VOA标准英语2010-Civil Rights Leader Benjamin Hooks Dead a

Former head of the National Association for the Advancement¹ of Colored People (NAACP) was an outspoken² activist⁴ 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-segregated⁵ American South at the time, that discriminated⁶ against African-Americans in all areas of public life.

Yet Hooks' family exposed him early on to what civil rights activists⁷ of his generation came to call the Freedom Struggle.

Facing segregation⁸

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 spoke³ 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 enrolled⁹ 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 decided¹⁰ 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 devoted¹¹ 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 lighting¹² a torch just seemed to me to be essentially¹³ 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 boycotts¹⁴ of segregated white businesses, and non-violent sit-in protests that became emblematic¹⁵ of the burgeoning¹⁶ 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 pinnacle¹⁷ of Hooks' activism came in 1977, when he began his 15-year tenure¹⁸ as director of the NAACP.

During this period, Hooks helped articulate the group's positions on racial equity¹⁹ 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 citizenship²⁰.

Lasting²¹ legacy²²

After his retirement²³ 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 civilian²⁴ 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 vocal²⁵ campaigner for civil rights in the United States.

 

1 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• 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。

2 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• 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。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• 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。

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• 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。

5 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• 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。

6 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• 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？

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 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》

8 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• 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。

9 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• 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》

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• 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。

11 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• 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。

12 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• 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。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• 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。

14 boycotts   

（对某事物的）抵制( boycott的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 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？

15 emblematic   

adj.象征的，可当标志的；象征性

参考例句：

• 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

16 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• 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

17 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• 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。

18 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• 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。

19 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• 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。

20 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• 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。

21 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• 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。

22 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• 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。

23 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• 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。

24 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• 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。

25 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。