To the Editor:
I read Nichole Dupont’s very good article about Sage Macken’s inspiring community work. Thank you for this wonderful story about young people taking leadership and volunteering across the State in their communities.
I wanted to bring attention to one sentence at the end of the article. It was about Dr. King…”who lit the fire of Civil Rights and inspired generations… etc.”
This statement is historically incorrect. Dr. King, whom I love and deeply respect, did not light the fire of the Civil Rights. There were many leading civil rights organizers ahead of him, on whose shoulders he stood. Just as the day that Mrs. Parks sat down is usually seen as an independent action by the “tired Rosa Parks.” It was not. Mrs. Parks had been involved, at great personal risk, in Montgomery civil organizations for years.
The brave organizers in the South, and Montgomery in particular, had worked together for years to arrive at the moment when Mrs. Parks sat down, and was arrested. That was another spark in the Civil Rights movement. There was a huge and immediate response to her arrest.
Dr. King was a young and charismatic minister. He was recognized for his oratory and leadership skills. He was recruited into the movement to be a leader in the year-long Montgomery bus boycott.
I believe it is important that our history is accurate, and that myths of the great leaders of our past are told and retold correctly. The modern Civil Rights Movement truly began when Black soldiers came back from World
War II to a country where they still faced vicious racial discrimination.
I cheer for the young people who will be led by Miss Sage Macken to serve what Dr. King referred to as our “Beloved Community.”
Susan Triolo
Sunderland, Massachusetts
The writer is a retired elementary teacher.
