidi.
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| Cover of LIFE Magazine December 8, 1961 |
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| Balozi wa Chad nchi Marekani 1961, Mh. Malick Sow |
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| Huyo Mama alikata kuhumdumia Balozi wa Chad. Alisema kuwa alidhani yeye ni n-word wa kawaida! |
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| Baba yangu mzazi mwaka 1961. Wakati huo alikuwa ni mwanafunzi katika Chuo Kikuu cha Howard Washington, D.C. |
Soma hii Kutoka: http://www.umbc.edu/che/tahlessons/pdf/Civil_Rights_and_Cold_Warriors(PrinterFriendly).pdf
While protests in the early 1950s had achieved legal segregation of most public modations in Washington D.C., “informal segregation remained a serious problem.” African diplomats that moved their families to the nation’s capital often faced discrimination in housing, restaurants, businesses as well as hostile harassment. The “mistreatment” of these African diplomats “not only damaged relations with the host nation but might also affect the power balance in the United Nations; Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was quietly trying to line up African nations behind a proposal to have the United Nations moved out of the United States because of persistent racial discrimination.”
One particular account involving William Fitzjohn of Sierra Leone served as a mechanism for the desegregation of the route African dignitaries used to travel from New York to Washington. Fitzjohn was denied service at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant in Hagerstown, Maryland in March of 1961. President Kennedy, moved by the notion that the African press might view this episode as a “catalyst for antiAmerican feelings,” met personally with the diplomat to apologize for the incident.
Subsequent incidents involving dozens of African diplomats, including the new ambassador from Chad, Adam Malik Sow, forced Kennedy to reconsider the “Washington first” strategy (i.e. promoting civil rights gains made by the federal government abroad, while downplaying civil rights struggles and abuses at home).
While Kennedy’s first suggestion to these diplomats was to fly from New York to Washington instead of driving, he would eventually use the State Department’s Office of Protocol to pressure the Maryland legislature to pass a law outlawing segregated public facilities along Route 40. “Thus began a campaign led by officials of the federal government to undermine segregation in Maryland.” Following a period of sitins and threats of freedom rides by the Congress of Racial Equality, as well as a two year campaign from the Office of Protocol, the Maryland General Assembly finally passed a law that banned racial discrimination in restaurants and hotels in the areas surrounding Route 40 during a March session in 1963.
