Friday, March 16, 2007

 

CIVIL RIGHTS ICON WALKS AUDIENCE THOUGH A SEMINAL MOMENT IN U.S. HISTORY

By Kimberly B. Caisse

As he intertwined songs and stories—funny and serious—of his childhood, attending North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College and adulthood, Jibreel Khazan brought the story of the Greensboro Four’s first sit-in at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter to life for nearly 200 MWCC students, faculty and staff, and local high school students gathered in the theatre Friday, March 9.

Jibreel Khazan

“I never read a book written by a Negro until I was a junior or senior in high school,” Khazan, who was born Ezell Blair Jr., said. “I never knew about Frederick Douglass until the 11th grade.”

An architecture major at North Carolina A&T in 1960, Khazan and his dorm mates discussed the injustices of segregation. “You have the power to change the world, but first we need to change ourselves,” he said. The group of friends wanted to do something to fight it, but it took them some time to settle on the idea of the sit-in.

The foursome—Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph MacNeil and David Richmond—did not act on their idea until MacNeil returned from spending Christmas break with his parents in New York. “I’m sick and tired of this,” he told his friends, referring to segregation.

Part of their planning involved choosing the right place to stage the sit-in, Khazan said. They picked F.W. Woolworths because it was an affordable place to shop and buy food.

Khazan said he wasn’t entirely committed to going through with the plan. “In the South, you stayed in your place,” he said. On Jan. 31, 1960, he was out-voted 3-to-1. He then turned to his parents for guidance.

He was surprised to learn they supported the plan. “I was hoping they would say no, but they said yes,” Khazan recalled. His mother told him, “When you go down tomorrow, I want you dressed like you’re going to Sunday school.”

On Feb. 1st, the four met in the A&T library. They met up with a local storeowner and mentor who gave them money to buy something at Woolworths. Then they set out for the store.

In Woolworths, the 18-year-olds purchased something and then sat down at the whites-only counter. They repeatedly said, “We’d like to be served, please.”

A Black employee came over and chastised them. “It’s people like you that make our race look bad,” Khazan recalled her saying. The store manager asked them to stop. But the foursome replied, “You have an open door policy to buy merchandise, but you won’t serve us at the counter.”

When a police officer showed up, Khazan said he was very nervous, given the stories of police brutality against African Americans they arrested. Instead, the police officer put up his hands and told the manager he should serve them, claiming that if they were good enough to serve in World War II, they deserved to be served.

Afterward, a white woman approached McCain and said, “I’m mad at you. I’m mad at you because it took you so long to get here.”

The four stayed at the lunch counter until closing. As they walked outside, an elderly woman they passed said, “What you’re doing is right. We support you.”

“That was too much for an 18-year-old to handle,” Khazan told the audience.

Next, the young men ran into a reporter for the local newspaper. He asked who sent them. They said, “God sent us.” When he asked if they were coming back and bringing more people, they said yes, even though they had no such plans.

“What I’m giving you was the beginning of the freedom movement,” he said.

Activism was in Khazan’s blood. According to http://www.greensboro.com/sitins/timeline.htm, his father, Ezell Blair Sr., a shop teacher at Dudley High School in Greensboro, "led a drive to pressure merchants...to employ minority sales personnel in 'non-traditional' jobs" in 1959.

At 16, Khazan heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak at a nearby college. At 8, he remembered telling friends that one day he would sit at the Woolworths’ counter. He also remembered seeing people on TV sitting-in in Oklahoma.

EVENT PROMPTS A SURPRISE MEETING

Civil Rights Movement icon Jibreel Khazan accepts a print of local artist Lionel Reinhold’s painting “A Gathering” after his presentation in the theatre. Dr. John Fielding, interim assistant dean of academic affairs, looks on.

MWCC English as a Second Language instructor and local artist Lionel Reinford surprised civil rights icon Jibreel Khazan at the conclusion of his talk Friday.

As Reinford announced that he wanted to give him a present, Khazan began calling him professor. He even kissed his feet once Reinford joined him on stange.

It turns out the two taught at the Opportunities Industrialization Center in Boston. “We haven’t seen each other since 1969,” Reinford said.

Reinford attended the lecture to give the speaker a print of his “A Gathering” painting. It is an interpretation of a photo taken at a stop Martin Luther King Jr. made in Mississippi.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” Reinford told Khazan. Anyone who was going to talk about their experience in the Civil Rights Movement “deserved a copy of this print today,” he added.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE KEY TO ENDING POVERTY, MERCEY CORPS DIRECTOR SAYS

By Lea Ann Erickson

“Poverty is restored by community,” Paul Dudley Hart, director-at-large of Mercy Corps, told about 80 people gathered for the final lecture in the Center for Democracy and Humanity’s What’s Next Speaker Series at the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster Tuesday, March 13.

Paul Dudley Hart (Photo courtesy of Sharyn Rice)

Poverty is a scarcity of resources, Dudley Hart admitted. He stressed that poverty is a symptom and wealth “can be restored by community. It can be supported by government, but it is community that restores it.”

After giving examples of anti-poverty economic development work Mercy Corps has done in Indonesia, Mongolia and Iraq, Dudley Hart said the organization’s success is due to a simple strategy: Listen to what the local people need and help them build it.

Mercy Corps also prides itself on its make up. Of its 3,400 employees, only 8 percent are from the Western world. “We are the community we seek to serve. Our mission is to help communities establish themselves as just communities,” he said.

Mercy Corps works to get total participation. “Nothing works if the marginalized are not heard,” he said. To sustain success, he added, local communities need more than aid and assistance. They need help setting an entrepreneurial direction.

“Poverty will not be alleviated by charity alone,” said Dudley Hart. “It primes the pump.”

What is needed is support for new small businesses run by local people with products that “meet the market at the right time and at the right price,” he said. For example, women in the Sudan were given micro loans to run small hotels out of mud huts.

The series will culminate in a day-long symposium sponsored by MWCC, Fitchburg State College and the Montachusett Opportunity Council (MOC) April 26 at the Best Western.

More MWCC News:

• IRS-trained volunteers, including 30 MWCC students, will be helping low- and moderate-income taxpayers prepare and file their federal tax returns for free as part of the federal Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. At the Leominster campus, the service will be offered on Fridays through April 13 from 1 to 8 p.m. except on March 16, when classes will not run because of the Evacuation Day state holiday.) At the Gardner campus, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site will be in Room 250 on Thursdays through April 12 from 1 to 8 p.m. MWCC’s financial aid officers will be on hand at some sessions to assist taxpayers interested in attending college with filling out financial aid forms. To schedule an appointment, taxpayers may contact Denise Whitney at (978) 630-9124 or dwhitney@mwcc.mass.edu.
• MWCC’s Human Resources Office is sponsoring Spring Into Wellness on Tuesday, March 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the commons area of the Gardner campus. Happy Trails Natural Foods of Gardner will have natural food products and information, the college’s Relay for Life team, the MWCC Pacers, will have a registration table, the American Red Cross will have a table with CPR and emergency preparedness information, the MWCC Fitness & Wellness Center will have program and membership information available and much more. For more information, call Marsha Poor at (978) 630-9374.
• Computer Graphic Design and Computer Information Systems professionals and MWCC alumni will discuss their careers and answer students’ questions on Wednesday, March 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the commons area of the Gardner campus. The panel is aimed at students who are thinking about working with computers, interested in designing web pages or print ads, have a knack for learning new software and programming languages or curious about the field of network administration. For more information, contact MWCC Academic/Career Counselor Michelle Contey at (978) 630-9482 or mcontey@mwcc.mass.edu.
• MWCC’s Career Placement and Visions programs and Chartwells are sponsoring “Dining Etiquette and the Employment Interview,” a presentation by Chartwell’s Joe Kraskouskas, for Visions students on Friday, March 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the north dining area. Creating a great first impression during a job interview has always been important. Employers expect that and more today. They want their employees to know table etiquette and how to make small talk, network and dress for the job, and much more. Interested students can contact Pat Brewerton at (978) 630-9254 or pbrewerton@mwcc.mass.edu.
• MWCC’s Admissions Office is hosting the annual Healthcare Expo on Tuesday, March 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Gardner campus. Healthcare program faculty and admissions and financial aid officials will be on hand to speak about MWCC’s programs and career opportunities. MWCC has several options: biotechnology, certified nurse aide, clinical lab science, complementary healthcare, emergency medical technician, dental hygiene, fitness leadership and exercise science, massage therapy, medical assisting and medical office, nursing, phlebotomy, physical therapist assistant, practical nursing. To register, contact the Admissions Office at (978) 630-9110 or admissions@mwcc.mass.edu.
• MWCC’s Advising & Counseling Center is sponsoring Choose a Major Week between March 26 and 30 in Room 134 at the Gardner campus. With summer and fall registration just around the corner, this is the best time for students to select a major. Advisors are available for drop-in meetings from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or students may schedule an appointment at a more convenient time. Light refreshments will be provided each day, and students may enter a drawing for two free Red Sox tickets. To schedule an appointment, or to get more information, call (978) 630-9568. Information is also available at http://www.mwcc.edu/prospective/advising.html.
• MWCC’s Leo & Theresa LaChance Library will host the "Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend" traveling exhibit through March 30. The library is one of only 40 public and academic libraries in the nation to host this exhibit. This new exhibit commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth I of England and encourages audiences not only to reacquaint themselves with the Queen, but also to become more familiar with the historical and cultural forces that shaped her personality and her time, and to examine the mixture of history and legend that continues to surround her today. The American Library Association Public Programs Office, in partnership with The Newberry Library of Chicago and the National Endowment for the Humanities, is sponsoring the traveling exhibit. All showings of the exhibition and related programs will be free and open to the public. For more information, contact Reference and Instruction Librarian Ellen Pratt at (978) 630-9125.
• MWCC’s new Biotechnology program will host information sessions at the Gardner campus Wednesdays April 11 and May 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. at the main campus, 444 Green St., Gardner. Sessions also will be held at the Leominster campus, 100 Erdman Way, on Monday, April 23; and Wednesday, May 23 from 6 to 7 p.m. With the decision by the drug manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb to locate a large biotechnology company at Devens, the college anticipates starting the biotech program in fall 2007 at the Devens and Gardner campuses. Registration is required.To register and for more information, contact MWCC’s Dean of Science Charles Weitze at cweitze@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9207.