This month is about more than hashtags and annual headline events. Black History Month is about remembering those who’ve fought the good fight for humanity and using the blueprint they left behind for current and future activists. Let’s not enter our fight for social and systematic change blindly. Let’s equip ourselves with the power of knowledge from the past and present. I invite you on this February journey through history with me. Here is my second acknowledgement, Rev. Will D. Campbell.

“We’re all bastards, but God loves us anyway,” said Will D. Campbell (Brother to a Dragonfly, 220).


Born and raised on an eight-acre cotton farm in southern Mississippi, Campbell worked the fields during the Great Depression. When given the opportunity to go to school, Campbell made the most out of his experience. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Wake Forest College (now University) and received his doctorate at Yale University Divinity School in 1952. By seventeen, Campbell was an ordained Baptist preacher. After graduate school, he served as a pastor of a church in Taylor, Louisiana.

Apparently, the overturn of school segregation laws in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka made Campbell aware of his opposition to racial discrimination. And so it begin, Campbell "got" active.

Not one to bite his tongue about right and wrong, Will Campbell used his privilege to speak against discrimination, overbearing government power, unregulated guns and contemporary Southern Baptist Convention. No one could avoid his scrutiny.

As a result, there are many accounts of Campbell receiving death threats because of his views. In 1956, he had to end his tenure at the University of Mississippi for associating with a black minister and inviting a white integrationist to speak at the university’s annual Religious Emphasis Week. Following this incident, Campbell moved his family to Nashville and opened the only southern office for the Racial and Cultural Relations Department of the New York-based National Council of Churches.

Furthermore, he was the only white guy invited to the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1957. Within the same year, there was the integration of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. Campbell was one of the activists trying to escort the eight students through the angry crowd.

As history goes, the ninth student tried to enter the school separately (visit NPL’s Civil Rights room to see video of this).​

“They've got this mob down there, which is in essence being supported, if not protected, by the Arkansas National Guard. They weren't on the side of admitting the children; they were on the /other/ side. They were there to keep them out. And all of a sudden here they go, without any discussion or any forethought. I didn't realize, I claim no heroics in the thing, but what does it mean to be a human being in that situation? Here go nine children, defenseless, into God knows what. So four of us simply fell in beside them and went down with them. Of course, they were turned back. It was all over,” said Campbell about the Arkansas National Guard.

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​According to history, they were not able to successfully integrate the school that day as the National Guard troops stopped them from entering the school building. Additionally, Campbell protested the Vietnam War by helping recruits find sanctuaries in Canada.

​As his activism relates to Nashville, Campbell played a significant role in bringing racial justice to African Americans and changing the culture of our city. He worked with other Nashville activists like Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, John Lewis from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Martin Luther King, Jr. on campaigns, public discourses, integrated bus travel, kneel-ins and sit-ins.

Years later, Campbell shared a vivid memory of people getting sprayed with high pressured fire hoses, “If it hits you right, the pressure from a fire hose can break your back. I remember seeing adults and children hit and rolling along the sidewalk like pebbles at high tide.”

Although he’d witnessed such extreme torture, he held on to his belief that lasting justice prevailed only when genuine reconciliation was accomplished between people who would normally be at odds.

His desire to practice and preach reconciliation led him on his journey with the Freedom Riders. He was truly a man of his own belief without hinderance by institutional restrictions. He freed himself from any societal bond to reach the greater good for all people.

Unfortunately, we lost our brother in 2013. He lived his last days in a nursing home in Nashville. According to various reports, it seems he never fully recovered from a stroke he had in 2011. He was 88. 

​On behalf of the Nashville community, Urban Threads acknowledge Rev. Will D. Campbell’s strategic work. Thanks for providing a blueprint.

Watch God's Will, a documentary about Will D. Campbell narrated by Ossie Davis below:

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/us/will-d-campbell-maverick-minister-and-civil-rights-stalwart-dies-at-88.html
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/will-d-campbell-unconventional-approach-racial-reconciliation-—-jeff-jay-0
http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/spcol/campbell/pr_six.htm
https://southernspaces.org/2013/reverend-will-d-campbell-southern-racial-reconciler
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086676/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-assassination-Rarely-seen-pictures-captured-night.html

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Let this February serve as a template for combating the ugly in governmental policies and social injustices. It is crucial that we learn from history when fighting for justice and humanity. In that spirit, I will write about iconic Nashville activists who led public demonstrations, events and meetings that provided the foundation for the Nashville culture we love.

Given the recent Women’s March, here’s my first choice of acknowledgement!

“When you regard your opponent as a human being instead of somebody to fight, you can really work out problems.”-Diane Nash

Because of Diane Nash, Nashville became the first southern city to desegregate lunch counters. Nash’s contribution in the ’60s has afforded me and my white brothers and sisters a seat beside one another at any restaurant of our choice. The 22-year-old Fisk student from Chicago, Illinois left a historical imprint worth acknowledging in 2017.

As her contributions pertain to Nashville, Nash spearheaded a movement that recruited riders, spoke to the press, and watched the progress of the movement from Nashville.

The nation grew to know the movement as the Nashville Student Movement Ride. This student-led movement was groundbreaking in desegregating the city of Nashville through sit-ins.

Nash found comfort in knowing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was having an impact on other states.

“When we heard these newscasters say other states were demonstrating, it really helped,” said Diane Nash.

Nash served as a field staff and organizer for the Student Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founding member of SNCC and strategist.

She worked alongside other iconic activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Doris Smith, Charles Jones, Charles Sherrod, John Lewis and James Lawson to name a few.

​Aside from her efforts in Nashville, Nash was hands-on in other parts of the nation.

After the bus burning in Anniston, Alabama, Nash led every ride from Birmingham to Jackson in 1961. Also, she helped with the 1963 Birmingham desegregation campaign and Selma Voting Rights Campaign.

In 2009, Fisk University presented Nash with an honorary degree. In the 80s, Nash fought for women’s rights.

​Currently at 78-years-old, she is working in real estate in her hometown and making appearances at college and universities across the nation.

On behalf of the Nashville community, Urban Threads acknowledge your strategic work. Thanks for providing a blueprint.

Click her to watch a PBS interview with Diane Nash.

Sources:
https://snccdigital.org/people/diane-nash-bevel/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/diane-nash/
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/nash-diane-judith-1938
http://search.proquest.com/news/docview/1319017976/2819D65DF46B4BF7PQ/2?accountid=33208
http://search.proquest.com/news/docview/239593507/2819D65DF46B4BF7PQ/4?accountid=33208
http://search.proquest.com/news/docview/239593507/2819D65DF46B4BF7PQ/4?accountid=33208
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/afmp/stories/nashville.php

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