Page 12 The Skanner Portland & Seattle January 16, 2019
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tyson
cont’d from pg 11
“I am saddened by the pass-
ing of Rev. Dr. Vernon C. Ty-
son, whose fight for social jus-
tice in North Carolina will be
remembered for generations
“
ister in Oxford was central to
his son’s memoir, according
to the News & Observerin Ra-
leigh.
While the Civil Rights
Movement was in full flower
in the 1950s, “White back-
lash” marked much of the
1960s, and by 1970 the nation
was still in deep conflict with
Rosa Parks sat down, Martin
Luther King stood up, and some-
thing shifted in America
to come,” said North Caroli-
na Democratic Congressman
G.K. Butterfield.
“Vernon Tyson was like a
father and bishop to me and
the Moral Monday move-
ment,” said the Rev. Dr. Wil-
liam Barber, the architect of
the Forward Together Moral
Monday Movement and pres-
ident of the North Carolina
Chapter of the NAACP. “Of-
ten his presence in our midst
kept us focused and strong,”
Barber said.
NNPA President and CEO
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.,
also remarked on the passing
of Tyson.
“I personally and the NNPA
express our sincere condo-
lences to the family of the Rev.
Dr. Vernon Tyson. He was a
fearless freedom fighter in
the pulpits and on the streets
of North Carolina,” Chavis
said.
The Rev. Tyson’s work on
racial reconciliation as a min-
the ideals of racial equality,
the newspaper noted.
As Tyson wrote, “The sug-
ar-coated confections that
pass for the popular history
of the civil rights movement
offer outright lies” about the
racism and prejudice em-
braced by most White Amer-
icans.
Back then, a lot of White
people hated Black people
and made no bones about it.
Rev. Tyson’s first church ap-
pointment was in 1952, two
years before the U.S. Supreme
Court declared school segre-
gation unconstitutional.
“Rosa Parks sat down, Mar-
tin Luther King stood up, and
something shifted in Amer-
ica,” the Rev. Tyson has said,
according to the News & Ob-
server.
“I was caught on the front
lines of that dilemma. So, it is
that the struggles that I went
through lots of people went
through in my generation,”
Rev. Tyson said.
“My story is really the story
of people without number.”
Tim Tyson said he and his
father often traveled togeth-
er to talk about the book, and
his father was on set for ev-
ery day of shooting for a 2010
movie.
“My father has put a little
bit of ink on every page I’ve
ever published,” Tim Tyson
told the newspaper on Satur-
day after his father died.
The Rev. Tyson worked at
churches throughout the
state, including in Chapel
Hill, Sanford, and at Eden-
ton Street United Methodist
Church in Raleigh.
“Vernon was a great soul,”
said Hope Morgan Ward, a
bishop of the United Method-
ist Church.
“He was both a preacher
and a prophet and a pastor,”
she said.
“He was brave. He was
strong. He was a wonderful
husband, father and grandfa-
ther. He mentored many cler-
gy, including myself.”
Tim Tyson said his father
loved “a very broad range of
people,” including those who
disagreed with him.
“He taught us both with his
words and with his example
that you needed to have the
courage to be a prophetic
voice but that nobody can
hear you scolding them. No-
body can hear you if they
don’t understand that you
love and respect them.”
SPOTLIGHT:
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph Abernathy was a fellow
pastor and the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.’s chief aide during the
American civil rights movement.
Keep reading to out more about the
extraordinary life of this man.
Early Years
Born in Linden, Alabama, on
March 11, 1926, Abernathy was
the son of farmer William L.
Abernathy and Louivery Bell
Abernathy. After serving in
the Army during World War
II, he became a pastor and grad-
uated from Alabama State Uni-
versity and Atlanta University.
Abernathy first befriended
King after hearing him preach
in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist
Church.
Working for Justice
In 1952, Abernathy became
pastor of the First Baptist
Church in Montgomery. He
was also active in the NAACP
and chaired a committee on the
Brown v. Board of Education
ruling.
Abernathy and King helped
organize the Montgomery bus
boycott and the Montgomery
Improvement Association af-
ter the arrest of Rosa Parks for
refusing to give up her seat
on a city bus to a white man.
During the civil rights move-
ment, King and Abernathy
relied on and supported each
other, even being jailed togeth-
er 17 times.
As they had done in Mont-
gomery, King and Abernathy
worked together in Atlanta to
found the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, where
Abernathy initially served as
secretary-treasurer, then vice
president. After King’s 1968 as-
See ABERNATHY on page 13