Pastor challenges local teens recalling Dr. Martin Luther King times and experience

 

[July 18, 2019] 

Imagine growing up in a small quiet Illinois town and then taking part in one of the most momentous events in the history of the United States. That is exactly the story that Lincoln resident Carroll Richards told at the Wednesday meeting of ‘The Center for Creativity and Community’ held at the First Presbyterian Church. Laura Elliott, director of the Center, arranged for Pastor Richards to tell the arc of his life that took him from Mattoon, Illinois to Memphis, Tennessee at the time of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

In addition to the junior high students who participate in the Center, and were not yet born during those tumultuous times, the event drew adults who remembered it well, lived through it.

“Growing up in Mattoon, I really had no idea about what it was like for an African American to live in the south before the Civil Rights Movement,” Richards said. All of that changed on a family vacation to the south. “I wanted a drink of water and went to the fountain that did not have a line at it. My father ran over and pulled me aside and pointed to the sign that said “Colored” above the fountain,” he said. That was his introduction to a system of racial segregation that existed in the south.

After college at Eastern Illinois and a year of teaching math, Richards felt the presence of God in his life and decided to become a pastor. His parents valued religion and hosted missionaries in their home from all over the world when they visited Mattoon. He enrolled in seminary in Memphis and began his education to become a religious leader.

“Our seminary had blacks and whites studying together, and I made friends with several African Americans. I learned from them about the protests and marches that were occurring to protest their terrible treatment at public facilities throughout the south,” Richards said. Asking what he could do, he was told to help with the protests in Memphis, to march shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

In early 1968, events that would change the United States forever were taking place all over the country including Civil Rights protests and opposition to the Viet Nam war. Memphis was at the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement in March of 1968 with a strike by the trash collectors who were all African American. “Sanitation workers were treated with contempt by their white supervisors, poorly paid, and worked in dangerous conditions,” said Richards. After two collectors were killed, enough was enough. A strike ensued against the city by the sanitation workers.

Dr. Martin Luther King was called upon to come to Memphis to bolster the demands of the workers, to lend national credibility to the strike.

On March 3, 1968 a large protest march was formed that was to travel from a church to Memphis City Hall. “I joined in the march near the front, which was led by Dr. King. I got to see him as we walked and protested toward city hall,” Richards said.

Pastor Adam Quine of First Presbyterian Church, Carroll Richards, and The Center for Creativity and Community Director Laura Elliott.

All went well until some elements began breaking store windows and looting. “Dr. King advocated nonviolence, but some members stepped over the line with their fighting. Afterward, the trash collectors said that this violent behavior ruined the march,” he said.

“I saw the police in their riot gear with guns and bayonets and knew that staying around would be very dangerous. My friend from school and I left the parade. Years later I became reacquainted with my African American friend who was with me that day and asked what he thought. He said he was sure he was going to die. It was bad,” Richards added.

Because of the failure of the initial march, Dr. King was asked to come back to Memphis to lead a second protest march. “I intended to march in that one also. I wanted to meet Dr. King, but as I was preparing to head out, news came of his assassination,” said Richards.

Pastor Carroll Richards (in Stanley Cup shirt) enthralled this group of kids and adults with his remembrance of his time with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis.

Pastor Richards was asked what he learned from his experience protesting the bigotry that was rampant during his time in Memphis. “Even though I was only one of a few white protesters among the sea of African Americans who participated in the marches, I learned that you can’t sit on the sidelines when an injustice happens. You must speak out. You can make a difference,” he told his audience at The Center for Creativity and Community.

Carroll Richards has dedicated his life to helping others through pastoral care and counseling. His journey has taken him from the chaos of the 1960’s to a quiet afternoon at First Presbyterian Church telling the young teens at the Center for Creativity and Community to support what is right, to take a stand against injustice.

[Curtis Fox]