(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans. The day is August twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-three. More than two hundred fifty thousand people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior, is speaking. "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation." Early in its history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold, like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the eighteen sixties, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the plantations, or large farms, of the South. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality.
Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about one hundred years, blacks made slow gains. Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. In nineteen fifty-one, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. That policy was known as segregation. At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in Southern states. The case against the city of Topeka -- Brown versus the Board of Education -- was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In nineteen fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children. The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. In September nineteen fifty-seven, a black girl attempted to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas.
An angry crowd shouted at her. State guards blocked her way. The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus. After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards. The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and other black students were able to enter the school. After one day, however, riots forced the black students to leave. President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock. They helped black students get into the white school safely. However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools. The schools stayed closed for two years. In nineteen sixty-two, a black student named James Meredith sought to attend the University of Mississippi. School officials refused. John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to help him. James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. In addition to fighting for equal treatment in education, black Americans fought for equal treatment in housing and transportation. In many cities of the South, blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman named Rosa Parks got on a bus in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She sat in the back. The bus became crowded.
There were no more seats for white people. So, the bus driver ordered Missus Parks to stand and give her seat to a white person. She refused. Her feet were tired after a long day at work. Rosa Parks was arrested. "For a number of years, Negro passengers on the city bus lines of Montgomery have been humiliated, intimidated, and faced threats on this bus line." The Reverend Martin Luther King organized the black citizens of Montgomery. They were the major users of the bus system. They decided to stop using the buses. "At present, we are in the midst of a protest, the black citizens of Montgomery, representing some 44 percent of the population. Ninety percent, at least, of the regular Negro bus passengers are staying off the buses, and we plan to continue until something is done." The boycott lasted a little more than a year. It seriously affected the earnings of the bus company. In the end, racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was declared illegal. Rosa Parks' tired feet had helped win black Americans another victory in their struggle for equal rights. And, the victory had been won without violence. The Reverend King was following the teachings of former Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi urged his followers to reach their political goals without violence. One of the major tools of non-violence in the civil rights struggle in America was the "sit-in". In a sit-in, protesters entered a store or public eating place. They quietly asked to be served. Sometimes, they were arrested. Sometimes, they remained until the business closed. But they were not served. Some went hours without food or water.
Another kind of protest was the "freedom ride." This involved buses that traveled through states from the North to the South. On freedom rides, blacks and whites sat together to make it difficult for officials to enforce racial separation laws on the buses. Many freedom rides -- and much violence -- took place in the summer of nineteen sixty-four. Sometimes, the freedom riders were arrested. Sometimes, angry crowds of whites beat the freedom riders. Perhaps the most dangerous part of the civil rights movement was the campaign to win voting rights for black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution said a citizen could not be denied the right to vote because of race or color. Several Southern states, however, passed laws to try to deny voting rights to blacks for other reasons. Martin Luther King and his supporters demanded new legislation to guarantee the right to vote. They held protests in the state of Alabama. In the city of Birmingham, the chief law officer ordered his men to fight the protesters with high-pressure water hoses and fierce dogs. People throughout the country watched the demonstration on television. The sight of children being beaten by policemen and bitten by dogs awakened many citizens to the civil rights struggle. Federal negotiators reached a compromise. The compromise was, in fact, a victory for the protesters. They promised to stop their demonstrations. In exchange, they would be permitted to vote. President Lyndon Johnson signed a major civil rights bill in nineteen sixty-four. Yet violence continued in some places. Three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. One was murdered in Alabama. Martin Luther King kept working toward the goal of equal rights. On April fourth nineteen sixty-eight, he died working toward that goal. King was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had gone there to support a strike by waste collection workers. "Doctor King was standing on the balcony of his second floor hotel room tonight when, according to a companion, a shot was fired from across the street. In the friend's words, the bullet exploded in his face."
CBS newsman Walter Cronkite. "The police, who have been keeping a close watch over the Nobel Peace Prize winner because of Memphis' turbulent racial situation, were on the scene almost immediately. They rushed the thirty-nine year old Negro leader to a hospital, where he died of a bullet wound in the neck." A white man, James Earl Ray, was tried and found guilty of the crime. A wave of unrest followed the murder of Martin Luther King. Blacks in more than one hundred cities in America rioted. In some cities, areas affected by the riots were not rebuilt for many years. The movement for civil rights for black Americans continued. But it became increasingly violent. The struggle produced angry, bitter memories. Yet it also produced some of the greatest words spoken in American history. "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'" Nest week, we continue the story of the United States in the nineteen sixties.
重点解析
1.more than 多于；超过
He has been mugged more than once.
他已是不止一次被抢劫了。
2.be equal to 等于；胜任
I could't find a person who can be equal to this work.
你不可能找到更能胜任这个工作的人了。
3.at that time 在当时；那时候
It was at that time she started taking the contraceptive pill.
她就是从那个时候开始服用避孕药的。
4.take place 发生；举行
The meeting will take place as planned.
会议将按预定的计划进行。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。今天，我们将讲述美国黑人的民权运动。这一天是1963年8月28日，超过25万人聚集在华盛顿。黑人、白人、年轻人、老年人，他们要求平等地对待美国黑人。美国最著名的民权领袖马丁·路德·金教士正在发表演讲。“今天，我很高兴与大家一道，参加我们国家历史上最伟大的自由示威活动。”在美国历史的早期，非洲黑人被带到美国当奴隶。它们像动物一样被买卖。到19世纪60年代美国内战时，许多奴隶已被主人释放。但是，还有很多人仍然在南方的种植园或大型农场做奴隶。战争结束时，奴隶制被宣布为违宪，但这只是争取平等的第一步。
大多数有色人种都找不到好工作，他们住房条件糟糕，接受良好教育的机会比美国白人少得多。大约一百年来，黑人在各方面的进展缓慢。直到二战后，才开始进行广泛的民权运动。在战争期间，美国黑人作为武装部队成员赢得了尊重。当他们回家后，许多人要求尊重他们的公民权利。全国有色人种促进会，就是带头进行此项活动的一个组织。1951年，该组织派出律师帮助堪萨斯州托皮卡市的一名男子。这个名叫奥利弗·布朗的人，和其他12个人对该市提起了法律诉讼。他们想结束孩子学校的种族隔离，这种政策被称为种族隔离。当时，美国每五所公立学校中就有两所学校的学生都是白人或黑人在一起上学。法律规定，所有公立学校必须平等，但事实并非如此。白人儿童的学校几乎总是比黑人儿童的学校好。南部各州的情况最糟。托皮卡市布朗上诉教育委员会的案件，最终由美国最高法院解决。在1954年，最高法院裁定，只向黑人儿童开放的学校，其条件并未与白人儿童的学校相同。第二年，最高法院表示，公立学校必须尽快接收所有种族的孩子。1957年9月，一名黑人女孩试图进入阿肯色州小石城的一所全白人学校。
愤怒的人群向她喊叫，地方警卫队挡住了她的去路。警卫队是由州长奥维尔·福布斯派来的。三周后，一家联邦法院命令福布斯州长撤换警卫队。女孩伊丽莎白·埃克福德和其他黑人学生得以进入学校。然而，一天之后，暴乱迫使黑人学生离校。德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统命令联邦军队前往小石城，他们帮助黑人学生安全进入白人学校。然而，愤怒的白人市民关闭了该市所有的公立学校，学校停课两年。1962年，一个名叫詹姆斯·梅雷迪思的黑人学生试图进入密西西比大学，校方表示拒绝。当时的总统约翰·肯尼迪派出联邦法律官员来帮助他。詹姆斯·梅雷迪斯成为第一个从密西西比大学毕业的黑人。除了在教育上争取平等待遇外，美国黑人还在住房和交通方面争取与白人相同的待遇。在南方许多城市，黑人被迫坐在公共汽车的后座上。1955年，一位名叫罗莎·帕克斯的黑人妇女，在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市上了一辆公共汽车。她坐在公共汽车的后座上，汽车后来变得很拥挤。
白人已经没有座位了。于是，公共汽车司机命令帕克斯太太站起来，把座位让给一个白人。 她表示拒绝。工作了一天之后，她的脚很累。罗莎·帕克斯遭到逮捕。“多年来，蒙哥马利市公共汽车线上的黑人乘客，一直在这条路线上受到羞辱、恐吓和威胁。”马丁·路德·金教士把蒙哥马利的黑人公民组织起来，他们是公共汽车系统的主要用户。他们决定停止乘坐公共汽车。“目前，我们正处于抗议活动中，蒙哥马利的黑人公民占总人口的44%。至少90%的普通黑人巴士乘客，都不再乘坐公共汽车，我们计划继续下去，直到事情得到解决。”抵制活动持续了一年多，这严重影响到公交公司的收益。最后，蒙哥马利公交车上的种族隔离被宣布为非法行为。罗莎·帕克斯疲惫的双脚，帮助美国黑人赢得了争取平等权利的又一次胜利。而且，这次胜利是在没有动用暴力的情况下取得的。这位受人尊敬的金遵循前印度领导人莫汉达斯·甘地的教诲，甘地敦促他的追随者在不使用暴力的情况下，达到政治目标。美国民权斗争中非暴力的主要工具之一，就是“静坐”。在静坐示威时，抗议者进入商店或公共饮食场所。他们安静地要求有人提供服务。有时，他们会遭到逮捕。有时，他们会一直呆到店铺关门，但没有人招待他们。有些人几个小时没有得到食物和水。
另一种抗议活动是“自由之旅”，包括搭乘从北到南穿越各州的巴士。在自由乘车时，黑人和白人坐在一起，使官员很难在公交车上执行种族隔离法。在1964年的夏天，发生了许多自由之旅和许多暴力事件。有时，自由之旅的乘客会被逮捕。有时，愤怒的白人群众殴打他们。也许民权运动中最危险的部分，是为美国黑人争取投票权的运动。宪法第十五修正案说，不能因为种族或肤色，而剥夺公民的选举权。然而，南方几个州通过了法律，试图以其他理由剥夺黑人的投票权。马丁·路德·金和他的支持者，要求制定新的立法来保障选举权，他们在阿拉巴马州举行抗议活动。在伯明翰市，首席法律官命令手下用高压水管和猎狗与抗议者搏斗。看到孩子们被警察殴打、被狗咬伤的情景，许多公民意识到公民权利的斗争。联邦谈判代表达成了妥协。事实上，妥协是抗议者的胜利。他们答应停止示威游行。作为交换，他们将可以进行投票。林登·约翰逊总统在1964年，签署了一项重要的民权法案。然而，暴力在一些地方仍在继续。三名民权工作者在密西西比州遭遇谋杀，其中一人死在了阿拉巴马州。
马丁·路德·金一直朝着平等权利的目标努力，在1968年4月4日，他为实现这一目标而牺牲了自己的生命。金在田纳西州孟菲斯惨遭枪杀，他去那里支持废物收集工人的罢工。“金博士今晚站在酒店二楼房间的阳台上，据一名同伴说，当时有人从街对面开了一枪。用朋友的话说，子弹在他脸上爆炸了。”以下是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻记者沃尔特·克朗凯特。“由于孟菲斯动荡的种族局势，一直在密切关注诺贝尔和平奖获得者的警察立即赶到现场。他们迅速将39岁的黑人领袖送往医院。他因颈部中枪而去世。”一个名为詹姆斯·厄尔·雷的白人遭到审判，并被判有罪。马丁·路德·金被谋杀后，出现一片骚乱，美国一百多个城市的黑人发动暴乱。在一些城市，受骚乱影响的地区多年没有重建，为美国黑人争取民权的运动仍在继续。但它变得越来越暴力，这场斗争产生了愤怒、痛苦的回忆。然而，它也产生了美国历史上一些最伟大的词汇。响彻每一个村庄、每一个州和每一座城市时，我们将能够加快这一天，上帝的所有子民——黑人、白人、犹太人、外邦人、新教徒、天主教徒——将能够携起手来，并用古老黑人精神的话语歌唱：“终于自由了！终于自由了！感谢万能的上帝，我们终于自由了！”下周，我们将继续讲述美国在20世纪60年代的故事。
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