Read Payne, Charles, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, pp. 77-top of 91 (first excerpt) and/or read to the end of the selection, pp. 91-102 and write A critical reflection on I’ve Got the Light of Freedom. Select one of Ella Baker’s quotes from the reading as your prompt. This should be 2-3 paragraphs.
In critical reflections, the word “critical” does not mean to criticize the text. Rather, it means: attend closely to the text; think beyond the text. Is it an argument, a call to mobilize, a critique? What other possible discourses does it engage? Then go beyond what the author is saying to consider alternative, contextual or even hidden meanings. You might raise problems or paradoxes you see in the text, note contradictions and absences, ask questions about meaning or purpose, identify key concepts or analytics, put the text in conversation with another authors we have read (or you have read). You cannot do all of these things, so pick one approach, one point of focus.
