Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition
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C A L L
January 19, 2000
FEBRUARY FREEDOM DAYS
M O M EN TS IN CIVIL RIGHTS
HISTORY
pated. From Baptist Seminary, Fisk
University, Meharry Medical, and
Tennessee State, students descended
on N ashville’s First Baptist Church.
Then neatly dressed rows o f students
were dispatched to downtown sit-in
sites.
B y J a m s A dams :
‘As late as 1945, Portland w as
known as the ‘W orst C ity in Race
R e la tio n s N o rth o f th e M ason
D ixon L in e ,” ' w rote E dw in W.
Berry, executive secretary o f the
Urban League o f Portland, O regon.
It was “a N orthern City with a South­
ern E xposure.” Four years later,
the city had a different look and
feel. But had it really changed?
Hoping for a success story for their
F e b ru a ry 1949 “ B r o th e rh o o d
M onth” issue, editors o f the C hris­
tian R egister asked Berry for an
update.
Berry w ould cite a decline in
police brutality and gains in jobs,
public service, hom e purchases,
public schools, and n ew spaper cov­
erage o f blacks in stories unrelated
to crim e and sports. Portland had a
new appellation, the “N ation’s M ost
Im proved in Race R elations.” But
being the “m ost im proved” and be­
ing the “best” w ere tw o different
things. In 1945, B erry c re d ited
“greed, hate, and vested interests”
with keeping segregation alive. In
1949, Jim Crow w as dow n but not
TO
C5
A C T IO N
How does it feel
to be among those
who didn’t look
the other way?
Harlem finally got its “start” with a
W illiam s-hosted reception at the
Fund. A ttracting board members,
fans, and funds, and the choir per­
formed its first major concert seven
weeks later. Said Tumbull, “Music is
very magical, able to transform chil­
dren with no more than lint in their
To right the wrongs of the world takes strength
and conviction. We offer our humble thanks to
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those who do.
out. “H e’s a part o f the great m any
‘bystanders’...n eith e r a part o f the
forw ard looking citizens, nor o f
the reactionaries. O verw helm ingly -g
possessed with inertia (they are) <3
governed by tradition rather than by 2
conviction
c
So w hat helped create the new
atm osphere in Portland? N ature and
time. In 1948, a flood destroyed
the nearby city o f V anport. T w enty-
tw o th o u sa n d p eo p le
had
to
be
re lo c a te d .w ith in m in ­
utes, and there w as sim ­
ply no tim e for the Red
C ross to im plem ent seg ­
regation. Em ergency in­
terracial contact helped
forge change. W hen la­
bor leaders m ade deseg­
regated facilities a con­
dition for P ortland’s b e­
com ing their 1948 co n­
vention city, restaurants
and hotels changed for
the good o f their b usi­
nesses. Then there was
the issue o f vigilance.
C ity policy w as reg u ­
la rly d e c id e d on th e
“ c r u d e p r e m is e th a t
you’ll holler w hen you’re
hurt." W ith 300,000 indi­
pockets and honey in their throats
vidual pieces o f educational m ate­
On this Valentine’s Day, what could
into grand performers on the whole
rial on race relations, a PR cam paign
be more special than the love ofa chi Id
stage.” His love o f music had done
to broadcast m edia, a speakers bu­
just that. Love will fin d a way...
o f a child - or. better still, the love o f
reau, and library tables w ell stocked
thousands o f children - in other
words, the story o f the Boys Choir of
brary tables well stocked w ith hand­
Harlem and its founder. Dr. Walter
outs, the U rban League had decided
Pictured on the cover o f Time
Turnbull.
to holler - loud and often.
magazine’s February 18, 1957, issue
Walter Turnbull knew the trans­
was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the
formative powerofm usic. It had taken
Montgomery Bus Boycott’s twenty-
in 1926, Dr. C arter G. W oodson
him from the cotton fields o f Mis­
eight-year-old
hero. In its lead, the
launched the first N egro H istory
sissippi to the concert stages o f the
story
touted
“the
scholarly Negro
W eek. F o r th e g re a te r p a rt o f
w orld. A grad u ate o f T ougaloo
Baptist
minister
who
in little more
A m erican history, m ost blacks had
Coll/ege and Manhattan School of
than
a
year
has
risen
from
nowhere to
been forbidden to read and w rite by
Music, he wanted to share his love o f
become
one
one
o
f
the
nation’s
re­
law. W hen the laws w ere changed,
music. “My childhood may have been
markable leaders o f men.” Not only
we w ere still unable to read about
different from the one children ex­
had King not come from “nowhere,”
our historic selves because histo­
perience now adays in New York
as the son o f a prominent Atlanta
rians had system atically expunged
City,” he said. “But we share poverty
pastor-father and m usician-m other
the black presence from scholar­
and a sense o f hope and a desire for
iie had come from the pride o f a
ship. S tanding in the shade o f our
better things to come.” In 1967, he
people
who, 13 years later, wondered
own sun, m ost blacks neither knew
began a small boys choir at Harlem’s
where
all
the promises they had suf­
the history o f our people, nor knew
Ephesus Church while teaching in
fered
so
much
to exact had gone.
that there w as a history to be known.
the New York City schools. When a
So successful had the ‘m is-educa­
teacher’s strike divided loyalties and
tion,” as W oodson called it, been
put children “at risk” in the cynicism
that those w ho condem ned blacks
>ruary 27, 1965, a funeral
o f the adult crisis, Tumbull taught
as being devoid o f a culture and
cortege drove onto the grounds o f
throughout the strike. When he found
w ithout a past predating slavery
FemcliffCemetary in Hartsdale, New
him self faced with a music apprecia­
w ere actually believed. W oodson
York, bearing the body o f the man
tion class o f one hundred students,
sought to uplift an intellectually
bom Malcolm Little, who had come to
his choir idea came to the rescue and
devastated people - reinform ing the
be loved, revered, feared, and slain as
expanded his pool o f students to au­
w ay A frican A m ericans saw them ­
Malcolm X. On his pilgrimage to Mecca
dition for the church choir. But when
selves by filling in the m issing
the year before, he had found special
fire gutted the church, the boys choir
pages o f history.
peace, and would this day take his
barely lumbered along. Then, in 1974,
eternal rest as El Hajj Malik el Shabazz.
Tumhull was advised to set up a non­
As gravediggers stood at the ready to
profit corporation to attract the nec­
o S a t u m a y ^ e n r u a r y l 3 , 1960,
receive him, shovels in hand, the mourn­
essary funds to nurture his idea. For
inspired by G reensboro’s sponta­
ers said “no." They would bury Brother
that, however, he needed a strong
neous, successful, and fast-spread­
Malcolm themselves. They would dig
board o f directors. As chairman,
ing sit-in m o v em en t, N ash v ille
hchoped to attract Franklin Williams
aplaceofrest for “our prince." as he had
launched its own sit-ins. Just the night
- a former Civil Rights lawyer and
been eulogized in poetic elegy just
before. Rev. James Lawson had con­
hours earlier by his friend, the noted
ambassador to Ghana - who was then
v en ed w h at b e c a m e th e sit-in
actor Ossie Davis.
president o f the Phelps Stokes Fund.
m ovem ent’s first mass meeting. The
Williams didn't feel the idea was
This is an excerpt from the book
next morning he activated a plan in
right for him. But he offered to help
"Freedom Days ”. Permission for re­
which 500 students participated. From
attract others. On February 14,1975,
print was given by John Wiley and
Baptist Seminary, Fisk University,
a seven-year-old Boys C hoir o f
Sons, Inc.
M eharry M edical, and Tennessee
Bank of America honors
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bank of America.
www.bankofamerica.com
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AtSAFECO^ YveshqreDr, King 'sdream.
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•
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future guide the efforts of every employee and
manager
Managing diversity is an inclusive process of developing all our
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We are proud to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and pledge our
continued efforts to make his dream a reality.
S A F E C O
SAFECO Insurance Company.
4101 SW Kruse Way
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
www.safeco.com
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