Speakers Urge Renewal
Of Civil Rights Fervor
Four longtime civil rights activists,
each of whom has gained national recognition in different arenas during the lasr
20 years, sought to rekindle the spirit of
the early civil rights movement on the
N.C. A&T State University campus Friday.
Andrew Young, former United States
ambassador to the United Nations, was
among the speakers who participated in
a student celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins. He
was joined by Dr. Mary Berry, former
undersecretary of the U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Welfare, the
Rev. Ben Chavis, key figure in the Wilmington 10 case, and Cleveland Sellers,
once a leader of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee.
Each seemed to employ similar
themes of a rising tide of complacency
among blacks since the 1960s as they
challenged the students to begin again
non-violent action to eradicate racism
and poverty in America.
They also individually endorsed today's Greensboro anti-Klan march and
rally in support of a new era of civil
rights activism.
H Photo By John Page
Andrew Young
"I nope you will be a part of the number that no man can number at the
march tomorrow," said Young, speaking
before more than 4,000 people at an afternoon convocation inside A&T's Moore
Gymnasium. "And I hope that you will
see this not as a march celebrating
something that went on in the past but a
march that begins to unite the spirit of
our people and all people of good will
in pressing forward on the agenda which
has yet to immerse black people in this
state and elsewhere that will lead us
triumphantly through the '80s."
Young, however, will not be a participant in the march. He said he is going to
Nigeria today to confer with Nigerian
government officials and to help dedicate a large, black-owned business there.
Young called Friday "a celebration of
an awakening of America's conscience,"
•";-row»-ccrrnmemoKition activities seemed reminiscent of the kind or
hand-clapping, religious joyousness that
stoked the internal fires of the original
sit-in participants.
When Young spoke, the gymnasium
was transformed into a black church. He
orchestrated the crowd from one emotion to another with oratory full of biblical allegories tied to history.
Young recaptured the essence of the
civil rights movement when he told a
story of frightened but determined civil
rights demonstrators in Alabama:
As the demonstrators approached the
Birmingham jail, they were met by Police Chief "Bull" Connor, fire trucks and
police dogs, Young said. "The demonstrators got down on their knees in their
Sunday-go-to-meetin's, and they didn't
have to tell anybody to pray because
they were scared."
One of the marchers started to sing a
gospel hymn, he continued, his voice
taking on a black Baptist minister's fervor, "and before long you had about
10,000 black folks moaning. And somebody prayed, and somebody shouted,
and somebody cried, and then somebody
jumped up and said, 'Doggone it, the
Lord is with this movement.' "
Laughter.
At that moment, Young said, "the police dogs dropped their heads and started wagging their tails," the police
officers "had tears in their eyes," and
the firemen, armed with high-pressure
fire hoses, dropped their nozzles.
Greenlboro Daily News, Fri., Feb. 1,1980
