heroes - SE Members Blog post - syndication express2024-03-29T02:03:15Zhttps://syndicationexpress.ning.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/heroesWhite Champions of the Civil Rights Movementhttps://syndicationexpress.ning.com/profiles/blogs/white-champions-of-the-civil-rights-movement2014-10-30T19:57:25.000Z2014-10-30T19:57:25.000ZJulie Kleinhttps://syndicationexpress.ning.com/members/JulieKlein<div><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was led by several well-known and respected black heroes. However, until reading an article recently, I did not give much thought to white leaders who also fought for equality for all.</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">American Presidents and other politicians of the time were front-and-center, but can you name any other white heroes of the Civil Rights Movement? Not groups, individuals. In this post, I would like to share what I learned about three mostly unknown Caucasion civil rights leaders.</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">Virginia Foster Durr moved with her husband, an attorney, to Alabama in 1951. She met and agreed with various local civil rights activists. Durr, along with a group of other people, an integrated church meeting was arranged. Threats and Ku Klux Klan publications afterwards frightened the participants, and they stopped their meetings.</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">Virginia Durr was an exception. She remained in the public eye during the 1950’s throughout the Deep South. She considered it her duty to continue supporting civil rights. It was Virginia Durr, her husband and E.D. Nixon who bailed out Rosa Parks after being arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Virginia Foster Durr and her husband then offered sleeping space in their home to Northern students arriving to support the civil right movement. She was involved with state and local politics into her nineties.</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">Joel Elias Spingarn was born in New York City and was an influential liberal Republican and university professor between 1899 and 1911. As a community leader, he was able to settle a disagreement between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington’s followers. Being Jewish, he was part of a minority group himself. It was Spingarn who founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after recognizing the need for a unified black movement. </span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">During World War I, while in the army, Spingard set up a camp to train black officers. In 1913 Spingarn established the Spingarn Medal which is still awarded yearly to an African-American who demonstrated great achievement.</span></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000114124/joel-elias-spingarn-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000114124/joel-elias-spingarn-1.jpg" class="align-full" alt="joel-elias-spingarn-1.jpg" /></a></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech is believed to be partially based on Spingarn’s speech at one of his many rallies, "I have a dream...of a unified Negro population."</span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">Ralph McGill was the editor of the editorial page of the <i>Atlanta Constitution</i>. In his newspaper, McGill highlighted the effects of segregation in America. He received threats from readers, burned crosses in his yard and shot bullets into his home. The Ku Klux Klan named McGill "Southern-enemy-number-one." </span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">McGill was friends with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and he was a civil rights advisor. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959, .and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Ralph, King stated that McGill was one of the few white persons who understood and sympathized with the civil rights movement. </span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color:#003366;">While we know that innumerable black people worked hard to earn equal rights for all people, the three white Americans mentioned above contributed greatly to the civil rights movement. </span></strong></p></div>The Good Stuff!https://syndicationexpress.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-good-stuff2013-12-13T21:42:20.000Z2013-12-13T21:42:20.000ZJulie Kleinhttps://syndicationexpress.ning.com/members/JulieKlein<div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">It seems that all we see in newspapers, in online news reports and on television these days is someone getting murdered, a terrible storm that devastated a town or a mass killing. There are so many wonderful things happening every day, and nearly everyone in the world is good and kind. So today, during this joyous season, I want to share “The Good Stuff!” </span></p><p><span style="color:#000080;" class="font-size-3">I won’t take credit for this title or the stories I am about to share with you. I watch “New Day” on CNN early each morning, and every day they share a great story that they call “The Good Stuff.” You can see the video stories here: <a href="http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/category/headlines/the-good-stuff/">http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/category/headlines/the-good-stuff/</a>. I am happy to pass along these true stories that highlight the good news happening around us every day!</span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">A five-year-old kindergartner named Claire Koch was part of her class’s holiday concert. Both of Claire’s parents are deaf. This wonderful little girl decided to surprise her parents by singing along in sign language so her parents could enjoy the songs too! What a fantastic gift she gave to her parents.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">A young Rabbi and his wife purchased a desk on craiglist. It turned out that the desk wouldn’t fit through the door of their office. So, they had to take the desk apart to get it into the office. When they disassembled it, they found $98,000 inside. They contacted the original owner and learned that she had hidden her entire inheritance in the desk and forgot about it! (I do not understand that either.) After receiving the money back from the buyers, the woman sent them a thank you card along with the money they had paid for the desk.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">Darnell Barton, a bus driver in Buffalo, was driving along a busy highway when he noticed a woman who had climbed over the railing above a freeway overpass. Many cars were just driving by, but Darnell stopped his bus, walked slowly toward the woman while speaking softly with her. He gently pulled her down, all the while giving her words of comfort. He sat with her on the sidewalk until others stopped to help. He then returned to his bus and continued his shift for the day and did not even report the incident to his employer.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">A struggling single dad, Anthony Garfallo, found a fake Christmas tree in a box a few years ago. He didn’t open the box until recently. When he did, he discovered $50,000 in bearer bonds inside. He was able to determine the name of the owner of the bonds, but all the contact information that he found was invalid. Mr. Garfallo said, “What’s right is right.” On the “New Day” show they announced the name of the owner and said he could contact them to retrieve his bonds.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;color:#000080;">Upon the passing of Nelson Mandela, the news coverage has reported all his accomplishments and the many years he was imprisoned. They give details of the various memorials and events planned to honor him. “New Day” aired a phenomenal photo of two fathers standing side-by-side at a gathering to honor Mandela. Each man had a child mounted on his shoulders. One man and his child were black while the others were white. That photo alone tells the whole story of Nelson Mandel’s accomplishments and contribution to South Africa.</span></li></ul><p><br /><span style="color:#000080;" class="font-size-3">At this time of year when Good Will is on our minds, I hope that you will visit <a href="http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/category/headlines/the-good-stuff/">http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/category/headlines/the-good-stuff/</a> to see the videos of these stories and more. I am sure they will brighten your day as they have mine. </span></p></div>