Civil Rights Tour: Necessary to prevent losses

FORT WAYNE—“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Ask members of the local Martin Luther King Jr. Club Inc., about that quote by Spanish philosopher and writer George Santayana, and they’ll be quick to agree—those who forget history are in danger of suffering through it again. That’s the idea behind the organization’s upcoming Civil Rights Tour, scheduled for June 17 through June 21. The fourday bus tour is scheduled to make stops at historic stops in the South, including he National Civil Rights Museum at the site of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and various places in Meridian, Miss., and Philadelphia, Miss.

In addition to being natives of Mississippi—the site of many civil rights battles of the 1960s— George and Louise Smith are civil rights veterans who marched with Dr. King and worked with many legendary soldiers of the movement, including James Cheney, who along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered in 1964 while doing field organizing in the Meridian area. The Smiths, both members of the MLK Club board, have been making an annual pilgrimage from Fort Wayne to Mississippi for years to speak a memorial service for Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner and to participate in the annual Caravan for Justice. The Caravan for Justice has been working to bring to justice racists who participated in the murders of civil rights workers during the 1960s. They said they want to help ensure that people don’t forget the sacrifices of blood, sweat, tears and even life, many sacrificed to make this a better nation with regard to civil rights.

“A lot of young folks and old folks don’t know the history about Dr. King and the civil rights movement,” said George Smith. “That one month a year black history thing, I don’t think too much of that. Even the older people have gotten complacent. They say, ‘That was back in the ’60s this is now.’”

“If we don’t keep the history going, then it will die. The young people are not being taught in the schools and in the churches,” added Louise Smith.

This is the second year that the MLK Club has embarked on the journey. The group first went two years ago, but that was a van trip that included only the MLK Club executive board. Those who went on the tour, at the invite and urging of the Smiths, were deeply moved and wanted to open the tour up to the general public, explained MLK Club President Bennie Edwards, who also made that trip.

“It’s important that we keep this history alive,” said Edwards, explaining that many parts of the tour, especially the trip to Rock Cut Road where Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner were murdered.

“When you actually go there and ride down that highway they were riding on and on Rock Cut Road where the murders occurred it’s an eerie feeling,” said George Smith, explaining the importance of the trip and experiencing those sites firsthand.

He and his wife said it is the same with visiting the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968.

“You know, I think it’s important for people to see the historical places. It’s good to read about them but to see them firsthand—The food that Dr. King and the others were eating is still there. They have it preserved. You can walk out on that balcony [where he was killed]—it’s kind of an eerie feeling,” he said.

Louise Smith said if people fail to remember civil rights history, many gains might be reversed. Smith and her husband said one reason they joined the MLK Club was to work to make sure that doesn’t happen.

George Smith said the Civil Rights Tour also helps to keep civil rights issues at the forefront and to point out that it wasn’t just Dr. King and other leaders doing the work.

“A lot of people don’t really know that Martin Luther King had foot soldiers and you don’t even hear their names mentioned,” he said. “John Lewis actually started the march in Selma on Bloody Sunday.”

“They were the ones actually out there knocking on doors, marching, working…,” explained Louis Smith.

The Smiths said it’s important to remember that so that people know that it takes the masses to get the job done. And, they said, it takes sacrifices, perseverance and faith in God to reach the goal of justice. The Civil Rights Tour is designed to highlight those ideas by showing examples of what people did and what they sacrificed for the good of the whole.

George Smith said most people were scared to participate in the movement because they were threatened with job loss or people made threats to harm them or their families. The Smiths know because racist terrorists threatened George Smith on a number of occasions— and doing a particular march.

“They said they would have killed him that particular day but he was with the crowd, but they would kill him soon. But, that gave us motivation to keep working because we knew we had their attention,” said Louise Smith. “They thought that they had us but what they didn’t realize that the movement was in our hearts by then. We had lost everything. We didn’t’ have anything left to lose but our lives.”

“We lost material things, but we didn’t’ lose our courage. In other words, we gained strength,” said George Smith. “I thought about Jesus how he died that we might have the right to the tree of life. That gave me strength.”

The roundtrip bus fare for the MLK Club Civil Rights Tour is $125 per person. Museum fees are $10.60 for adults and $9 for seniors age 55 or older. Accomodations are $69 for a Queen Double for one night at the Ramada Plaza in Memphis and $76.65 per night for the two-night stay at the Jameson Inn in Meridian.

For more information, call George or Louise Smith at (260) 489-0801 or (260) 341-2290. Or email gasmith8884@verizon.net.

This is part of the March 3, 2010 online edition of Frost Illustrated.

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