By JACKIE MAJERUS
Press staff
BRISTOL – With song, dance, personal reflections and words of inspiration, a community celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day drew about 60 people to Memorial Boulevard School Monday.
"I am truly pleased," said Nicole Walker-Massari, president of the Bristol branch of the NAACP, which hosted the event. "We had a great time here."
Walker-Massari urged those who are not members of the NAACP to join the organization, which meets the second Thursday of the month in the Bristol Public Library.
"It's a matter of community," Walker-Massari said, adding that the $30 yearly membership costs about as much as a pair of shoes.
Speakers talked about gains made through the civil rights movement – and the hurdles still to clear.
"We all like to believe that we've taken great strides," said Mayor Art Ward. But he said, "We have a long, long way to go."
Ward said a look at the presidential race and the many questions of whether America is "ready" for a black president, a woman president or a Mormon president shows that people are still judging candidates on their skin color, gender and religion.
"The questions don't center on their ability to make decisions that ultimately affect the welfare of all of us," said Ward, or on the candidate's work or experience.
"It's quite obvious that we still do practice segregation in this country," Ward said. "Let us not become complacent in believing that our work is over. Mutual respect for all human beings will continue to be a work in progress. Mutual respect should be a goal for us all."
Bob Brown, who teaches at Tunxis Community College and initiated the school's African-American history class, talked about growing up in a Southern white family in the 1950s.
Some of his ancestors owned slaves, said Brown, who said it's not something he's proud of.
Brown called King "the greatest American in my lifetime."
While his family was "deeply sympathetic to the movement of social justice," Brown said he struggled to understand "the unfair advantage" that he enjoys as a white person.
"I have lived my life in a different place than my fellow citizens who are African American," said Brown.
The Rev. Stanley Kemmerer of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bristol recalled being among the "hordes" of people in Washington, D.C. in August 1963 when King gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
"It was as hot as today is cold," said Kemmerer, who said the experience put him "at the epicenter of history" and changed him forever, for the good.
Girls from the Mt. Zion Dance Ministry in Bristol offered a spiritual dance during the program, and young women from Grace Apostolic Church in Terryville got heads bobbing and hands clapping with their songs.
Kevin Barnett read King's "I Have A Dream" speech.
The celebration commemorating King was in jeopardy earlier this month when city usage rules required an insurance policy that the tiny organization couldn't afford.
Initially, school Superintendent Phil Streifer and the mayor offered to personally share the cost, which was about $100. But then an anonymous donor sent in the necessary funds, and Streifer and Ward's offer was no longer needed.
Walker-Massari thanked them for their willingness to cover the insurance fees, and also recognized city Councilor Craig Minor and his wife, Laura Minor, who are NAACP members, for helping to organize the celebration.
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Showing posts with label Kemmerer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kemmerer. Show all posts
January 21, 2008
Bristol priest recalls hearing "I Have a Dream" speech in person
By JACKIE MAJERUS
Press staff
BRISTOL – As a college student in 1963, the Rev. Stanley Kemmerer rode a bus from Vermont to Washington, D.C. on a "lark" and heard one of the most famous speeches of history.
It changed his life.
Kemmerer, the priest in charge of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bristol, took part in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington and heard his historical "I Have a Dream" speech.
Monday, Kemmerer spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Bristol, telling the story of his life-changing journey.
Kemmerer said he was home for the summer and "minding my own business" in his small town in Vermont when a fellow parishioner asked him to attend the march.
"I like to travel. It sounded like a lark," said Kemmerer. "Why not? I said yes."
It wasn't until his parents expressed concern that he would be traveling to the South for a demonstration that he began to get a little scared, he said.
But parish leaders were going, and his parents allowed him to go along. On the bus, the mood was one of being part of a larger movement, Kemmerer said.
"Yes, there was apprehension, but there was excitement and hope," he said, adding that in retrospect the night may have felt like the one experienced by the villagers around Lexington and Concord in April 1775 as they waited for the Redcoats to arrive.
Nothing in Kemmerer's life prepared him for the experience he had in Washington.
"My town, my college, my home parish and my world were lily white," said Kemmerer, who said he knew then how to "talk the talk" but not how to "walk the walk."
On that hot, sunny and humid day in Washington, the young Kemmerer was impressed with the civility that carried the day.
"The day was not what I expected," said Kemmerer. "The violence we feared did not occur."
Still, Kemmerer said, "It was wall to wall people."
As it turned out, to hear the speech, Kemmerer and some of his traveling companions had to listen on the radio inside their bus.
"I remember the words. I remember the emotion. I remember the people," said Kemmerer.
King's speech, said Kemmerer, was "profoundly honest, yet free of malice."
It showed the tremendous power that one person has to make change, according to Kemmerer, who said King's speech and the march for jobs and freedom was his "introduction and conversion to walking the walk."
A few years later, as a student in Berkeley, Calif., Kemmerer said, things weren't so peaceful anymore. He smelled teargas, crossed military checkpoints and encountered the National Guard, all on American soil.
His experience at the march on Washington, Kemmerer said, helped prepare him for protests against the war in Vietnam, for work on Chicago's South Side and for work in the ministry.
King's speech, Kemmerer said, was "a major influence on my preaching, teaching" and on his belief that religious convictions and ideals such as peace, justice and equality must be accompanied by action.
Forty five years after that sweltering summer day in the nation's capital, Kemmerer said he was struck that his young man's "lark" would place him "at the epicenter of history."
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Press staff
BRISTOL – As a college student in 1963, the Rev. Stanley Kemmerer rode a bus from Vermont to Washington, D.C. on a "lark" and heard one of the most famous speeches of history.
It changed his life.
Kemmerer, the priest in charge of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bristol, took part in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington and heard his historical "I Have a Dream" speech.
Monday, Kemmerer spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Bristol, telling the story of his life-changing journey.
Kemmerer said he was home for the summer and "minding my own business" in his small town in Vermont when a fellow parishioner asked him to attend the march.
"I like to travel. It sounded like a lark," said Kemmerer. "Why not? I said yes."
It wasn't until his parents expressed concern that he would be traveling to the South for a demonstration that he began to get a little scared, he said.
But parish leaders were going, and his parents allowed him to go along. On the bus, the mood was one of being part of a larger movement, Kemmerer said.
"Yes, there was apprehension, but there was excitement and hope," he said, adding that in retrospect the night may have felt like the one experienced by the villagers around Lexington and Concord in April 1775 as they waited for the Redcoats to arrive.
Nothing in Kemmerer's life prepared him for the experience he had in Washington.
"My town, my college, my home parish and my world were lily white," said Kemmerer, who said he knew then how to "talk the talk" but not how to "walk the walk."
On that hot, sunny and humid day in Washington, the young Kemmerer was impressed with the civility that carried the day.
"The day was not what I expected," said Kemmerer. "The violence we feared did not occur."
Still, Kemmerer said, "It was wall to wall people."
As it turned out, to hear the speech, Kemmerer and some of his traveling companions had to listen on the radio inside their bus.
"I remember the words. I remember the emotion. I remember the people," said Kemmerer.
King's speech, said Kemmerer, was "profoundly honest, yet free of malice."
It showed the tremendous power that one person has to make change, according to Kemmerer, who said King's speech and the march for jobs and freedom was his "introduction and conversion to walking the walk."
A few years later, as a student in Berkeley, Calif., Kemmerer said, things weren't so peaceful anymore. He smelled teargas, crossed military checkpoints and encountered the National Guard, all on American soil.
His experience at the march on Washington, Kemmerer said, helped prepare him for protests against the war in Vietnam, for work on Chicago's South Side and for work in the ministry.
King's speech, Kemmerer said, was "a major influence on my preaching, teaching" and on his belief that religious convictions and ideals such as peace, justice and equality must be accompanied by action.
Forty five years after that sweltering summer day in the nation's capital, Kemmerer said he was struck that his young man's "lark" would place him "at the epicenter of history."
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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