CIVIL RIGHTS

Springfield NAACP Leader Questions Need For Transgender Accommodations Bill

This week, we’re hearing two opinions on a Massachusetts bill to expand public accommodation rights to the transgender community.

The law would allow transgender individuals to use all public spaces without discrimination. Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP has some criticisms of the bill. When we talked, he began by clarifying that he does not believe anyone should be discriminated against for any activity, including using a bathroom. But Swan questions whether this legislation is necessary.

To hear the full interview with Bishop Talbert Swan, click the audio player above.

MLK’s 1964 Springfield Speech – “History at our Doorstep”

by: Karen Brown

Fifty years ago this spring, Martin Luther King Junior gave the commencement speech at Springfield College in Springield, MA — just after being released from prison for a protest in St. Augustine, Florida. Springfield College Journalism professor Martin Dobrow is writing a book on the pivotal period of the civil rights movement that included King’s speech. He spoke with New England Public Radio’s Karen Brown about the controversial visit.

To hear Martin Luther King’s full commencement speech from June 1964 at Springfield College, click here.

Martin Dobrow will be speaking Wednesday evening at Springfield College about Western Massachusetts connections to the Civil Rights Movement.

Looking at the Civil Rights Movement from the White Side

Springfield, Massachusetts native Jason Sokol has written a book that looks at the Civil Rights movement from a different perspective. Sokol’s book There Goes My Everything tells the stories of white southerners during a turbulent period in U.S. history. He spoke with WFCR’s Bob Paquette.