Minnesota Shall Overcome -- It happened before

Murphys, Ca.— Take heart Minneapolis, honest caring folk will prevail in your community. I know, because I have watched the positive tide of history flow against evil in my hometown, and overwhelm the bad guys. You will eventually overcome, just as MLK promised so long ago. I have witnessed the slow march of justice. In 1962 I was a newspaper police reporter in Atlanta. One day my assignment was to cover street demonstrations conducted by young college students, frequently accompanied by pastors, as they attempted to sit in at various restaurants that refused to allow black people to be served. Many places closed and locked their doors to avoid breaking the law. They weren’t discriminating, they said, they were just closed.

These protestors were not “outside agitators” as the politicians liked to call Freedom Riders, but local students from the historically black colleges located in Atlanta. I did not know any of them personally. As a product of the region’s segregated schools, I had never attended a class with any black people. (We had Chinese students at my university, but no one was apparently aware they might be a minority.) The target of the demonstration where I observed the street action was a well-known downtown eating place called Charlie Loeb’s, owned by a prominent and popular businessman. He blocked the door, and pleaded with the crowd of protesters to leave him alone. My memory is he said something like, “I know what discrimination is and have lived with it all my life, but you are going to destroy my business!” He was literally wringing his hands, almost in tears. Other images from that day stick in my mind. The protestors were more bemused by Charlie than sympathetic. They were all well-dressed and clean cut young people (younger than me by two or three years, and better dressed), politely demanding entrance and singing songs of about freedom. They were determined. Across the street were the Ku Klux Klan folks, dressed in street clothes because masks were prohibited, but easily identifiable by the muttered curses and threatening stares. But the most obvious symbol of their group status were the pickax handles they brought to the street, slapping them in a threatening manner against their pants legs while they watched. Those pickaxes had become a symbol of Southern white resistance, promoted by a racist politician named Lester Maddox. (Unfortunately for Georgia, he later became governor.) It came at a time when Atlanta’s political leaders, all white males, had decided defying the law was bad for business and they did not want to do anything to hurt the carefully cultivated image of Atlanta as part of the “New South.” As a result of the business influence, and maybe a result of good training, the police were out in strength and made it clear to everyone that no violence, or foolishness of any kind of that matter, would be tolerated. Their shoes were polished, and the night sticks were ready. They were determined that Atlanta would never be “another Birmingham,” where Klansmen, racist politicians and police had beaten protestors bloody, and for good measure beat up a couple of journalist who were filming the events (including a college classmate who had his cameras destroyed and his face bloodied.) Other than singing and handwringing and muttering nothing much really happened on that particular day. But I am glad all these years later to know the tides can turn, for the better, and the old bad ways will pass. It took some time, but the Atlanta cafes and dime store counters and Charlie Loeb’s place eventually opened their doors to all comers, Atlanta moved ahead to become a better place, and folks went back to their homes. It was not an overnight thing. But law and order prevailed, free speech was defended and even saluted, and the city became something of a beacon for lots of people. Business thrived.

My view is that it took a combination of young people standing on the moral high ground who demanded their rights, along with political leadership not afraid to uphold the law and hold everyone accountable. It turned out that the old hymn was right: “We shall overcome, some day.” The fight for truth and justice is never over, but the tide will not be stopped. Minnesota will go back to being a normal place where people get along, talk funny, smile a lot, and justice will (eventually) prevail. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right.