The Evolution of Civil Rights- Part 5

By Dan Gorenstein on Friday, January 25, 2002.

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All this week, in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., NHPR looks at civil rights law. Many credit the 1960?s movement for civil rights as the match that lit a fire in this nation. In the final segment of our series, NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein presents a story of Jim Crow, diversity, and perseverance.

All this week, in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., NHPR looks at civil rights law. Many credit the 1960?s movement for civil rights as the match that lit a fire in this nation. In the final segment of our series, NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein presents a story of Jim Crow, diversity, and perseverance.

In 1965 New Hampshire responded to the passage of the Civil Rights Act with the creation of the Commission for Human Rights. Granite State officials charged a handful of volunteer commissioners with investigating and solving housing, employment and public accommodation discrimination cases. There was no budget, no office, no paid employees. Today, the Commission enjoys all those things. But the office continues to field complaints. The broadening scope of civil rights and a stronger, more effective commission demonstrate that strides have been made, but the job remains unfinished.

New Hope Baptist Church Pastor and New Hampshire Human Rights Commissioner Arthur Hilson.

7:20 when black folk began to take to the streets, and demand certain rights, out of that movement of black people putting their feet to the streets and demanding their share of the pie, out of that movement came AIM, out of that movement came NOW, out of the movement came the Hispanic movement, out of that movement came the rights for disabled, out of the movement came great changes in the country.

2:43 I had no idea what the law was prior to 1964. I go back further than that. I was born in the 30?s. I have been a Negro, I have been colored, I have been Afro-American, African American, I have been black, and somewhere, always I have been a nigger.

:09 how can I bring you inside of me? How can I have you see a life with a mother who cleaned houses for Jewish families for 5 dollars a day, and car fare? A mother who brought home from Jewish houses matzah crackers, that I would put miracle whip on? How can I have you understand what it is like to be seen as someone who is less than? How can I have you understand what it feels like to be lead to believe, b/c of your features, b/c of your color, b/c of your physical being you are less than? How can I have you understand that? I can simply say that to you?this is not the kind of thing you can experience on the other side. It is something that you have to experience first hand.

I lived in a community in Cinncinatti, near the river. Did not realize then in the 30?s and 40?s that I could not go to Coney Island, could not go to the Arch Hill Grand downtown, didn?t realize that b/c I had a sheltered life. And there were theatres in the black neighborhoods, six of them. And there were parks. I didn?t know I couldn?t go there, b/c more mother and father protected me.

AS A YOUNG MAN, HILSON LEFT THAT PROTECTION FOR THE WORLD OF THE JIM CROW SOUTH. HE SAYS IT WAS LIKE BEING HIT IN THE FACE.

3:40 When I turned 18 in 1954, the year of Brown v. Bd. of Ed I will never forget, when I went out to Maryland, little place called Perryville, with two white friends, waiting for a bus to go into Havity Grace, Md, to see a movie, we got off the bus to have a sandwich and they put mine in a bag, and there?s on a plate and showed me the sign.

4:08 we got the bus, went to get a ticket for a theatre, I was told to go upstairs, and they were told to go downstairs. My friends said we don?t have to go in here, and I said no we are going to go in here, and I sat upstairs and that evening at the age of 18 I called my mother and told her what happened in tears. B/c the first 18 years of my life had been so sheltered I didn?t really think about those issues. And it was an awakening, it began to launch me on my journey for the struggle.

1:14 I will say to you that a time came in my life at 18, that I said to myself I am somebody, I am Bertha?s boy, I am born, I bleed, I breathe, I have as much right as anything in this nation as anyone else. I won?t let anyone tell me what I can?t do b/c of my color, I won?t let them tell where I can?t go, b/c of my color.

WHILE HILSON ACKNOWLEDGES CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION HAS OPENED THE DOORS OF HAMBURGER STANDS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY- HE?S NOT HUNG UP ON MAN-MADE LAWS.

3:22 I am not hung up on the laws, laws are on paper, what I am concerned about is the law that is in the heart of man. There is a moral law, that goes above anything a legislature can create. B/c to write a law, and pass a bill, that is void of enforcement is foolhearty. I will say that until we can write that law in the hearts of men that we can move beyond this earthly realm, to understand there is a higher law that all of us must learn to move and live together, we have not done very much.

SO HILSON TRIES TO WALK THE WALK THROUGH HIS WORK AT NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH IN PORTSMOUTH.

Track 6
4:49 let?s talk about the church. if church is just church, that is just as wrong as a white church being a white church and not allowing blacks to come worship.

5:50 So our church is now?our church is a church that is diverse, our choir, the deacon board, the pulpit, so b/c my life is now wrapped up in the church, the church is a microcosim of what King talked about. The beloved community.

6:53 I think that for me, is as important of a thing as I have done, b/c first and foremost, I am a minister, and the church has been one of the most segregated institutions. That is something I am humbled by, honored by.

5:50 things have gotten better, but the proverbial question that comes up for me is does racism still exist, and does it exist in NH? The answer is yes. Is the battle over? No? Have we made progress? Yes. Is the battle over? No. There is still a way to go. We are still seeing vestigaes of the bigotry and hatred that we have seen for centuries. And so let?s not fool ourselves, we are still in a struggle for equality, ciivl rights, human rights, and just for common decency, treating each other like human beings.

1:08 I still hear of people beign followed in certain department stores, as a commissioner for human rights there is a case that I am familiar with, that someone who allegeds he did not get hired b/c of the color of his skin. There are folks on the Seacoast of couples that have called for apt, and when they get their, they are bi-racial, they were suddenly told there was no place available. But on other days, whites have gone in and they were. I am not talking about the 50?s, the 60?s. I am talking about the 90?s.

1:42 yes, there has been some good, some progress, some merit, but I don?t want anyone to be lulled into complacency. The danger is, when you become complacent when you have seen some bills passed, and some doors opened, then you become satisified, and out of that nothing else happens. So I am concerned that nothing else happens.

ARTHUR HILSON IS THE PASTOR OF NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH AND ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. FOR NHPR NEWS, I?M DG.