Dr. Robert W. Nevin is on his way this morning to Williamston, N. C., as a participant in the civil rights demonstration in which, last week, the Rev. Henry L. Bird, rector of the Episcopal Parish on Martha’s Vineyard, was arrested and jailed in that southern town. His departure from Boston by automobile, with four others, may have been seen on television by Islanders who have long been his patients, his friends, and his admirers.
The Rev. Henry L. Bird was released from jail in Williamston, N. C., on Wednesday, along with others of the group of fifty, northern ministers and local people, who were arrested last week following a non-violent demonstration.
The bond posted for their release had to be supplied by local taxpayers or property owners (any amount of money had been offered and was ready on the Vineyard), and although the necessary amount was nominal, said to be only $125, even that sum couldn’t be supplied by sympathetic people in the town except by liens on their properties.
The Rev. Henry L. Bird, rector of the Episcopal Parish on Martha’s Vineyard, is with a group of ten clergymen, this week in Williamston, N. C., engaged in non-violent action in the cause of civil rights. His decision to go was announced during the service of morning prayer, Sunday at St. Andrew’s Church, Edgartown.
In years past we all have looked forward to celebrating and remembering the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as we recalled his leadership and contributions during the civil rights struggles.
For Ric Burns filmmaking is a collaborative journey. Last week at a screening of his work-in-progress documentary Driving While Black, even the audience became part of the process.
In the 1920s and ’30s, black families could not buy property in Edgartown. And although Oak Bluffs was a gathering place for black professionals back to the 19th century, their children, home from college, were seldom able to work as clerks in local shops.
When the civil rights movement spread across America in the 1960s, the Vineyard was separate in many ways. The black community here was prosperous and thriving, the regional high school was integrated and race relations were cordial.
The opinions were as varied as they were emphatic: There have been great opportunities lost in the area of civil rights. Poverty affects 43 per cent of all black children in the United States, the same proportion as it did the year Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Still, African-American people are better off than ever before, and a recent poll showed that most are, in fact, content.
In the first of a series on diversity at the regional high school, historian Patricia Sullivan explained the critical role college and high school students played in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
As the result of interest shown at a meeting Monday night, the Island now has a chapter of its own of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The parish house of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven was jam-packed Monday evening to hear Rev. Henry L. Bird talk about his experiences in Williamston, N. C., where he participated in a civil rights demonstration along with ten other New England ministers last month.
