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(And the last is)1964: Ella Baker makes a plea for black lives
（最后一篇）1964年：埃拉·貝克呼吁重視黑人的生命
In August 1964, civil rights activist Ella Baker stated,
1964年8月，民權活動家埃拉·貝克指出，
“Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s son,
“直到這個國家的其他人種能像重視白人母親的兒子被殺一樣重視黑人男性或黑人母親的兒子被殺，
we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.”
在此之前，我們這些信仰自由的人是不能休息的。”
Baker delivered those words during a keynote address in Jackson, Miss.,
貝克是在密西西比州杰克遜市的一次主題演講中說出了這番話。
just days after the discovery of the bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—
就在她演講的幾天前，人們才剛找到詹姆斯·錢尼，安德魯·古德曼和邁克·施維納的尸體——
three civil rights activists who were murdered earlier that summer.
那年剛入夏不久，三位民權活動人士便被人謀殺了。
Baker had helped organize the Voter Education Project and “Freedom Summer,”
貝克曾協助組織了選民教育項目和“自由之夏”運動，
which brought volunteers like Goodman and Schwerner to Mississippi to register voters.
帶領古德曼和施維納那樣的志愿者到密西西比州進行選民登記。
(Chaney was from there; he was black and the others were white.)
（錢尼的家鄉就在那里；他是黑人，其余二人為白人。）
After the three men went missing that June while investigating the burning of a black church,
那年6月，這三名男子在調查一座黑人教堂被焚一事時失蹤，
the case made national headlines as federal investigators searched for them.
聯邦調查人員到處搜尋三人的蹤跡，這起案件逐漸成為了全國的頭條新聞。
But while combing through the area, search teams discovered other bodies too—
然而，就在搜尋隊在附近搜查時，他們發現了其他的尸體——
murdered black Mississippians whose lives had not been considered important enough to warrant a federal investigation.
被謀殺了，但被認為其生命還沒有重要到需要聯邦調查的地步的密西西比黑人的尸體。
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were given posthumous Presidential Medals of Freedom in 2014,
2014年，錢尼、古德曼和施維納被追授了總統自由勛章，
but the story of those other morbid discoveries—the inspiration for Baker’s speech—never reached a satisfying conclusion.
然而，其他令人心驚的發現的故事——貝克的演講就是受到了那些故事的啟發——卻一直沒有令人滿意的結論。
Her words continue to inspire activists, and especially resonate with the Black Lives Matter movement,
貝克的話依然在激勵著活動人士，激起當今時代的共鳴，尤其是與“黑人的命也是命”運動的共鳴，
built on the premise that the killing of unarmed black Americans should trouble everyone, regardless of their race.
而她的話依賴的是這樣一個前提：所有人，無論是何種族，都應為手無寸鐵的美國黑人被害感到惋惜。
(And that was) by Tyina Steptoe
本文作者蒂娜·斯特普托
Steptoe, an associate professor of history at the University of Arizona,
斯特普托是亞利桑那大學歷史學副教授，
is the author of Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City.
著有《休斯頓邊界：種族隔離城市的文化與色彩》一書。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
