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Sunday, February 18, 2007 5:59 AM CST
Wartburg to honor Reese at Tuesday convocation
Student killed in Sumner School District vehicle crash
NICC asks voters to approve bonds
Wartburg to honor Reese at Tuesday convocation
DISCLAIMER: The Courier provides our story commenting feature in order to solicit feedback, debate and discussion on topics of local interest. Please keep in mind that civility is a necessary component of productive conversation. All blatantly inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate comments (i.e. vulgarity, marketing, etc.) are subject to rejection and/or removal. Comments will appear if and when they are approved. For a more in-depth explanation of our policy, please see our Rules of the Road. Thanks for reading, and thanks for participating.
Wartburg to honor Reese at Tuesday convocation
By PAT KINNEY, Courier Business Editor
WAVERLY --- On Jan. 22, 1965, the Rev. Dr. Frederick Reese led a group of 105 fellow African-American school teachers. They went from a church up the steps of the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Ala.
The largest organized group of black professionals in the city, they wanted to express their displeasure with the county's exclusionary voter registration practices. Only about 175 of some 15,000 minority residents were able to sign up.
Three times they started up the courthouse steps. Three times they were pushed back, jabbed by billy clubs from sheriff's deputies.
The event became known as the Teachers March. It was not the end of their struggle.
Andrew Young had been a pastor at nearby Marion. Ala., but was by then executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He called the Teachers March "the most significant thing that has happened in the racial movement since Birmingham." In that incident four girls died and 22 people injured in a racially motivated bombing of a church Sept. 15, 1963.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and King got involved, resulting in the historic civil rights marches at Selma that resulted in passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Reese will receive an honorary degree from Wartburg College at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday during a convocation.
Reese is a native of Selma and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He developed a relationship with Wartburg faculty and students during school-sposored tours of historic civil rights locations in the South, one attended by Wartburg's president, Jack Ohle.
"I was just very delighted to have fellowship with representatives from the college here in Selma," Reese said. "We just had a very good time in terms of sharing my experience in Selma in the 1965 voting rights movement here.
"I've been invited to come to Wartburg and renew the kind of fellowship I've had with some members of the college."
Lake Lambert, an associate professor at Wartburg who teaches ethics and religion, got acquainted with Reese while working for the National Park Service as part of a research team. He was studying the Selma-to-Mongomery civil rights march for inclusion as a national historic trail. He interviewed Reese, an experience he describes as "very powerful."
Lambert maintained communication with Reese after joining Wartburg in 1996 and in about 2000 began a series of tours in the South. He said strengthening the faculty's and staff's understanding of the civil rights movement was important to help address issues of diversity and inclusion on campus.
After the Teachers March, additional violence resulted in Marion when state troopers converged on a congregation of voting rights activists. An Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmy Lee Jackson as he tried to protect fleeing family members during the assault by officers.
Local organizers sought Southern Christian Leadership Conference approval and support for a 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. The first march resulted in the Bloody Sunday confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma when sheriff's deputies and state troopers, under the direction of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, drove the marchers back with tear gas and clubs. Some officers rode through the demonstrators on horseback.
Reese was there.
"At the apex of the bridge, where you can look down on the other side, I saw a sea of blue, the blue helmets of state troopers," Reese said.
The marchers were ordered back.
"We decided we were not going to turn unless we were turned," Reese said.
The marchers were run down.
"They got out their billy clubs and began to beat heads," Reese said. "Such a sight I never thought would happen in the United States of America."
Those who continued the march walked through parallel lines of troopers, only to run into sheriff's deputies on horseback armed with long clubs.
Marchers returned to the Brown Chapel Church, and some questioned whether they should continue to pursue nonviolent strategies.
"Then the phone rang. It was Dr. King," Reese said.
The civil rights icon was in Atlanta at the time.
"He said, 'I understand you had it a little rough down in Selma.' I said, 'We had it a lot rough,'" Reese remembers.
"He sent out a message to all those who would come, to come to Selma."
A plane loaded with people from New Jersey of different colors and faiths flew to Montgomery and chartered a bus to Selma.
"They said 'We have seen what happened on television. We have heard the call from Dr. King. We are here to give our bodies,'" Reese said.
King led a second march to the bridge, where a prayer session developed pending a court hearing on whether the marchers could proceed to Montgomery. The demonstrators were under court order at the time preventing them from marching to Montgomery. A white Unitarian-Universalist minister from Boston, who came for the march, was fatally clubbed outside a cafe.
A federal judge ruled the Southern Christian Leadership Conference could proceed with the march, and President Lyndon Johnson ordered the Alabama National Guard to protect the participants.
The 50-mile march took three days. Marchers camped along the route at St. Jude complex at Montgomery the night before entering the city. While there, they were entertained by Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Reese walked into Montgomery with the Rev. Hosea Williams, co-leader of first Selma march, on one side and Coretta Scott King on the other. Alongside were Martin Luther King; the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and his wife; John Lewis, co-organizer of the first Selma march, later a Georgia Congressman; Phillip Randolph, who organized the 1963 civil rights March on Washington; and Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat under presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize.
The crowd, which Reese estimated at 50,000 people, went to the steps of the Capitol, where King delivered his "How Long? Not Long" speech.
"I sat on the platform and looked out over the sea of humanity, the sea of triumphant victory, going through all the trials and seeing now it was all worth it. We had the eyes and ears of Congress," Reese said.
President Johnson, with bipartisan support from fellow Democrats and prominent Republicans, such as Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, passed the Voting Rights Act. Johnson signed it into law that August.
Reese has retold the Selma story many times.
" ... I've lost count," he said.
"I give all credit to the Lord. It was he who brought us through the various trials and tribulations of that era."
While at Wartburg, Reese will be feted at a number of events on campus and participate in a panel discussion Monday night. Reese said he is pleased with the recognition.
"I'm honored."
Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com.
The largest organized group of black professionals in the city, they wanted to express their displeasure with the county's exclusionary voter registration practices. Only about 175 of some 15,000 minority residents were able to sign up.
Three times they started up the courthouse steps. Three times they were pushed back, jabbed by billy clubs from sheriff's deputies.
The event became known as the Teachers March. It was not the end of their struggle.
Andrew Young had been a pastor at nearby Marion. Ala., but was by then executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He called the Teachers March "the most significant thing that has happened in the racial movement since Birmingham." In that incident four girls died and 22 people injured in a racially motivated bombing of a church Sept. 15, 1963.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and King got involved, resulting in the historic civil rights marches at Selma that resulted in passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Reese will receive an honorary degree from Wartburg College at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday during a convocation.
Reese is a native of Selma and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He developed a relationship with Wartburg faculty and students during school-sposored tours of historic civil rights locations in the South, one attended by Wartburg's president, Jack Ohle.
"I was just very delighted to have fellowship with representatives from the college here in Selma," Reese said. "We just had a very good time in terms of sharing my experience in Selma in the 1965 voting rights movement here.
"I've been invited to come to Wartburg and renew the kind of fellowship I've had with some members of the college."
Lake Lambert, an associate professor at Wartburg who teaches ethics and religion, got acquainted with Reese while working for the National Park Service as part of a research team. He was studying the Selma-to-Mongomery civil rights march for inclusion as a national historic trail. He interviewed Reese, an experience he describes as "very powerful."
Lambert maintained communication with Reese after joining Wartburg in 1996 and in about 2000 began a series of tours in the South. He said strengthening the faculty's and staff's understanding of the civil rights movement was important to help address issues of diversity and inclusion on campus.
After the Teachers March, additional violence resulted in Marion when state troopers converged on a congregation of voting rights activists. An Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmy Lee Jackson as he tried to protect fleeing family members during the assault by officers.
Local organizers sought Southern Christian Leadership Conference approval and support for a 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. The first march resulted in the Bloody Sunday confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma when sheriff's deputies and state troopers, under the direction of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, drove the marchers back with tear gas and clubs. Some officers rode through the demonstrators on horseback.
Reese was there.
"At the apex of the bridge, where you can look down on the other side, I saw a sea of blue, the blue helmets of state troopers," Reese said.
The marchers were ordered back.
"We decided we were not going to turn unless we were turned," Reese said.
The marchers were run down.
"They got out their billy clubs and began to beat heads," Reese said. "Such a sight I never thought would happen in the United States of America."
Those who continued the march walked through parallel lines of troopers, only to run into sheriff's deputies on horseback armed with long clubs.
Marchers returned to the Brown Chapel Church, and some questioned whether they should continue to pursue nonviolent strategies.
"Then the phone rang. It was Dr. King," Reese said.
The civil rights icon was in Atlanta at the time.
"He said, 'I understand you had it a little rough down in Selma.' I said, 'We had it a lot rough,'" Reese remembers.
"He sent out a message to all those who would come, to come to Selma."
A plane loaded with people from New Jersey of different colors and faiths flew to Montgomery and chartered a bus to Selma.
"They said 'We have seen what happened on television. We have heard the call from Dr. King. We are here to give our bodies,'" Reese said.
King led a second march to the bridge, where a prayer session developed pending a court hearing on whether the marchers could proceed to Montgomery. The demonstrators were under court order at the time preventing them from marching to Montgomery. A white Unitarian-Universalist minister from Boston, who came for the march, was fatally clubbed outside a cafe.
A federal judge ruled the Southern Christian Leadership Conference could proceed with the march, and President Lyndon Johnson ordered the Alabama National Guard to protect the participants.
The 50-mile march took three days. Marchers camped along the route at St. Jude complex at Montgomery the night before entering the city. While there, they were entertained by Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Reese walked into Montgomery with the Rev. Hosea Williams, co-leader of first Selma march, on one side and Coretta Scott King on the other. Alongside were Martin Luther King; the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and his wife; John Lewis, co-organizer of the first Selma march, later a Georgia Congressman; Phillip Randolph, who organized the 1963 civil rights March on Washington; and Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat under presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize.
The crowd, which Reese estimated at 50,000 people, went to the steps of the Capitol, where King delivered his "How Long? Not Long" speech.
"I sat on the platform and looked out over the sea of humanity, the sea of triumphant victory, going through all the trials and seeing now it was all worth it. We had the eyes and ears of Congress," Reese said.
President Johnson, with bipartisan support from fellow Democrats and prominent Republicans, such as Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, passed the Voting Rights Act. Johnson signed it into law that August.
Reese has retold the Selma story many times.
" ... I've lost count," he said.
"I give all credit to the Lord. It was he who brought us through the various trials and tribulations of that era."
While at Wartburg, Reese will be feted at a number of events on campus and participate in a panel discussion Monday night. Reese said he is pleased with the recognition.
"I'm honored."
Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com.
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DISCLAIMER: The Courier provides our story commenting feature in order to solicit feedback, debate and discussion on topics of local interest. Please keep in mind that civility is a necessary component of productive conversation. All blatantly inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate comments (i.e. vulgarity, marketing, etc.) are subject to rejection and/or removal. Comments will appear if and when they are approved. For a more in-depth explanation of our policy, please see our Rules of the Road. Thanks for reading, and thanks for participating.
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