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Note: Wallingford Mayor Bill Dickinson is now
a member of the Wallingford Coalition for Unity
Reprinted with permission of the
Meriden Record-Journal, January 28,
2004 Commentary by Ralph Tomaselli, January 28 A group in Wallingford is interested in promoting diversity and improving the perception outsiders have of the town that was the last in the state to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday for municipal employees. The Coalition for Unity considers the battle over the King holiday a stigma that should be erased. The coalition should be applauded for striving to improve relations between racial and ethnic groups in town. However, the King Day controversy in Wallingford was too public to be wiped out completely and shouldn't be if we hope to learn a larger lesson about subtle and not so subtle prejudice. After all, only by examining how we wrestle with racial issues, can we make progress. Wallingford's elected leaders, primarily Mayor Bill Dickinson, were rightfully criticized for failing to understand the significance of King and what the holiday represented. They weren't the first or the last elected leaders to fail to grasp the importance of the man and his movement and the danger of tacitly supporting those who oppose what King stood for. The Kennedy Brothers, John and Robert, receive a lot of credit for backing King, but a study of history shows the brothers at first considered King and the Civil Rights movement a possible hindrance to winning JFK a second term as president. Pragmatism took precedence over idealism as it often does when whites confront racism. The Kennedy's, who had never been denied the right to vote or the use of a bathroom or water fountain because of their color, felt overt support of King would cost them Southern votes. They wanted Civil Rights for blacks, but at a much slower pace. In contrast, Lyndon Johnson, a man reviled by many for his role in the Vietnam War, understood the importance of the Civil Rights movement many years earlier and felt much more deeply about the cause. The vice president, who unlike the Kennedy's had grown up around Mexican-Americans and blacks and witnessed oppression, couldn't believe his president and party waited until the summer of 1963 to throw the full awesome weight of the executive branch behind civil rights. It was Johnson, after Kennedy's death, that pushed through the most meaningful Civil Rights bill ever passed at great risk to his political future. Johnson had many character flaws, but his determination to see blacks get equal rights was probably his most admirable achievement. Police Chief Bull Connor and the city of Birmingham inadvertently did as much for the Civil Rights movement as the Kennedy's and Johnson. Many whites, including the Kennedy's, were sympathetic and paid lip service to King, but did not fully understand the depths of racial hatred in the South and the danger it presented. When they saw powerful water cannons tearing the clothes off black children in Birmingham while dogs viciously tore at other children's flesh, the brothers finally understood the severe actions could result from their passive support of men like Connor. Immediately, they went to work on Civil Rights legislation and ordered federal agencies in the South to begin hiring blacks. When white supremacist Matt Hale made two appearances in Wallingford a few years back, the town had a similar awakening. Those who saw the King Day holiday as a pragmatic management-labor issue were forced to confront the notion that they could be viewed as remotely aligned with Hale and his extreme agenda. King, Connor, the Kennedy's, Johnson and the people of Birmingham. All had roles in ending the unequal treatment of blacks. King is honored with a national holiday, the Kennedy's revered as the first white leaders to embrace the black movement, Johnson's efforts are lost in the larger failure of his presidency, Connor is rightly reviled and Birmingham bears a stigma that rightfully belongs to the entire country. Only by discussing and understanding those who hated, those who tolerated hate and then fought against it and those who received the brunt of the hate can we understand our own prejudice and the importance of overcoming it. Ralph Tomaselli is associate editor for the Record-Journal. He may be reached by e-mail at rtomaselli@record-journal.com, or by phone at (203) 317-2220. |
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