VOA标准英语2010-Civil Rights Leader Benjamin Hooks Dead a
时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(四)月
Former head of the National Association for the Advancement 1 of Colored People (NAACP) was an outspoken 2 activist 4 for racial equality and justice
Adam Philips | New York 16 April 2010
Benjamin Hooks (seen here in July 2009) led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for 15 years, beginning in 1977.
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African-American jurist and pioneering civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks has died at the age of 85, following a long illness.
Benjamin Hooks was born in 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee — a city, like most in the racially-segregated 5 American South at the time, that discriminated 6 against African-Americans in all areas of public life.
Yet Hooks' family exposed him early on to what civil rights activists 7 of his generation came to call the Freedom Struggle.
Facing segregation 8
For example, Hooks' parents always insisted that whites address them as Mr. and Mrs. Hooks, rather than by their first names, as was the custom when whites spoke 3 to blacks. And Hooks' older sister was secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the national civil rights group he would one day lead.
"And so around the table, morning and night, I heard my mother and father and my sister discussing events involving black treatment in America. We discussed it all the time," Hooks once said. "And most of their friends discussed it with them when they came around. So that my family was a sort of non-violent resistance family. It was a part of my being as long as I can remember."
Benjamin Hooks (1925-2010)
Hooks graduated from high school in 1941, and enrolled 9 in a local college.
However, like millions of others, Hooks left his studies to serve in the armed forces during World War II. At training camp, he and the 12 other African-Americans in his squadron of 200 were automatically segregated from the whites.
Breaking down barriers
"So when I came out of the Army, I had already decided 10 I wanted to be a part of breaking down segregation," he said. "Because I felt it had to be broken down. I felt it would be broken. So I consciously devoted 11 my life to that."
After his Army discharge, no law school in his native Tennessee would admit him because of his color. So Hooks enrolled at De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he earned a law degree in 1948. But, within a year, he returned home to Memphis to work with the NAACP.
Then, as now, American blacks disagreed about how to achieve justice and equality. Hooks recalled that while some activists advocated violence, he had another view.
"I chose to try to make progress, and the concept of burning down a building or lighting 12 a torch just seemed to me to be essentially 13 crazy. That's why I chose the NAACP. Because their method was legal change through the court system, or through action by the Congress," he said.
Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks became Tennessee’s first black criminal court judge in 1965.
Legal activism
During the 1950s, Hooks and the NAACP helped to organize many of the black-led boycotts 14 of segregated white businesses, and non-violent sit-in protests that became emblematic 15 of the burgeoning 16 civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Both King and Hooks wanted to effect social change through a combination of moral force and legislation.
But Hooks put more emphasis on legal activism than Dr. King, who spoke as often about changing white people's hearts as he did about changing the laws.
"We felt like no matter how non-violent you were, unless you had a law on the books or a decree by a court, that the same restaurant that could open up its door to a black person on Monday could close it on Tuesday if there were no law demanding it be kept open."
Leading the NAACP
The pinnacle 17 of Hooks' activism came in 1977, when he began his 15-year tenure 18 as director of the NAACP.
During this period, Hooks helped articulate the group's positions on racial equity 19 in hiring and school admissions and the creation of a national holiday to honor the late Martin Luther King, Jr. He also led an intensive effort to increase African-American representation on the boards of America's largest corporations.
"These were the kind of things that we did at the NAACP, trying to bring about an end to the concept of segregation in America," he said.
But Hooks was most proud of the youth education programs he helped develop in America's inner cities. Under his leadership, the NAACP held rallies and funded programs across the country to enable young African American to stay in school and earn the degrees that would be their passports to social equality and effective citizenship 20.
After his retirement 23 from the NAACP in 1992, Hooks continued to press the cause of civil rights and education. He helped create the Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis, to preserve the history of the civil rights movement and advance its legacy.
At a White House ceremony in 2007, Benjamin Hooks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian 24 honor. And in January 2008, he was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia.
After his death was announced on Thursday, April 15, Benjamin Hooks was remembered as a pioneer, preacher, storyteller, conciliator and visionary, and a vocal 25 campaigner for civil rights in the United States.
- His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
- The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。
- He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
- She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
- He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
- He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。
- a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
- The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。
- His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
- Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视?
- His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
- Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初,许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
- They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。
- They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起,他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
- We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
- The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
- The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。
- Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
- She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
- Their methods included boycotts and court action, supplemented by'sit-ins". 他们的主要方法包括联合抵制、法庭起诉,还附带进行静坐抗议。
- Are boycotts for other purposes illegal? 至于用于其它目的的联合抵制行动是否也是非法的呢?
- The violence is emblematic of what is happening in our inner cities. 这种暴力行为正标示了我们市中心贫民区的状况。
- Whiteness is emblematic of purity. 白色是纯洁的象征。 来自辞典例句
- Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句
- Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
- It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。
- He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
- Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。
- They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
- To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值,墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。
- He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生,但没有瑞典公民身分。
- Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后,她选择了澳大利亚国籍。
- The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
- We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
- They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
- He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。
- She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
- I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。
- There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
- He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。