The Summer of 1963
Rev. Sharon K. Dittmar
First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati
536 Linton Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
513.281.1564
August 11, 2013
Introduction to the Summer of 1963
On June 11, 1963 President John F. Kennedy, gave a speech on civil rights and the need for
the Alabama National Guardsmen to insure the admission of two black students to the
University of Alabama. It was eight years since Ms. Rosa Parks refused to take a seat at the
back of the bus, inaugurating the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was two years since the
Freedom Riders challenged segregated buses in the south, surviving governmental, FBI and
KKK collusion, beatings, firebombs, mobs, and the threat of lynching. Riders included
blacks and whites, men and women, such as Stokley Carmichael, William Sloane Coffin,
John Lewis, Diane Nash and Fred Shuttlesworth. The controversial Nation of Islam was on
the rise.
If the Montgomery Bus Boycott surprised people, violent images from the Freedom Rides
distressed a mostly racially complacent nation. When Kennedy spoke on June 11, change
and discord was in the air. Kennedy mentioned the right every American should have to
register and vote and use public accommodations. He noted that “Negroes” were half as
likely to graduate from high school as their white counterparts and that they were two times
as likely as their peers to face unemployment. He urged every American to “stop and
examine his conscience.” He proclaimed “Law alone cannot make men see right. We are
confronted primarily with a moral issue . . . whether all Americans are to be afforded equal
rights and opportunities.”
Down in Jackson, Mississippi, WWII veteran and civil rights activist, Medgar Evers,
continued his work as the Field Secretary for the NAACP. As Field Secretary he had
investigated the murder of Emmet Till. In the previous three weeks he had survived two
attacks on his life, one a firebomb, the other an attempted hit and run. On the evening of
June 12, one day after President Kennedy implored Americans to stop and examine their
conscience, Evers was shot dead outside his home while his family hid inside. He was 37
years old. Although buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors, it would take
three trials and 31 years, before his Medgar Evers’ killer was brought to justice.
By early summer 1963 it was the best of times and the worst of times for those hoping for
racial progress. Many put great hope in President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney
General, Robert Kennedy. Young people believed they were going to change the world.
Slowly, inch by inch, civil rights legislation crept through Congress. Maybe, just maybe we
would pass through this hard night of hate into the American dream.
Fran Turner wrote to me
It was impossible for me to stay away from the tv news broadcasts during the 60’s.
Both Vietnam and Civil Rights movement had me glued to the set in fascinated
horror. My children were 11, 9, 7, and 3 in 1963 and I was pretty strict about what
they were allowed to see on television. No violence, of course. So when they began
watching the evening news with me the summer of 1963, I was torn. I did not want
them to see fire hoses turned on children and teenagers. I did not want them to see
the hatred in white folks faces as they accosted blacks. It was so much worse than
any tv program. And yet, and yet, this was their world and they had to know about it.
To shield them, I thought, would be a disservice (and anyway, I needed their
companionship).
On August 28, 1963 over 250,000 Americans gathered in Washington D. C. in one of the
largest human rights rallies, entitled “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.”
The press and others anticipated chaos and a riot. Instead, marchers peacefully gathered,
celebrating their hopes for America. Under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial the great
Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson performed as well as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and
Peter Paul and Mary singing “If I Had a Hammer.” Josephine Baker attended, as did Rosa
Parks, march director, A. Philip Randolph, and UU, and founder of the modern Urban
League, Whitney Young. Of course the speech we remember today was the one given by
President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
He preached that 1963 “is not an end but a beginning.” Perhaps freedom would ring in
1963.
Reading
Offertory
excerpt from "I Have a Dream" (1963)
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
"If I Had a Hammer"
Reflections on 1963
August 28, 1963 was a great day for America. A day of promise we recognize 50 years later.
It was the best of times. In his speech King shared his dream for all little boys and girls, and
for America. It is the dream many of us hold today.
Just two weeks later this dream was temporarily shattered in the ruins of the 16th Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. On Sunday, September 15, 1963 white
supremacists placed bombs in the church which later exploded killing four girls; Addie Mae
Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson. It was the worst of times.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes it is the worst of times that makes us come alive? For
many who had not yet examined their conscience, or spoken out in support, something
changed. Gaut Ragsdale remembers that afternoon in Knoxville, Tennessee.
I was in the side yard that afternoon and my mother, Mary Willis Ragsdale, was
working nearby in her flower beds near our front door. Being in the yard was a
Sunday routine for my mother that typically followed Sunday school and church, a
big lunch, and a nap. The routine was broken that day when WKGN’s 3 p. m. radio
news report began: the lead story reported on a violent morning blast in a
Birmingham, Alabama Baptist church that killed four children – all “young Negro
girls” in the Sunday school section of their church. Being in the side yard I did not
hear the news, but later I wandered over in the vicinity of my mother. She raised up
from weeding, leaned on her garden hoe and paused as she was contemplating what
to say to me, her 12 year old son. She repeated the news and told me about the
bombing. She paused again – looked away for a moment, and then turned back with
an intensity in her face I’d never seen. She said slowly and emphatically – and I had
never, ever, heard my mother use such language: “Gaut, I hope they catch the
BASTARDS that killed those little girls.” At 12, I knew you weren’t supposed to kill
people, but what I learned that Sunday was just how cruel my mother thought the
church bombing was, and how much she grieved for those innocent little girls and
their families, and how much she despised the depraved individuals that murdered
them.
Solo
"Birmingham Sunday"
Chimes for the Four Little Girls
Addie Mae Collins
Denise McNair
Cynthia Wesley
Carole Robertson
Our Call to Action 50 Years Later
It was not an end, but another beginning. The story of civil rights and economic justice in
America is heartbreaking, and still the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards
justice, it is just that the arc is long and the path so hard. In the course of the next five years,
we witnessed the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Robert Kennedy. We are haunted by their deaths and miss them still.
I spoke to a member here this week who told me that she still feels awful about the 60’s, that
her generation was supposed to fix everything, that they were so idealistic, and it is all still
such a mess. If I can give a shout out to those of you young or active in the 1960’s, things
have changed. You did change the world. The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 and the
Voting Rights act a year later (stop – DO NOT mourn the Supreme Court Voting Rights
decision of this past June right now. If we do not celebrate the successes we will not stay in
the race. And what we are called to do is remain).
Since 1963 there has been integration of schools, housing, and transportation. I was born in
1966 and I have never seen a “white only sign.” You of that generation did succeed in part.
You did. I know it wasn’t all you dreamed, for you were optimistic, but you succeeded.
Stony the road we trod and after one barrier went up, another came down.
And, so we have the gift of work still to do. The arc is still bending and it needs your weight.
No one said this would be easy. So yes, the troubles Kennedy mentioned in June 1963, and
King in August 1963 live with us 50 years later. As King said during the March on
Washington
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as
her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back
marked “insufficient funds.” We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in
the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this
check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security
of justice.
America has routinely defaulted on the promissory note to every minority in this country,
African Americans and succeeding waves of immigrants, as well as the poor, and our
GLBTQI and disabled friends. And then, the arc bends again and the Defense of Marriage
Act falls and comprehensive immigration reform passes at least in the Senate.
So we at First Church have not forgotten, nor have we given up. This past week we housed
homeless families in our congregation. Several members volunteered to help. If you have
ever helped with IHN, please stand so we can recognize you (if you made a meal, did
publicity, served overnight, cleaned laundry, brought in toys, etc.). You/we are sheltering
and feeding the poor, minorities, and the vulnerable. You are bending the arc. We are living
the dream because of you.
During the year we volunteer as kindergarten tutors at the South Avondale school, sharing
with the poor, minorities, and the vulnerable the chance at education and a way out of
generational poverty. If you have ever volunteered as a tutor at South Avondale or at the
Pride Center, please stand. You are bending the arc. We are living the dream because of you.
Last summer we marched for gay pride, before that we marched and wrote letters for
immigration reform, and we donated time, talent, and treasure to organizations through our
pledges and special collections. We donated food to the hungry through Shiloh Food Pantry.
If you participated in any of those events or giving opportunities, stand up. We are living the
dream because of you.
As King preached to the crowd gathered in Washington D. C.
Many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to
realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that
their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. This offense we share mounted
to storm the battlements of injustice must be carried forth by a biracial army. We
cannot walk alone.
But we can walk together.
Who has power and who is of what race (WHY HUMAN!) has gotten muddled in the past
50 years. But what I do know is that when I look out these doors I see people in need, and
many through cycles of discrimination and generational poverty, whether they are
Appalachian or African American, or something else entirely.
We have work to do. Rise my people so we may overcome. When the offertory plate comes
your way in two weeks on August 25, with all monies going to Shiloh and South Avondale,
and then again on September 8 with all monies going to IHN, give all you have. Give like
your life depends on it, because it does in our interdependent web of life. Give and rise up!
IHN is still looking for volunteers in October and December and will again in 2014. Rise up!
We need to raise money for the South Avondale book fair, rise up! During Breakfast with
Santa you will have a chance to bring a holiday gift to a child who might have none. Rise up!
I have a minister’s discretionary fund for people in need and it has $5 left in it. Rise up! We
will have more letter writing, congressperson calling, and marching to do. Rise up! The choir
is singing for freedom. We are the choir! Rise up!
“I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want
you to know {tonight}, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
Closing Hymn #169 "We Shall Overcome"