From Boston-
Joining 14 other Episcopal clergy, both black and white, the Rev. John Crocker Jr. stepped into the segregated restaurant of a Jackson, Miss., bus station in September 1961. Traveling by bus on a civil rights prayer pilgrimage, the group’s journey quickly detoured into a Jackson jail for several nights.
“We were these little conservative Episcopal clergymen with round collars on, and we were the least revolutionary people you could imagine,’’ Rev. Crocker recalled in an interview for Eric Etheridge’s book, “Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders.’’
Local police thought otherwise and had been arresting Freedom Riders who tested the resolve of the segregated South by trying to integrate public places. Refusing orders to leave the restaurant, the clergymen were arrested on breach of peace charges.
“Jackson officials and police asked us: ‘Why did you come down here to mess us up? You’re New Englanders,’ ’’ Rev. Crocker said in the book interview. “ ‘Well, I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I thought I was an American first.’ ’’
More here-
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/01/06/rev_john_crocker_jr_88_social_justice_activist_while_a_chaplain_at_brown_and_mit/
No comments:
Post a Comment