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I am most pleased to write, on this momentous occasion, on the sequence of events in which I was involved that led up to the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who we are honoring today.
I have been privileged to serve as Chairman of the Gabarron Foundation and would also like to take this opportunity to salute the Foundation and the Gabarrons for their commitment to the arts and presentations at the Carriage House which has been an encounter point, not only for new artists they sponsor, but also a forum for distinguished people and thinkers to express themselves regardless of their political or religious beliefs.
A long time ago, back in 1959, when I was President of the National Urban League which was deeply involved in civil and human rights issues, I made a statement to the press that in the field of race relations, the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear we have to face. I also stated that "when “firsts” take place, the fears anticipated never come top ass and things work out just fine.". As an example, I cited Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player. Thereafter, in September 1959, the Urban League voted to help carry out the recommendation of the Civil Commission on Civil Rights in the voting, education and housing fields. The report urged the president to issue an Executive Order directing all federal agencies engaged in housing to rule out racial discrimination. The report, on its face, was disappointing because it made no recommendation on equal job opportunity. But, in November of that year, I received a letter from President Dwight Eisenhower in which he said, and I quote: “Equal opportunity to enjoy the bread which is earned by the sweat of one’s own face – in the plain words of Abraham Lincoln– is among the basic principles of American democracy……. As heirs and co-owners of certain unalienable rights, Americans have made unprecedented progress for themselves and for the general welfare. In this progress, we cannot fail nor falter.”
In another follow-up letter on December 1, President Eisenhower wrote: “Dear Mr. Kheel: It is a pleasure to join in the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the National Urban League. Our nation was founded on the concept of liberty and justice for all its citizens. Steady progress has been made in applying this concept in the daily life of Americans but the need for further work and vigilance remains.
To strengthen the individual and the general welfare of our people we must continue to advance out traditions of equal opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin. Moreover the progress we make in this field of human rights is closely watched by our neighbors abroad. They look upon it as one measure of success of our form of government.
As the National Urban League champions the cause of equal opportunity, it renders a splendid service to our people and to the hope of freedom around the world.” I subsequently wrote an article “The Gains of Democratic Employment” in which I said that the most persistent cause of industrial strife was discriminatory treatment of employees. Thereafter, notable gains were made in hiring practices in employment of minorities.
In pursuance of the goals of human rights and equal opportunity, I was part of a fact-finding committee that went to Kenya in 1960 to supervise the airlifting of African scholarship students to the United States. The students’ airlift was a dramatic and symbolic expression of our ability and willingness to fulfill Africa’s greatest need – education and training for independence. One of those students in the airlift was Barack Obama’s father who attended the University of Hawaii where he met and married Obama’s mother. Another was Wangari Maathai, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner. I am pleased to say that, along with Cora Weiss and Tom Shachtman, I am currently working on a book on the airlift that is of great interest and hopefully will be published shortly after Obama’s inaugural as President in January.
Shortly after the airlift, my late wife, Ann and I,became involved with the civil rights movement and formed a wonderful relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When four ministers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were involved in a libel suit stemming from an advertisement in the New York Times, we funded an event to help pay for legal costs. On August 9, 1961, Dr. King wrote to us to express his appreciation for our support and fund raising efforts.(See copy of letter attached).
Thereafter, together with Harry Wachtel, a prominent New York lawyer and Clarence B. Jones, King’s trusted legal advisor, we formed the Ghandi Society for Human Rights, to parallel the Ghandi movement in India, and created a tax-exempt fund to cover expenses related to the suit and to channel much needed financial support to the non-violent civil rights movement. At a related luncheon, Dr. King noted that May 17 marked the anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that made school segregation unconstitutional and that 1962 was the anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which paved the way for the abolition of slavery, and Henry Thoreau’s death, whose ideas on civil disobedience inspired Mahatma Ghandi. However, by January 1964, the Society’s account was overdrawn and King donated $25,000 of his Nobel prize money to the account. Although non-profit status had been granted, there were many other difficulties facing the Society and it was later renamed the American Foundation on Non-Violence.
Dr. King faced many adverse circumstances, being incarcerated twice as a result of his ideals and his involvement with the freedom struggle in the south. But, with the Bible in one hand and Blackstone in the other, and Ghandi’s passive resistance as the driving force, Dr. King led the nation’s 250,000 blacks on the march in Washington, the largest civil rights demonstration in history, at which he made his most famous “I have a Dream” speech.
Dr. King’s dream became a reality when Obama was elected president.
Ted Kheel
Chairman of the Gabarron Foundation