2/15/17 Chatterbox
Betty Kaiser
Cottage Grove is famous for many things, including its
Bohemia Gold Mining district. But in my opinion, this entire area is a huge gold
mine of caring residents. Tucked into quiet neighborhoods in and around town, we
are blessed with so many people who are pure gold. They quietly contribute
their time and talents to make ours a better world.
Former resident Doug Still falls into that golden category.
I first knew him by reputation. At that time he had lived here for 31 years and
he focused his interests on energy and social issues. Among
other things, he was a founder of Jefferson Park, South Lane Mental Health,
EPUD and renown for building the solar energy-powered Cottage Restaurant
restaurant building.
In Feb. 2006 I was invited to be a
guest at a Rotary meeting where Doug was the speaker. Until then I did not
realize that his pre-Oregon life included a historical contribution to the
Civil Rights movement. I think it bears repeating in this African American
History month.
First, a historical reminder: In 1863 President Abraham
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves. I 1865 the
anti-slavery amendment was added to the Constitution and officially eliminated
slavery throughout the U.S. One-hundred years later, racial equality was still
being disputed in most southern states.
In the 1960s, beleaguered Black citizens all across the
South began calling upon Dr. Martin Luther King for help. This American Baptist
minister was also a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Beginning in 1955, he
advocated a fresh approach to civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience
based on his Christian beliefs.
In 1962 the Reverend Doug Still
was serving in Chicago as the executive director of the department of social
welfare of the Presbyterian Church Federation for four counties and 2200
churches. (He was a graduate of Union Theological Seminary and was ordained at
the historic Madison Ave. Presbyterian Church in New York.)
He began his Rotary talk by
saying, “One day a wire came to the Chicago clergy from Martin Luther King
saying that the people of Albany, Georgia needed help. They were in trouble and
needed us to come and stand with them in their efforts to desegregate the
city’s libraries, parks, schools, churches and hotels. (City officials were
closing them rather than integrate them).
“We formed a committee representing the three major
faiths,” he said, “and boarded a bus. About 50 of us — Catholic, Protestant,
clergy and lay people — rode about 800 miles to Albany to show our concern for
our brothers and sisters.
“We arrived at night and the next morning we
worshipped together (blacks and whites) and Martin Luther King spoke. Our
strategy was to gather in front of city hall and offer a very brief prayer. The
sheriff immediately arrested us and locked us up in jail. Even then we were
segregated with the black people being put in the stables at the fairgrounds.
Six days later, our bus left for Chicago, the most segregated city in the
north.”
In 1963 King gave his famous “I
have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. After
that, he won hundreds of awards including the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. The
nation was inspired by King’s “dream” speech but racial acceptance was slow in
coming and bloody in the process.
Later that year, many were injured
in riots when James Meredith was enrolled as the first black at the University
of Mississippi. In 1963 fire hoses and police dogs were turned on marchers as
they demonstrated in Birmingham, Alabama. Medgar Evers, the NAACP leader was
murdered. Four girls were killed in the bombing of a Baptist Church.
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
but three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. He then signed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 but Malcolm X was murdered and the Watts riots left
34 dead in Los Angeles.
State and local lawmen attacked
600 civil rights workers with billy-clubs and tear gas as they as they approached
the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965. The march from Selma to Montgomery,
Alabama for voting rights became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Things got worse, Doug said,
“Another wire came, asking the clergy and laity to come to Selma. We went down
but our efforts to march across the bridge were turned away twice and we
returned to Chicago. Later, the National Council of Churches asked me to go to
Greenwood Mississippi where I worked with black churches.”
Unfortunately, King did not live
to see his dream of peaceful coexistence come true. His voice was stilled by an
assassin’s bullet in 1968 and contrary to everything he believed in, the West
side of Chicago went up in flames. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom
Fortunately, King’s color-blind
dream didn’t die with him. Others like Doug Still took up the torch and
progress in racial equality has been made. Progress — not perfection. But when
the torch gets dim we can still hear King exhorting us to keep the dream
going: “Free at last! Free at
last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
Doug Still has also moved on to his heavenly reward. But he
will long be remembered by the legacy that he left of serving others locally
and across the nation. That day at Rotary he also left us with this thought:
“So, what do we learn from all of
this?” he asked rhetorically.
“Violence doesn’t work. Communication and dialog do.”
So, in the spirit of peace and
racial harmony, I leave you with this Biblical scripture quote: “Do unto others
as you would have them do unto you.”
Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox is about people,
places, family,
and other matters of the heart.
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