Under the baobab: When any of us are unjustly persecuted, we all are
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. … Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We recently observed Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is important to remember that when any of us are unjustly persecuted we all are.
Sixty-two years ago, on the summer solstice in 1964, many of us gathered with fear and trepidation in Mississippi Freedom Houses: Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis, Charlie Cobb, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry. We were there because we had been called by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) to register Black folks to vote and to test the Civil Rights bill recently passed by Congress. At the time less than 1% of the Negroes had been allowed to register. The Voting Rights Act was still a year away.
The Mississippi Summer project was the brainchild of SNCC, CORE, SCLC and The National Lawyers Guild. College student volunteers, mostly white, had been recruited to join the Movement. The idea being that the KKK, White Citizens Council and other white supremacist groups would not attack or kill white people. We were wrong.
Sitting tensely and fearfully we waited to hear from three of our brothers: James Chaney, a native Black Mississippian, and Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two Jewish brothers from New York City. We never did. Their bodies were found weeks later. They had been lynched, by the KKK. As the authorities searched, they found several other bodies of Black folks killed by white supremacists. By killing them the racists hoped to scare away the white recruits.
It didn’t. I had come to Mississippi, scarred but committed. Not yet old enough to vote, I was haunted by the torturing and murder of a fellow Chicago teenager, Emmett Till, a few years before. Medgar Evers, president of the Mississippi NAACP had been gunned down in his driveway, in front of his family. My father had migrated to Chicago after watching the lynching of his friend.
We buried our comrades in separate graveyards. (Races were not legally permitted to mingle even in death.) Later we petitioned to be recognized by the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. We weren’t.
Martyrs for the cause have included people of all races, all beliefs. Jimmy, Andy and Mickey gave their lives so that all people would be free. Bonhoeffer, a Christian minister was executed by the Nazis for helping Jews escape persecution.
The struggle continues: Dozens of people marched from Pittsburgh to Moshannon Detention Center protesting the inhumane treatment of our people by ICE. Subu Vedam, recently exonerated after 42 years in prison, was detained in Moshannon the day of his release awaiting the result of an immigration appeal. Candles for Peace gather at the Allen Street Gates Mondays 5-5:30 p.m. Thompson Tuesdays stand 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Rep. Glenn Thompson’s Bellefonte Office.
Around town
Elsewhere in the community, Penn State Opera presented Non Piu Nascoste (Hidden No More) at the Recital Hall, directed by Dawn Pierce, with musical direction by Parker Konlle, based on an original script by Pierce, Beverly Patton, Marcia Tacconi and Cole Denton.
A packed hall listen to the pastiche opera, created by a collaboration of more than 50 students, faculty, staff and colleagues. Pierce and Tacconi had led seven grad students on an immersive research trip to Venice.
The School of Theatre (SOT) also sponsored a research trip for cast and crew to Detroit to prepare for the director project of Dominique Morisseau’s “Detroit 67,” directed by Marcus Jordan, featuring Kenikki Thompson, Jules Thermidor, Destiny Jean-Paul, Andrew Simmons and Maggie Danahue at the Downtown Theatre. SOT presented a contemporary production of Our Town, directed by Steve Snyder.
The 4th annual APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) Festival will be held on Saturday, April 18, at MLK Plaza from noon to 5 p.m. Happy Earth Day!
Charles Dumas is a lifelong political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2012. He is a Lions Paw honoree. He lives in State College with his wife and partner of over 50 years.