"CRAZY DION!"

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF!

"BLACK LIVES MATTER"

“Crazy Dion” Diamond at one of his sit-ins as a teenager in Arlington, VA. June 10, 1960

I always wondered whether all of those people around him were still with us. 

Well guess what? Dion certainly is! I have mentioned him before and it is a favourite story but worth repeating (when is it ever not?!) especially with current groundswell and BLM protests after the murder of George Floyd. 

here’s some fun things i learned from this article about Dion Diamond:

• he did these sit-ins by himself. Know I don't know about you, but I always thought of sit-ins as organised by groups, what kind of bravery does it take to do this on your OWN?!
• he didn’t tell anyone about it, like he was no glory-seeker about this. His parents didn’t even know until reporters started calling them up to ask “Hey, did you know your son is in jail?"
• when someone called the cops he’d skedaddle out the back door although he was sent to prison multiple times
• the last time he got arrested was in Baton Rouge, and the cops were so sick of him that they told inmates they’d put in a good word for anyone who gave Diamond a hard time (the inmates didn’t take the bait.)
• he’s still alive!

NPR- The Civil Rights Activist You've Probably Never Heard Of

Dion Diamond

Check the guy's armband three deep in by the cash register!

Jackson Mississippi Police got REAL fed up with arresting him!

“The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honourably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbours or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure. Negroes know far more about white Americans than that; it can almost be said, in fact, that they know about white Americans what parents—or, anyway, mothers—know about their children, and that they very often regard white Americans that way. And perhaps this attitude, held in spite of what they know and have endured, helps to explain why Negroes, on the whole, and until lately, have allowed themselves to feel so little hatred. The tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing.”

― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time