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Out of the party scene at the end of August and the Labor Day weekend where nightlife was in full swing, many summer revelers from all over the country descended on the Island in that long tradition of where friends and house guests are invited to a myriad of Island gatherings. Just as I did, at the White Party, a multicultural gathering, others had a chance to meet and honor many historic personages and contemporaries who made substantive contributions to the advancement of diversity, civil rights and the nation’s promise of equal opportunity for all. There is much to learn from that generation of “firsts,” who no longer run as fast, chase sportsmen up and down fields, gavel courtrooms, sit at front desks on the top floors of corporate boards or in classrooms formerly reserved for whites; those courageous Americans of color who with the backing of yet another generation of courageous Americans who happened to be white were the first to become those symbols of equal opportunity that our Constitution said belonged to all of us.
Ken Hudson, of Atlanta, the first full-time African American referee in the NBA was given special recognition. He was to receive the National Basketball Hall of Fame, Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award along with basketball luminaries Alonzo Mourning and Bob Lanier this past Thursday in Springfield. Mr. Hudson, former vice president with Coca Cola, has led a distinguished sports, corporate, and humanitarian career. As vice president of marketing development in Boston, he coordinated and managed all activities involving Coca Cola New England. He founded the Boston Shoot-Out in 1972, a basketball program that continues to attract top USA high school players. Ken released his autobiography, A Tree Stump in the Valley of Redwoods, in 2006.
It was extraordinary to speak with another of those “firsts,” Wayne Embry, now living in Toronto, Canada. With Blackberry in hand, Wayne googled his name for me, and graciously shared some of his life’s story. He is a member of the NBA Hall of Fame and 40-year veteran in the front NBA offices for Milwaukee and Cleveland. Mr. Embry is a pioneer in his field who became the first African American general manager in sports when the Milwaukee Bucks named him to that post in 1972, a ground-breaking appointment. In his autobiography, The Inside Game: Race, Power, and Politics in the NBA, Mr. Embry’s publicists states, [He] “is finally free to speak his mind.” This should be an informative read for those interested in the NBA, who rarely got the inside story behind powerful decisions that impacted minorities.
All of this was made possible by an extraordinary group of friends who host the White Party each year. Cheryl and Kern Grimes, of West Tisbury and Boston, owners of Grimes Oil, Ken Hudson, his friend Pat Varnell, Wayne Embry, his wife Terri Embry, radio station owners Cheryl Wills, chairman of the board of North Coast Cable Television and Erie Coast Communications, her husband Walker Lowe, retired corporate AT& T executive, now with Tzell Travel; GMAC and Fleet Bank executive, Leon Wilson, his wife Sheri Wilson; and retired Liberty Mutual Insurance executive, James Brannon and his wife Dorothy Brannon.
The venue for the party was the Sailing Camp, which was transformed for the evening. Overhead, white fabric draped beams and clear minilights surrounded guests who danced and continued to meet and greet friends as if it were a family reunion. Outside, amid white clad picnic tables and service tables, guests enjoyed a summer fantasy of foods, as they took in the sunset over Lagoon Pond, and picturesque sailboats, a perfect setting for summer’s end and to talk with several guests who were also the “firsts” to integrate public accommodations, politics, and the courts.
Some of luminaries present were Judge Joyce London Alexandra Ford, the nation’s first African American magistrate judge and her husband, Johnny Ford, six-term mayor and the first black elected as mayor of Tuskegee, Ala. How interesting it was to hear from these two extraordinary Americans. Judge Alexandra, appointed in 1979, is the longest-serving magistrate judge in the history of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. She was appointed Chief Magistrate Judge in 1995, and served from 1996 to 1999, the first African American to receive this honor. Retiring in February of this year, she was one of only two blacks on the District Court bench. Judge Alexandra is well-known for a program she created for the federal courts in Massachusetts in 1989, Kids, Courts and Citizenship. Each year, approximately 700 fifth-grade pupils from Boston schools were brought to her courtroom to observe and discuss the legal system. Children also learned about alternatives to violence, guns, and drugs. The court has requested her program be continued with her involvement after her retirement. As one of the founders of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, she also chaired the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, the oldest organization of black judges in the country. She currently chairs the board of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington.
In addition to those interviewed among the hundreds of guests in attendance were: Dr. James Comer, Maurice Falk, professor of child psychiatry at Yale University, his wife Dr. Bettye Fletcher Comer, director and manager of the Fletcher Foundation, Laurie Perry-Henry, president of Martha’s Vineyard NAACP, and wife of the late civil rights leader, Mandred Henry, a past president of the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP who “worked hard to increase racial harmony and to make sure that equality of opportunity and fairness are applied to all people.”
Trinity Episcopal Church will wrap up its 2009 summer season this Sunday, Sept. 13 at 9 a.m. in Oak Bluffs with the Rev. Ian T. Douglas. Reverend Douglas is the Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. He served for the last five years as one of eight members of the Lambeth Design Group which developed and managed the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Rev. Douglas is a widely-respected author and speaker on Christian mission and the contemporary Anglican Communion. Rev. Douglas is a summer resident of Oak Bluffs.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the Oak Bluffs Public Library asks you to join poets for a group discussion following their presentation, Poetry about War. Bring your own poetry or your favorite poems by others to share. Listen to poetry written by an American soldier that has returned from Iraq. Coffee and food will be served before the poetry discussion. The discussion begins at 10 a.m.
Song writers Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill penned September Song perfectly and it is appropriate at this time. “For it’s a long, long while from May to December, but the days grow short when you reach September. When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame, one hasn’t got time for the waiting game. . .” The days I’ve spent with you on the island have indeed been precious.
Don’t forget to open your gifts.
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