Addie Wyatt Succeeded Under Triple Jeopardy

By

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

11-15-13

Trice Edney Wire Service – I write this week to affirm my understanding that we don't have to wait for Women's History or Black History Month to talk about Black women.  In honor of Addie Wyatt and on the occasion of receiving the United Food and Commercial Workers Minority Coalition’s Addie Wyatt Award, I want to share information about this incredible woman whose life’s work lives on as a glowing example for women and of dedication to principles of civil and human rights, and service to her community.

Reflecting on the successes of numerous civil rights organizations and dedicated activists, I realize that more than a significant number of our achievements have origins that form under the influence of Addie and women like her.

Upon comparison, I was able to identify many common threads between Addie and me, and that is a source of great pride.  We’re both southern women and both are known to have no hesitation in speaking our minds.  We have both served on high-level Presidential Commissions and have both worked internationally for human justice.  We’re both ministers and both of us have been honored in our selection as Ebony Magazine’s 100 Most Influential African Americans.    

Addie worked for the UFCW and I was supported by them when I ran for Congress.  She helped to organize the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and they were highly supportive of me, too.  As I developed personally and professionally, Addie served as a major role model in my life.

I’m sure that few who knew Addie in her early years would have imagined the woman she would become.  Although born in Mississippi, coming from humble beginnings, Addie’s story of achievement began in her adopted hometown of Chicago, IL.  Like many who relocated to the north during the era of the Great Migration, she took advantage of the available industrial jobs – hers in meatpacking.              

Also like many in that era, Addie was able to realize a measure of protection with her membership in a labor union.  Her union gave her a platform to demonstrate the strength of her character and leadership skills.  In the early 60’s, she was appointed to a position on the Labor Legislation Committee of the U.S. Commission on the Status of Women.  In 1976, her leadership skills led to her election as International Vice-President of the UFCW.

The strength of her leadership wasn’t confined to being in the labor movement.  Addie was ordained as a minister in the Church of God. Like so many ministers of that era, she used the authority of her pulpit as a vehicle to promote civil rights.  Supporting his fair housing initiatives in Chicago and the goals of the March on Washington, she was one of the thousands of unsung foot soldiers of Dr. King.  

Like many who wax sentimental about the departed, I also make assumptions about how Addie would’ve addressed contemporary issues.  Considering her commitment to racial and gender fairness, I believe the Marissa Alexander case would be a “hot-button” issue in Addie’s life.  I envision Addie speaking out and raising defense funds—but certainly not just talking about what others should do.

In an interview with Elizabeth Balanoff, Addie said, “I find myself as a black woman oft times fighting on three fronts – the worker’s front, the black front and the female front—trying to overcome all of these pressures…Sometimes I think it’s much more difficult as a black woman, because we have to carry the burden of all these problems….”

As a result of her work, and her influence on women of my generation, we have a duty to help women of a younger generation.  More of us must mentor and extend our experiences, knowledge and guidance to those who follow.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  202/678-6788. www.nationalcongressbw.org)

Norm Hill: A Tribute to Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin and the Presidential Medal of Freedom: A Perfect Fit

By Norman and Velma Hill

Norman Hill

            In August, President Barack Obama chose civil rights leader Bayard Rustin to posthumously receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This recognition is long overdue. While the achievements of fellow recipients are related to the expansion of liberty in its broadest sense, this high honor fits Rustin to a tee.

             Beginning in the early 1940s, Rustin devoted his life and vast array of talents to the advancement of democracy and individual rights for all, at home and abroad. He was a fearless activist, an elegant writer, an astute thinker, a galvanizing speaker, a master strategist, a great organizer, and a mentor and friend.

            Consider this: In 1947, Rustin helped organize the first freedom rides for the cause of racial integration. He was arrested—one among the more than twenty times he was incarcerated for his civil rights activities—and spent 22 days on a North Carolina chain gang for participating in those rides. He wrote an absorbing account of his experience that became part of a successful campaign to abolish the state’s chain gangs, but not before he made the chain-gang he labored in more humane before he left it.

            Understanding that striving for freedom was a global struggle, Rustin visited India in the 1940s to learn more about Mahatma Gandhi’s principles and his anti-colonial movement. Rustin directly applied what he learned when he went south in 1955 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott against segregated seating. There, he advised Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the full meaning of Gandhi’s pacifism, which barred the use of violence even in self-defense, something Dr. King came to famously and effectively embrace.

After the boycott’s triumph, Rustin convinced King to bring his civil rights struggle to the entire South. In 1957, Rustin played a major role in organizing King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization of Southern black pastors pressing for civil rights.

Rustin’s extraordinary organizing abilities were in full display in 1963 when, in a few months, he organized the 250,000-person-strong March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, initiated by his mentor, the great African-American labor leader, A. Philip Randolph. Randolph was also considered the father of the modern civil rights movement. At the time, the march was the largest demonstration in American history, and it helped generate the political momentum for passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

            The march, whose 50th anniversary was marked in August, represents a fulfillment of the Randolph/Rustin vision. While Rustin believed in nonviolence, he did not believe that meant passivity. Nonviolence was an active tool for mass movement, grassroots action through which people liberated themselves.

            The Great March was based on the principle that freedom, as Rustin knew, was not given, but had to be seized by the oppressed. The march was also based on the principle of majoritarianism, which Rustin supported as a democratic principle and a practical strategy for racial minorities. He knew that as an oppressed minority, blacks had to initiate their own freedom struggle and that they also had to form coalitions with others to accomplish this.

            Consequently, Rustin reached out to many types of groups, including trade unions. Like Randolph, Rustin understood that blacks were exploited on the basis of class as well as race and, therefore, the best ally of blacks was organized labor, which, in fact, sent tens of thousands of its members to the '63 march.

            Not surprisingly, Rustin, an openly gay man, viewed discrimination against any minority groups as a threat to democracy, and unlike many on the authoritarian Left-Black- black and white- he opposed black racism just as he did the white variety. He also considered a black, go-it-alone strategy doomed to fail. He never stopped trumpeting freedom for all people, which prompted Rustin to stand against colonialism in India and Africa. And, unlike many radicals of his time, he condemned all dictatorships, those of the political left as well as of the right. This principled position moved him to defy those who made fashionable heroes of Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro.

            As close friends of Bayard who worked side-by-side with him in the planning of the 1963 March on Washington, we thank you, President Obama. You could not have chosen a more perfect recipient than Bayard Rustin for this year's Medal of Freedom. And while he died in 1987, he lives through the many of us who knew and loved him, and the millions more who are the beneficiaries of his tireless quest for racial equality, human rights, and worldwide democracy.

            Bayard Rustin will posthumously receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Wednesday November 20, 2013.

Bayard Rustin