Last tine you were talking about volunteering in the community.
Right. And I want to pick it up from there. But two subjects are somewhat intertwined.
How is that?
About the same time — in the early 1960s — I became aware of a local problem and I joined a church. Let’s see if I can sort it out.
Okay.
I had moved to Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
And I came to realize how racially segregated life was around there.
Including the schools. In Severna Park, all the young black kids were sent to Jones Elementary. Even if a kid lived next door to one of the several elementary schools, that kid was sent to Jones Elementary.
And black students of high-school age were loaded on buses and driven 8 miles down the highway to Annapolis. To Bates Junior High and Bates Senior High.
Not good.
Not at all.. And I wasn’t sure what I could do about it.
What did you do?
Well, about the same time I became aware of a Unitarian Church in Annapolis. And I joined. After a few years, the Unitarians merged with a like-minded organization, the Universalists, to form the UUA.
Anyway, the minister there, the Rev. Carl M., saw I was bothered by the segregated way the county was operating, and he brought me to a meeting. He told me about a local branch of the NAACP, and he took me to a meeting of their youth group. Several of the black teenagers were preparing to sit in at a local lunch counter to protest the discrimination in public accommodations.
It had been done in other cities, and the movement was taking hold in Annapolis. At this meeting the teens were being taught self-discipline. To not resist arrest at the lunch counter, no matter how roughly they might be treated. They simulated an arrest, with some playing the protesters and some the arresting officers.
And?
When the day came, Carl and I stood outside the lunch counter, watching how it went.
And?
And it went quite well. The police were called, and they arrested the protesters, the same way it had been done in the practice session. With no violence. And I wound up joining the NAACP and its Anne Arundel County branch.
So you see how the church and civil rights were intertwined in my life?
I see.
And I’ll get back to my civil-rights experiences later, but let me say a little more about my church experiences, now that I’m on the subject.
Okay.
It wasn’t long before I was elected to the church Board of Trustees.
And I chaired the Adult Programs Committee. I attended Sunday services, but I was most interested in other activities.
Like?
Well, we had discussion groups on various subjects. Some on Unitarianism. Some on existentialism.. We even explored ESP — extra-sensory perception — at one point.
And then there was the statewide Unitarian organization. Or almost statewide. The Maryland Area Council of Unitarian Universalist Societies.
What was that?
Well, our minister, Carl M., and the minister of the Baltimore Unitarian Church, the Rev. Irving M., got together and thought they should encourage the forming of an organization of all the Unitarian societies in the state. To improve communication. To educate each other. To hold joint workshops on various subjects.
Okay. And you were involved?
Very. Carl asked me to chair an organizational meeting. I invited representatives from all the churches and fellowships — societies without ministers — and chaired the meeting.
We had reps from all over the state except right around D.C. Those groups explained that they felt more aligned with Washington. Which was okay. We had plenty of interest from the rest of the state. And guess who the reps elected to lead the new association.
You?
Yep. I think it was a setup. I think the two ministers had me in mind all along.
But you didn’t mind?
Nah. It was fun in the long run. We had some good meetings. Good workshops. On a variety of issues. Church services. Music. Education. Social action.
Which brings us back to the civil-rights issue.
What was that?
Well, a group of us formed our church’s chapter of the Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice. UFSJ, for short. While other groups or committees might be interested in other aspects of church life, we were interested in social action.
In what way?
In the various kinds of racial discrimination back then. The segregated lunch counters. Restaurants. Hotels. Movie theaters. In short, public accommodations. Places advertising that they were open to the public yet they were excluding people because of their race.
\What did you do?
Well, for instance, one day a committee of the state legislature was holding a hearing on a public accommodations bill.
We drafted a position paper supporting the bill, and I presented it to the committee chairman.
How did that go?
Not well. But we knew that going in. We knew the committee chair was against the bill, but we thought it necessary to express our view anyway. The bill didn’t pass.
Too bad.
Yeah. But we didn’t stop there. We picketed.
Where?
Once at a restaurant. Where they ignored a black couple waiting to be served, even though they had come in before us.
Another time it was outside the governor’s home. We wanted him to pressure the legislature. Of course, that didn’t work. He was just as resistant.
So what did happen?
Actually, not much happened on that front until the federal government joined the fray.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s leave it for now.
Okay.
See you next time.