1/17/05 Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day. 2005

"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way.
Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into the Light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray."

James Weldon Johnson

I have witnessed the K.K.K in the south, Probably around 1966 or 67; when I was just about
7 or 8 yrs old.
It is strange though- my family being immigrants to this country& how the experience became mine to integrate into my understanding of who I am & what my country was and still is.

My father had wanted to explore this country. and so this could have taken place on our trip to Atlanta?. I don't know.

My most vivid memories have always been of sitting in the back seat of the family dodge dart while looking out the open back window of the prisoner jail gang. Each one manacled to the other while wearing the striped black and white jump suits.
From afar I coud see something on fire and my next memory was of our caron a dirt road in the middle of no-where. My father had parked the dodge dart on the left side of the road and had left my mother, brother and I to sit and wait while he had walked up the steps of the burning church across the street. With my face pressed to the window I watched my father knocking on the door as a frightened black man came to stick his neck out of the door.

Too small to remember words. I can recall imprints of feelings.

"There is nothing you can do.
Leave -it is too dangerous here."

Next we had arrived at a the beginning of a parade. Small town. I do remember red, white and blue banners. My father had parked the car vertically facing down the road. My brother and I were in the back seat with the windows down: other children like me arriving with their families and sitting up on the benches.

Then the parade came down the street.
and it wasn't.... a parade.

The first thing I saw was the white pine cross.
and next were K.K.K members riding on horses with the white outfits and pointed
covers for thier heads.

and my screaming. as if it had belonged to someone else.
My father yelling to my brother and mother to reel up the windows and my father turning to face my brother to push me down to the floor of the car so that it wouldn't bring any attention to them.

I don't remember much after that.

" Deep in my heart I do believe
We shall/will overcome some day"

Refrain from " We shall over come"
Sung by Pete Seeger



It is one of the very few family experiences that I have tried to discuss with my father.

In the past4 years I have been very lucky to meet people in my own age group on both side of the color line who remember the South as it was under the Klan and the civil rights movement& as the children that we were.

One friend's Father was involved in the civil rights protests here locally and told me the stories of how the training for the civil disobedience took place for the local coffee shops and what the training was like.
thru my work with the local Peace and Justice Center I have met people who as adults were involved in the local civil rights Protest Movement.
and vicariously I have met a man whose father was a southern white minister fight for civil rights in the south and one woman who had lived in rural part of the state. Who remembers more of the Klan in her area and the story of the dissapearances of black children and another whose Klan affilated father was head over heals into child Porn.

The only thing that I remember about Martin Luther King as a child was that he loved us.
He loved me because I was a child. As a white child growing up in N.Y.C that was the gift that I was given from M.L.K. and I cried when he was assasinated.

Today.
Thanks to the opportunities given to me from the local Peace and Justice Center. I have done extensive historical research on the women of this area and their involvement the civil rights movement. I found local heroines in the names of : Diane Nash and many more.