History and Memory

Mercury File Photo

Newstell Marable speaks to Pottstown Borough Council

For the last two weeks, I have been involved, one way or the other, with exploring the life and legacy of Newstell Marable, the long-time President of the Pottstown Chapter of the NAACP, who died Jan. 21 at the age of 84.

And in doing so, I have found myself musing on the relationship between history and memory.

History, as they say, is written by the victors and although that analogy mostly applies to military history, the grain of truth remains.

For those who live through it, history may not be how they remember, or it may be different than most people think of it because of a personal memory or experience.

Here's an example:

I was speaking to Newstell's widow Millicent recently, and we were talking about Newstell growing up in the south 80 years ago, the Civil Rights era and how what was happening nationally was also happening locally.

Among the many examples of she offered of Newstell standing up against discrimination and prejudice, she mentioned in passing his efforts to get a workers social club High Street, associated with the former Doehler-Jarvis plant, to admit African-Americans.

I reflected on the fact that it was ironic how a union, frequently considered the traditional foil of conservative views, would oppose inclusion of black workers.

But she corrected me, saying "well they weren't all like that. The UAW was pretty good. They provided three buses that we took down to Washington for the march."

"Which march was that?" I asked absent-mindedly.

"The March on Washington," she replied without any change of expression.

"The one where Dr. King spoke?" I asked, eyes widening.

"Yes, we were right at the corner of the reflecting pool."

"What was it like?" I asked, suddenly more focused.

Some of the photos on display at Newstell's service Saturday

"I just remember how quiet it was, how respectful everyone was being," Millicent replied. "One fellow got hit in the head with a sign, and he was bleeding. I know it hurt, but he didn't get upset."

That march happened on a hot August day, a year before I was born.

For me, it will never be anything but history; inspiring history to be sure.

King was a wonderful writer, one of those uncommon people who can marry intellect, education and passion into a single, undeniable narrative.

And he was an even better speaker. He knew how to use rhythm, repetition and intonation to turn words into music to reach into you beyond your reason, to something deeper.

I made sure when they were young that my son and whichever of his friends I could corral, watched video of King delivering his most famous speech. I wanted them to know why they were home from school that day. I wanted them to understand how important this was.

But although it can bring tears to my eyes, and reaches forward in time with its message, it is still history for me; a thing apart, something that happened before I was born and was experienced only by others.

For Newstell Marable and his wife Millicent though, it is memory. It has the ineffable quality unique to them and their personal experience.

This gives greater texture to the anecdote the Rev. Vernon Ross mentioned during Saturday's memorial service at Bethel AME Church; how after every service, Newstell would come up to Ross and say "still living the dream reverend."

For Newstell and others of that era, I was realizing this was not an pat phrase to utter, but a recognition of and re-dedication to something they had experienced in their lives. For them, that phrase is a reminder of how hot it was that day in Washington, those neighbors who rode the bus with them, how they felt when they first heard the speakers that day.

That will never be written in a history book, and is lost with the death of each holder of those memories.

But it is as important.

Because without those personal experiences of the people who pushed Civil Rights forward in this country, that history would have been written by someone else.

The flag on display Saturday recognized Newstell's service 

in the U.S. Army.

And as I thought about the stories she told me -- having a fire hose turned on them when they marched outside Sunnybrook Pool to protest its exclusion of blacks; being chased out the back door of a Boyertown church when they spoke up against the Ku Klux Klan; being barred entrance to a social club until a white person came along to take her inside -- I realized that just as we are now losing most of the generation for whom World War II was an experience to be remembered instead of a history to be learned, Newstell's death marks a milestone in the march of the history of Civil Rights as well.

It has made me realize that we are now losing those for whom the fight for Civil Rights was not a reason for a holiday, but a reason to get up in the morning.

And while the history will remain, the memories will not

Still, Saturday was an opportunity to pass some of those memories along.

At his memorial Newstell's sister, Margaret Seltman, wisely observed "I can't tell you the things about Newstell that you know, but I can tell you what I know."

"She talked about how Newstell was like the wind. "You don't see it, but when you see the trees all bend, you know its been there. That's what Newie was like."

She said when they were growing up in Alabama, three siblings would ride to church on the same bike: "Me on the seat, Juanita on the handlebars and Newie standing up, pumping the pedals."

"Now THAT is an image that suits Newstell," I thought to myself, "pushing progress forward and taking others with him."

And Bishop Everett Debnam, from Invictus Ministries, likened Newstell to snow saying, like snow, Newstell's love and desire to help others "just falls where it will."

That seemed right too.

So in a lot of ways, Newstell Marable was an elemental force, like the wind or the snow, something you can neither avoid nor deny if you are in its path.

And Ross was right too when he said "we need more like him."

After all, there's still more history to be made.

Remembering Dr. King

Photo by Tom Kelly III 

The 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration was held at The Hill School, as will this year's. 

The Annual Pottstown Community Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration will be held on 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19,  at The Hill School Center for the Arts.

The entire Pottstown Community is invited to share in this celebration as we remember the "Life and Work" of Dr. King. 

Organizers are asking those reading this to mark their calendar and encourage members of their congregation/ organization to attend. 

Local business, political, religious, education, student and community leaders are encouraged to attend

They hope to make this "our largest ever celebration given the fact that it was only a few months since we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the 'March on Washington,'" the Rev. Vernon Ross, pastor of Bethel AME Church, wrote in an e-mail received by The Mercury.

Please note that the offering this year will be given to the Pottstown School District to support its Math/STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Program.

"We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character …. That is the goal of a true education," King wrote in 1947 in the student newspaper of Morehouse College in an article titled "the purpose of education."

The Pottstown Community MLK Choir will be singing along with other Instrumentalist. Those interested in singing are invited to attend the upcoming Choir Rehearsals to be announced.  

Refreshments will provided by Wegman’s

Those who wish to be listed as a Participating Supporter, should confirm with Rev. RossVernon.Ross@LMCO.COM or 610-805-9084.

Youth Conference Latest Example of a Church on the Move

Dr. Victor Wyatt, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, center, was among the presenters at Bethel AME's first-ever Youth Conference held over last weekend and taught students about the science of fats and oils.

Over the weekend, Bethel African Methodist-Episcopal Church held it's first-ever Youth Conference featuring speakers and presenters not only on religious subjects, but also about science and social issues.

A few examples included career planning, parent and youth challenges, the science of fats and oils and understanding your potential.

In addition to Dr. Wyatt, the conference also welcomed Anthony Stevenson, a principal from the Radnor School District, Johnny Corson, 2011 graduate of The Hill School and a junior at Boston College, as well as Dwight Lamar, named best gospel and McDonald's Gospel Fest award winner, who was a guest solist.

Also performing were the newly formed Youth Choir.

"We were attempting to bring the youth off the streets for two days into various workshops, seminars, fun and games," said Bethel AME Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Vernon Ross. "We will even have workshops designed to help parents deal with the challenges of their youth." 

He said the youth conference is just the latest of several church initiatives.

"We have many food programs and we just started a youth choir and we are having health fairs on Sundays, the men are taking their ministry to the nursing homes, and people of all background, experiences, and color are joining the Church," Ross said. 

"We gave out five scholarships to high school graduates last year and they are all in college doing great. We gave out two scholarships this year and they plan to start college this fall," Ross said. "We are starting alcohol and drug abuse ministry, retention ministry, and prison ministry."

The church is also preparing a new capital campaign drive for the next phase of its new church project.

An artist's rendering of the plans for a new Bethel AME Church.

Have We Changed?

U.S. Supreme Court building

Well it's been an interesting week for Supreme Court news.

Many of those who believe you should be able to marry whomever you want cheered the decision undermining the Defense of Marriage Act and overturning California's Proposition 8, both of which opposed same-sex marriage.

Others also cheered the decision in which the justices refused to undo decades of Affirmative Action for minorities at the nation's major colleges and universities.

Both laudable in the extreme.

Of course it wasn't all good news.

President Lyndon Johnson and The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. after the signing of the Voting Rights Act

While the court helped the advance of civil rights in some quarters, it dealt a blow in others.

The decision overturning a portion of the landmark Voting Rights Act -- the portion which required nine states with a history of discrimination at the polls to get federal approval before making changes to their voting procedures -- was a step back.

(For those who may have missed it, I had a very interesting conversation with Bethel AME Pastor the Rev. Dr. Vernon Ross on this subject. Click here to read The Mercury article that resulted from that interview.)

But the door was left open on that decision as well.

The theory behind the law was not declared un-Constitutional, just the manner in which it was most recently re-authorized by Congress, in 2006.

When Congress acted that year, it used data from 1975 to justify the need for

Chief Justice John Roberts

continued federal oversight. Chief Justice John Roberts, in writing the majority opinion, in essence said "stop being so lazy congress. Do the work."

While "Congress" and "work" may indeed be the worst kind of antonyms and not much of a foundation for hope, Pennsylvania's senior senator is already pushing to do just that.

In reaction to the ruling, Sen. Bob Casey issued a letter to the Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging that the Senate immediately begin work on re-authorizing the portion of the Voting Rights Act the court struck down.

Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey

"There have been multiple reauthorizations of the VRA, most recently in 2006 with overwhelming bipartisan support, with the Senate voting 98-0 to reauthorize the Act," Casey wrote to Leahy.

In writing, Casey also took aim at Robert's rationale for his decision -- that "the nation has changed" since the law was first enacted in 1965:

While we have made significant progress as a nation, it is simply not the case that the protections of Sections 4 and 5 are no longer needed. In fact, since 2000, the Department of Justice has objected to proposed changes to state and local election laws 74 times, with ten objections taking place in 2012 alone.

We should not allow the successes of the VRA to be used to justify stripping the very provisions that allow for effective protection of the rights it guarantees. It is now the responsibility of Congress to pass legislation that will enable enforcement through Section 5 and continue to secure the right to vote to all of our citizens, regardless of race, national origin or language.

Already, states subject to the rule and which had attempted changes to state voting conditions the U.S. Justice Department had extreme doubts about, have announced their intention to move ahead; in the case of Texas, almost immediately.

Perhaps, that's just the kick in the pants our complacent nation needs.

Perhaps, the potential injustice of the changes Texas and South Carolina want to enact can be the key that unlocks Congressional grid-lock and displays the need for those protections to continue.

Consider that the Republican National Committee is already worried about the demographic changes that are coming, changes that will make former minorities the new majority.

They have tried to forestall those changes with exactly the kind of electoral tampering -- inherent in Pennsylvania's undecided voter ID law -- the Voting Rights Act was enacted to prevent; the kind of changes that minimize voices so long denied a voice proportional to their presence.

Some, like Jeb Bush, have recognized the Republicans have to deal with the reality on the ground instead of trying to create their own. 

Witness the passage of immigration reform in the Senate, a bill passed with the partial purpose of demonstrating to the coming Hispanic majority that Republicans are not united against them.

Can they really afford to make war on another minority; to, in essence, take back voting rights so dearly earned and enjoyed these last 50 years?

Is it possible that this decision could be a blessing in disguise; one that forces the nation to put Justice Roberts' belief that the country has changed to the ultimate test?

After all, if we truly have changed; if the need for that law was so universally obvious to 98 senators just seven years ago, is it not possible that Congress actually could act?

Could this be the basis of bi-partisan agreement?

That would indeed be evidence that the nation has changed; change we could believe in ....