DOCSLIB.ORG

Acoa 0 0 0 7

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Acoa 0 0 0 7 RELIGIOUS ACTION NETWORK RELIGIOUS ACTION NETWORK for justice and peace in southern Africa a project of the American Committee on Africa FOUNDING MEMBERS (Partial listing) Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Chairperson Cocoon Baptist Church, New York Canon Frederick B. Williams Church of the Intercession, New York TO: RAN MEMBERS AND FRIENDS Rev. M. William Howard, President FM: ALEAH BACQUIE, RAN COORDINATOR American Committee on Africo RE: HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE, APARTHEID VIOLENCE Jennifer Davis, E-ecuro'e Direct., DATE: JANUARY 1992 American Commitee .c Africa Aleah Bacquie, Coordinator Dear Brothers and Sisters, Religious Action Network I hope this letter finds you well after the holiday season. Our Human Rights Sunday observances were a great success. At least thirty churches across the country participated, with ten states represented. A list of the participants is enclosed. In fact, since December, all but one of the political prisoners from the Bophuthatswana "bantustan" have been released! Of course, hundreds of South Africans remain imprisoned for opposing apartheid, so the struggle continues. While Americans are being fed stories of "black on black" violence, it is time set the record straight. This is apartheid violence. The South African regime is responsible for the violence that sweeps the country. They planned it and have been training people to murder leaders in the South Africa democratic movement, according to their own military personnel. Furthermore, our U.S. tax dollars are being used to fund the murdering agents of the South African government, Inkatha. We must help put a stop to it. Enclosed is a speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s, given at a function organized by the American Committee on Africa in 1962. Parent organization of the Religious Action Network, ACOA is the oldest anti-apartheid group in the country. We invite you to join us in launching our campaign on this date because there is no better example of the demand for human rights without violence than Dr. King's work. WHAT TO DO: * Print the Dr. King speech in your bulletins for Sunday, January 18 service, in observance of the King holiday. * Say a prayer for the victims of apartheid violence. - 198 Broadway, Room 402, New York, NY 10038 212-962-1210 - FIVE FACTS-ABOUT APARTHEID VIOLENCE * OVER 11,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED IN APARTHEID VIOLENCE SINCE 1984. * THE APARTHEID GOVERNMENT IS TRAINING DEATH SQUADS TO KILL ANC, LABOR AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS. * SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY PERSONNEL HAVE TESTIFIED ABOUT THEIR ROLE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT PLOT TO DESTABILIZE THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT. * HIT LISTS WITH THE NAMES OF ANC ACTIVISTS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN POLICE HEADQUARTERS. * US TAX DOLLARS WILL FUND THE MURDERERS IN SOUTH AFRICA. For more information contact the Religious Action Network. The Religious Action Network 198 Broadway * Suite 402 New York, NY 10038 (212) 962-1210 CHURCHES WHICH PARTICIPATED IN HUMAN RIGHTS SUNDAY, DEC.8, 1991 Dr. Charles Adams-Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Detroit, MI Rev. Willard Ashley -Monumental Baptist Churc-Newark, NJ Dr. Joseph' O. Bass-Alpha Baptist Church, Wilingboro, NJ Rev. Elijah Bennett-Bethany Baptist Church, NYC Rev. Billy Bissic-Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Grambling, LA Rev. J. Langston Boyd-Shorter Community A.M.E.Church, Denver, CO Dr. Calvin Butts-Abyssinian Baptist Church, NYC Rev. Robert Castle-St. Mary's Episcopal Church, NYC Rev. Charles Coverdale-First Baptist Church of Riverhead, NY Sharon Davison -Presbytery of NY Rev. Edward Davis-Presbyterian Church of St. Albans, NY Rev. Michael Du Plessis-Trinity Episcopal Church, Montclair, NJ Rev. Kenneth James Flowers, Messiah Baptist Church, LA Rev. Ivan George- American Baptist Churches, Valley Forge, PA Rev. Victor Hall, Sr.-Calvary Baptist Church, Queens, NY Toni Harris-The Sinsinawa Dominicans, Sinsinawa, WI Rev. Hugh Hildesly-Church of the Heavenly Rest, NYC Rev. Dwight Jackson-Amity Baptist Church, Queens NY Rev. Edward Earl Johnson-Mount Moriah Baptist Church, NYC Dr. William Jones, Bethany Baptist Church, Brooklyn, NY Rev. Samuel Joubert Sr., Community Baptist Church, Bayside NY Rev. Keith-St. George's Church, NYC' Rev. Larry Larson-Church of the Covenant, Cleveland, OH Rt. Rev. Richard B. Martin-St. Mark's Episcopal, Brooklyn, NY Rev. Bennie Mitchell-Connor's Temple Baptist Church, Savannah, GA Rev. Mark Murray-Sugar Ridge Church, Custer, MI Rev. Finley Schaeff-Park Slope United Methodist, Brooklyn, NY Dr. Lorenzo Shepard-Mt. Olivet Tabernacle Baptist Church, PA Rev. Paul Smith-First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, NY Rev. Bruce Southworth-Community Church, NYC Rev. Kenneth Ulmer-Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church, LA Jean Verber-Sisters of St. Dominic, Racine WI Elder Howard Wheeler-Shiloh Apostolic Church, Queens, NY Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker-Canaan Baptist Church of Christ, NYC Rev. Cecil Williams-Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco, CA Canon Frederick B. Williams-Church of the Intercession, NYC Rev. Saul Williams-Baptist Temple, Newburgh, NY STATES REPRESENTED: CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, GEORGIA, LOUISIANA, MICHIGAN, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT OF APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Statement by the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a meeting at Hunter College, New York City, on Human Rights Day 10 December 1965 Africa has been depicted for more than a century as the home of black cannibals and ignorant primitives. Despite volumes of facts contraverting this picture, the stereotype persists in books, motion pictures, and other media of communication. Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians. We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention -the large majority of the human race is non-white -yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world. To assert white supremacy, to invoke white economic and military power, to maintain the status quo is to foster the danger of international race war... What does the South African Government contribute to this tense situation? These are the incendiary words of the South African philosophy spoken by its Prime Minister, Dr. Verwoerd: "We want to keep South Africa white. Keeping it white can only mean one thing, namely, white domination, not 'leadership', not 'guidance', but control, supremacy." The South African Government to make the white supreme has had to reach into the past and revive the nightmarish ideology and practices of nazism. We are witnessing a recrudescence of the barbarism which murdered more humans than any war in history. In South Africa today, all opposition to white supremacy is condemned as communism, and in its name, due process is destroyed; a medieval segregation is organized with twentieth century efficiency and drive; a sophisticated form of slavery is imposed by a minority upon a majority which is kept in grinding poverty; the dignity of human personality is defiled; and world opinion is arrogantly defied. Once more, we read of tortures in jails with electric devices, suicides among prisoners, forced confessions, while in the outside community ruthless persecution of editors, religious leaders, and political opponents suppress free speech and a free press. South Africa says to the world: "We have become a powerful industrial economy; we are too strong to be defeated by paper resolutions of world tribunals; we are immune to protest and to economic reprisals. We are invulnerable to opposition from within or without; if our evil offends you, you will have to learn to live with it." Increasingly, in recent months this conclusion has been echoed by sober commentators of other countries who disapprove, but, nevertheless, assert that there can be no remedy against this formidable adversary of human rights. I Do we, too, acknowledge defeat? Have we tried everything and failed? In examining this question as Americans, we are immediately struck by the fact that the United States moved with strikingly different energy when it reached a dubious conclusion that our interests were threatened in the Dominican Republic. We inundated that small nation with overwhelming force, shocking the world with our zealousness and naked power. With respect to South Africa, however, our protest is so muted and peripheral it merely mildly disturbs the sensibilities of the segregationists, while our trade and investments substantially stimulate their economy to greater heights. We pat them'on the wrist in permitting racially mixed receptions in our Embassy and by exhibiting films depicting Negro artists. But we give them massive support through American investments in motor and rubber industries, by extending some forty million dollars in loans through our most distinguished banking and financial institutions, by purchasing gold and other minerals mined by black slave labour, by giving them a sugar quota, by maintaining three tracking stations there, and by providing them with the prestige of a nuclear reactor built with our technical co-operation and fueled with refined uranium supplied by us. When it is realized that Great Britain, France and other democratic Powers also prop up the economy of South Africa- and when to all of this is added the fact that the USSR has indicated its willingness to participate in a boycott -it is proper to wonder how South Africa can so confidently defy the civilized world. The conclusion is inescapable that it is less sure of its own power, but more sure that the great nations will not sacrifice trade and profit to oppose them effectively. The shame of our nation is that it is objectively an ally of this monstrous Government in its grim war with its own black people.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sclc Newsletter Reaches and Commented Upon
    SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE INSIDE THIS ISSUE ..::: : :.:.:.~. ..!:.: Speeches Excerpts ______ __ Page Dis & Data _________________. Page Volume 2 October, 1963 Number 1 Birmingham Bombing Points Up A City With A Sick Soul By Ed Clayton The bomb that rocked the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on the Sunday morning of Sept. 15 and sent four innocent children to horrible death was not only a blast that stunned America but it sent a shock wave of horrified outrage around the world. As one woman put it, cautiously egg-walking her way through the crunch of broken glass: "My God, you're not even safe in church!" WE SHALL OVERCOME-Joining in singing of Freedom Song, "We Shall Overcome", at opening Grim News night banquet of convention were (from left): Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, his wife, Mrs. Juanita Aber­ nathy; Mrs. Coretta King; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and speaker, Sen. Leroy Johnson of Ga. The unbelievably grim news was that either a bomb had been hurled or placed under the steps of an entrance to the church seLC Holds Most Successful Convention; and the explosion claimed four victims at­ tending Sunday School- Cynthia Wesley, 14; Carol Robertson, 14; Denise McNair, Upwards Of 5,000 Attend Night Sessions 11; and Addie Mae Collins, 14. The church had been used as headquar­ With a record-breaking registration of more than 500 delegates from affiliates ters in voter registration drives by SCLC, and organizations across the U.S., the seventh annual convention of the Southern was the meeting place for last year's con­ Christian Leadership Conference held in Richmond, Va., Sept.
    [Show full text]
  • SCLC Newslettter, August, 1963
    / \ .. t ' b l.. b., ~ :: r.cr:· u;!~ ~ ER~ .~ CHRISTIA N LEADERSHI P C ONFERENCE .·"' "• " ~: ~·'· !·: r;::~: " '.tf.>/J m INSIDE THIS ISSUE "' ~~ B'ham Keeping Promise Page 1 IJi mEditorial __ __ ___ ____ __ ___ _______ Page 4 t:j (iii: Dis & Data -------------------- Page 5 f:ii:. ~~:) Washington March _______ Page 2 )!))! ''''~ Quote & Unquote ---------- Page 4 t:: 1:11 Letters To SCLC ____ ____ __ Page 4 !: ;· Volume 1 August, 1963 Number 11 ll The SCLC Bookshelf ___ _ Page 7 =:=::: Birmingham Moves To End Segregation As Voter Drive Mounts The last ves tiges of segregation be­ gan crumbling in Birmingham, Ala. , on July 30 as lunch counters in the down­ town shopping area and outlying sub­ urban communities began desegregat­ ing their facilities and serving Negroes without incident. The move was part of a four-point settlement plan agreed to on May I 0 following a crucial five weeks of non-violent demonstrations, mass jailings and the use of fire hoses and vicious K-9 corps police dogs. The integration of Birmingham's lunch Artist's sketch (a bove) of new churches being erected on si te of rllins of bombed and bumed out counters in 14 stores within a two-day period churches in Southwest Georgia is imposing structure. Below, Jackie Robinson (foreground) and Rev. followed closely earlier "good faith" efforts Wyatt Tee Walker examine ruins of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Terrell County, Georgia. on the part of Birmingham authorities to live up to the agreement. Within a few days after the settlement was reached, the following were accomplished: 1.) Fitting rooms were desegregated (within three days) .
    [Show full text]
  • Celebrating Ella Baker and Her “Group-Centered Leadership”
    Celebrating Ella Baker and Her “Group-Centered Leadership” Reading One Ella Josephine Baker: A Brief Biography In recent years, groups in many different parts of the country—from North Carolina to Virginia to Maryland to New York—have lobbied local governments to commemorate a woman who was almost universally revered within the civil rights movement, but is less familiar to most Americans today: Ella Baker. While well-known figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. deserve to be honored, the life of Ella Baker highlights a different model of leadership and gives insight into the long and patient work of building social movements. While King is justly remembered as a powerful preacher and rousing orator, a political strategist and practitioner of nonviolent direct action, Baker calls attention to a more specific role: that of the organizer. Baker had a hand in building many of the most important organizations of the civil rights movement. She defied traditional gender roles of the time and elevated the contributions of women. She believed in deprioritizing charismatic leadership from above and instead empowering local participants to take charge of their own struggles for freedom. To understand Ella Baker’s life and work, it is important to understand her origins. Peter Dreier, a distinguished professor of political science at Occidental College, related the beginning of Baker’s story in an article for the Huffington Post: Born in 1903, Baker grew up in rural North Carolina not far from where her grandparents had been slaves. As a girl, Baker listened to her grandmother tell stories about slave revolts.
    [Show full text]
  • International Freedom Mobilization Program
    International Freedom Mobilization SUMMIT CONFERENCE OF BLACK RELIGIOUS LEADERS ON A~ARTHEID ~ Program Name _ Address _ Hotel Room _ International Freedom Mobilization SUMMIT CONFERENCE OF BLACK RELIGIOUS LEADERS ON APARTHEID April 17th through 19th, 1979 UNITED NATIONS CHURCH CENTER 777 United Nations Plaza New York City, New York Welcome To all conferees, who have come from near and afar, we wish you a most hearty WELCOME! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation, patience, encouragement - and most of all your prayers. We have an excellent agenda planned, and we trust you have all come in the spirit of joining efforts to improve thelot of our family in South Africa. We intend to make your short stay with us as productive and pleasant as possible. The INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM MOBILIZATION extends to you its most h~artfelt welcome. JANYCE E. BOLDEN Conference Co-ordinator - GENERAL INFORMATION Registration All conferees must wear the official badge during the sessions. Purchase Wednesday banquet ticket ($10.00) during registra­ tion. Emergency Message Center Incoming calls and messages during conference hours will be accepted at (212) 697-2115. Messages will be posted at message center on 2nd Floor of United Nations Church Center. Acknowledgements Special thanks to the United Methodist Church Center for the United Nations for their assistance and cooperation. Location of Sessions All sessions will be held on Second Floor of the United Nations Church Center unless otherwise indicated. Our volunteer staff, pages and hosts have been drawn largely from the graduate student boody of Union Theological Seminary.
    [Show full text]
  • To Eleanor Roosevelt the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
    The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project 6 Oct To Eleanor Roosevelt 1960 6 October 1960 Atlanta, Ga. SCLC’s New York ofice sent this letter convqring King’s thanks to the former First Lady for serving LIS a member of the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Strugglefor Freedom in the South. He asks her to endorse an enclosed mailing announcing that the temporary committee had become “apermanent body, to be known as the Emergency Committeefor the Southern Freedom Struggle.”’ Roosevelt expressed her “wholehearted approval” in a I 7 October reply.2 Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt 55 East 74th Street New York, New York Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: The days and nights have been so crowded with the unbroken chain of pres- sures and the urgent planning of new south-wide struggles, that I have been un- able to do many things I have wanted to do,-foremost among which is to ade- quately thank you for your invaluable assistance and support in connection with my recent legal battle with the State of Alabama.3 Considering that I was exonerated by an all white jury in the heart of the deep south, the victory of course had a significance far beyond my personal vindica- tion. It was a resounding defeat of the Reaction’s all out attempt to crush any and all southern leadership. Beyond that our joint support of the student sit-ins re- sulted in intergration of lunch counters in 70 southern cities in a period of less than six months. Because of all this the stage has been set for the next dramatic leap forward and everything indicates that the south is ready to move-Now.
    [Show full text]
  • (SCLC) and Martin Luther King Jr. Looked Back on What for Them Was a Dispiriting Year with No Resounding Successes to Propel the Movement Forward in the New Year
    TEACHER RESOURCE THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE OF THE BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN At the close of 1962, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Martin Luther King Jr. looked back on what for them was a dispiriting year with no resounding successes to propel the movement forward in the new year. The Albany Campaign First, the campaign for desegregation in Albany, Georgia, had been a failure. The SCLC had staked much of its leadership position in the civil rights movement on the Albany Campaign, where civil rights demonstrators were outmaneuvered by the city’s sheriff, Laurie Pritchett. The sheriff had prevented violent attacks by whites that would have brought demonstrators national attention and sympathy, moved arrestees to nearby towns, and, when King arrived hoping to use his jailing as a rallying point for civil rights forces, forced King’s release. Moreover, antagonisms had arisen between local leaders and the SCLC. The Integration of Ole Miss Second, one of the most dramatic civil rights events of 1962, the desegregation of the University of Mississippi by the enrollment of James Meredith, was struggle between the state—especially its governor, Ross Barnett—and the Kennedy administration, leaving civil rights organizations in general and the SCLC in particular, out of the picture. In the end, Meredith was enrolled in Ole Miss, but at the cost of much violence, including two lives lost, numerous U.S. Marshals wounded, and an invasion of federal troops. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Decline of the Civil Rights Movement Third, November 1962 saw the world come within a hairsbreadth of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
    [Show full text]
  • Photographs 1. King, James A. Dombrowski, Carl Braden, Anne Braden, Frank Wilkinson, and Coretta Scott King at Reception in Atla
    ILLUSTRATIONS Photographs 1. King, James A. Dombrowski, Carl Braden, Anne Braden, Frank Wilkinson, and Coretta Scott King at reception in Atlanta, Georgia 97 2. King and Ralph Abernathy at First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama 97 3. King, James Farmer, Wyatt Tee Walker, Ralph Abernathy, and John Lewis at press conference in Montgomery 98 4. King and others at planning session for the Freedom Rides in Montgomery 98 5. King and Gurdon Brewster at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta 99 6. King talks to press outside the White House 99 7. King and William G. Anderson are arrested by Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett 100 8. King shakes hands with Chuck Moran at E. C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia 100 9. King and Abernathy talk with reporters 101 10. King addresses mass meeting at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, on 12 July 1962 102 11. King, Ralph Abernathy, and William G. Anderson at Anderson's home in Albany 103 12. King, Anderson, and Coretta Scott King at mass meeting at Albany's Third Kiokee Baptist Church 104 13. King, Abernathy, and Anderson after their meeting with Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett 104 14. King, Constance Baker Motley, and William M. Kunstler leaves the court- house in Atlanta 105 15. King speaks at a mass meeting at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Albany on 24 July 1962 105 16. King and Walker at a press conference in Albany 106 17. King, Abernathy, and others at pool hall in Albany 107 18. King, Slater King, Charles Sherrod, Norma L.
    [Show full text]
  • Wyatt Tee Walker, Oral History Interview, 2015
    AFC 2010/039: CRHP0109 Wyatt Tee Walker and Theresa Walker Civil Rights History Project Interview completed by the Southern Oral History Program under contract to the Smithsonian lnstitution ~s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Library of Congress, 2014 Interviewees: Wyatt Tee Walker and Theresa Walker Interview Date: June 20, 2014 Location: Chester, Virginia Interviewer: David Cline Videographer: John Melville Bishop Length: approximately l hour, 13 minutes START OF RECORDING Female 1: From the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. DAVID CLINE: Good morning. It's June 20, 2014. My name is David Cline, and I'm here in Chester, Virginia, on behalf of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, to interview the Reverend Dr. Wyatt T. Walker. DC: I neglected to say thank you very much for meeting with us this morning. It' s quite an honor for me personally. WYATT T. WALKER: I appreciate the memories. My name is Wyatt T. Walker. I was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, August 16, 1928. My only claim to fame is that I was once chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. DC: That's quite a claim to fame. If I may, I'm always interested in how people's backgrounds influenced the way their lives later played out. So could you tell us a little bit about your family and growing up? 1 AFC 2010/039: CRHP0109 Wyatt Tee Walker and Theresa Walker WTW: I grew up as a preacher' s kid.
    [Show full text]
  • I:\Individual Historymakers\W\Walker, Wyatt\Interview Description
    Biographical Description for The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History with Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker PERSON Walker, Wyatt , 1929- Alternative Names: Walker, Wyatt , 1929-; Life Dates: August 16, 1929- Place of Birth: Brockton, Massachusetts Residence: Chester, VA (from ? to ?) Occupations: Civil Rights Activist; Pastor Biographical Note Pastor and civil rights activist Wyatt Tee Walker, also known as “The Harlem Preacher,” was born on August 16, 1928 in Brockton, Massachusetts to John Wise and Maude Pinn Walker. He attended primary and elementary schools in Merchantville, New Jersey and went on to attend Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, where in 1950 he earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry and Physics, "magna cum laude". He remained at Virginia Union and attended the Graduate School of Divinity, where he received his M.A. degree in 1953. Walker was heavily involved with the Civil Rights Movement as president of his local NAACP chapter and state director of the Congress of Racial Equality. He met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at an interseminary meeting, forging a connection that continued until Dr. King’s assassination in 1968. Walker, together with Dr. King, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957; he served as the organization’s third Executive Director in 1960 and helped Dr. King organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1964, Walker left the SCLC and worked as a marketing specialist for the Negro Heritage Library, which aimed to make African American history a more integral part of the revisionist school curricula. Three years later, Walker became the Senior Pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City, where he would serve for thirty-seven years.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Introduction And those people who are working to bring into being the dream of democracy are not the agitators. They are not the dangerous people in America. They are not the un-American people. They are people who are doing more for America than anybody that we can point to. And I submit to you that it may well be that the Negro is God’s instrument to save the soul of America. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2 January 1961 When forty-three-year-old John F. Kennedy took office on 20 January 1961 as the youngest elected American president, Martin Luther King Jr. had just turned thirty- two but had already risen to national prominence as a result of his leadership role in the Montgomery bus boycott that ended four years earlier. Early in 1957 he had become founding president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and subsequently was in great demand as a speaker throughout the nation. His understanding of Gandhian principles had deepened as a result of his 1959 trip to India, but, during the following year, college student sit-in protesters, rather than King, became the vanguard of a sustained civil disobedience campaign. Having already weathered a near-fatal stabbing and six arrests, King was uncertain about how best to support the new militancy. Moving to Atlanta to be near SCLC head- quarters and to serve as co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, he had assumed a wide range of responsibilities. He relied on his wife, Coretta Scott, to take the lead role of raising their two small children with a third due any day.
    [Show full text]
  • Time Magazine Names Dr. King 'Man of Year' SCLC PRESIDENT FIRST NEGRO to BE SO NAMED in 37 YEARS by Ed Clayton the Long Distance Call Was from New York
    SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Volume II January, 1964 Number 4 Time Magazine Names Dr. King 'Man Of Year' SCLC PRESIDENT FIRST NEGRO TO BE SO NAMED IN 37 YEARS By Ed Clayton The long distance call was from New York. It was James Keogh, one of two assistant managing editors of Time Magazine. "Hello?" "Yes?" "I'm Jimmy Keogh, one of the as­ sistant managing editors of Time maga­ zine. We're getting ready to do a kind of end-of-the-year story on civil rights and we want to use Dr. King on the cover. PROTEST IN ATLANTA-Touching off a protest mood in At­ The problem is that we'd like to get him lanta, Ga., because of the city's false image and refusal to to pose for one of our artists, rather than meet desegregation demands, a crowd of some 2,500 gathered try to paint a picture from a photograph. in freezing weather in Hurt Park on Dec. 16 to hear SCLC Think it can be arranged?" President Martin Luther King, Jr. (in photo at left) tell them I laughed. "That's really a big order. Dr. that "Negroes are disappointed with Atlanta." King has such a crowded schedule and is always on the go, it's almost impossible to get him to pose for a portrait photograph Three SCLC Staff Members Go To Jail to say nothing of posing for an artist's por­ trait. How long do you think he would have to sit?" In Desegregation Attempt In Atlanta "Maybe two or three sittings-say two or As direct action against racial injustice began to mount in Atlanta--often (Continued on Page 2) referred to as "the model city" in race relations in the South-three staff mem­ bers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were hauled off to jail the night of Jan.
    [Show full text]
  • View the Event Report
    THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT – THE CHESTERFIELD AND PETERSBURG EXPERIENCE POST EVENT REPORT CHESTERFIELD COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL OCTOBER 26, 2019 “We will walk until we are free, until we can walk to any school and take our children to any school in the United States. And we will sit-on, and we will kneel-in, and we will lie-in if necessary, until every Negro in America can vote. This we pledge to the women of America”. -Daisy Bates, 1963. A program of the Friends of Chesterfield County Public Library 1 | P a g e Lasting for two-hours, The Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement – the Chesterfield and Petersburg Experience manifested and gave life to the quote of Daisy Bates utilizing the softer pitch of Mrs. Theresa Ann Walker – the 91 years old woman and wife behind Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 – January 23, 2018). Many know the names of Civil Rights movement leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther and John Lewis. Yet, we know very little about the women behind the movement. As we commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the tumultuous 1960s and witness the resurgence of blackface images, church burnings, and hate crimes in America, it’s important to reflect on these individuals’ behind-the-scenes experiences, what motivated them, what hindered them and how their involvement impacted the struggle for equality. Yet, with tears on her eyes at times, Mrs. Walker walked the audience through the experience, the pain and the desperation of a period of our life where the social and economic ravages of Jim Crow era racism were all-encompassing and deep-rooted.
    [Show full text]