Jubilee in the Rear View Mirror

The above is the title of a play by a quite unknown playwright. He wrote to me this past week and he got my attention. I’m intrigued by the work and want to know more about it.
by Charlie Leck

Garrett Mathews is a retired newspaper reporter. In retirement, he polished a two act play he had been working on. It, Jubilee in the Rear View Mirror, ran last year in Evansville. Well, that Indiana city would not be called one of the great centers of live theater, but it’s worth learning a bit about Mathews and his play anyway – especially, I think, it you have lingering curiosities about the southern civil rights movement in 60s.

I’m intrigued by what I’ve read about the play. For starters here’s what a local paper in Evansville wrote about it before its opening

“The drama is set in the fictional town of Jubilee, Miss., during Freedom Summer when hundreds of activists headed South to register African-American voters and to desegregate schools, bus stations and businesses. Beatings and arrests were common. The Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center lists more than 40 murders during the 1950s and ‘60s, including several at the hands of local law enforcement.

“‘In the play, a young black civil rights worker from the North finds himself in a cell with a white racist who is behind bars for beating his wife,’ Mathews says. ‘The background comes from dozens of interviews I conducted with men and women of both races who risked their lives to challenge the deeply-rooted segregationist social and political structure in the South in the 1960s.

“‘Before pressure was brought to bear, black children in department stores were not allowed to try on new shoes,’ Mathews goes on. ‘Salesmen traced the edges of their old shoes onto butcher paper and fetched an approximate fit from inventory. Many African-Americans who attempted to vote were fired from their jobs by white employers. Some had their homes fire-bombed by the Ku Klux Klan.’”

Mathews has read several of my blogs about my own experiences in Mississippi in 1964. He thought I might be interested in his work

One thing he said grabbed my attention…
In the theatre, the audience was divided into white and colored sections in order to set a mood for the play itself. Wow! That would have grabbed my attention had I been there.

Here’s something else Matthews told me in his letter; and I think you might be interested…

“For our educational pre-show, we videotaped African-Americans in Evansville and Greenwood, Miss., who talk about living under segregation until the movement took root. The two 28-minute DVDs are on YouTube at http://bit.ly/10ptx9Z. I hope you'll want to spread the word about them (The Greenwood piece includes a reading of a deposition filed by June Johnson after she was brutally beaten in Winona, Miss.) The idea was to immerse the play's audience in the time period. We showed the DVDs before the performance, at intermission and at the end after the cast fielded questions.”

I’m posting the two videos here so you may watch them if you like. The information is pretty basic for most of us who went through the era, but I can see how it would be surprising material for young people. Mathews said in his note to me that “…few young people have more than a second grade knowledge of the civil rights movement.” That’s sad, but quite true.

It appears that the play is going to be staged in Indianapolis in 2014. I’ve asked Mathews to keep me posted about this possibility. I’d like to go down there to see it.

Mathews is a graduate of Virginia Tech. He’s written a number of books. He, like most of us who worked on civil rights in the 60s, is a grandparent now. As a newspaper man he wrote more than 6500 columns. His work makes me curious. I may try to learn more about him.

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.

Mississippi State vs. Loyola University

The Mississippi State University Bulldogs played at Loyola University on Saturday. It was the 50^th anniversary of a very historic meeting of the two teams, a story that has much to say to us!
by Charlie Leck

I’m not a great basketball fan; though I do enjoy an occasional collegiate basketball game between some of the great teams or some of the more historic, traditional meetings of teams. Yesterday Loyola of Chicago managed to beat Mississippi State, 59 to 51. But, for the purposes of history, let’s look at the game between the same two teams in 1963 (March 15).

Loyola won the NCAA National Championship in 1963
and Mississippi State was their opponent in the second round of that championship. No big deal, right? No! It was a big deal! It has been called one of the defining moments in our national history of race relations. The game has even been called one of the most significant ever in the history of NCAA championship games.

Mississippi State was the champion that year of the talented SEC (Southeast Conference) and none of the teams in that conference had yet integrated. They had only white players. 1963 was the year that President John F. Kennedy sent troops to Mississippi State to forcefully enable James Meredith to become the first black student to enroll in Ole Miss. It took a force of more than 12,000 soldiers.

An unwritten policy existed in Mississippi that prohibited white students from competing against non-whites. Really! The times have changed that much. As a matter of fact, Mississippi State had refused to play in the big tournament in 1962 because of the presence of black players on the teams the school would have faced.

In 1963, under the leadership of its basketball coach, Babe McCarthy, Mississippi State defied the white power structure in the state and accepted the tournament bid to play. As champions of a major collegiate conference, they received a bye in the first round. The Loyola Ramblers won in an overtime game in the first round by overwhelming Tennessee Tech, 111-42.

The second round matches were set. Mississippi State would take on Loyola in East Lansing, Michigan. Loyola had four black starters on its team. Mississippi segregationists were outraged.

Loyola had played a number of games in the South during the season and its players had become accustomed to the kinds of discrimination that regions of the country could show to black players when they tried to stay in hotels or dine in restaurants or use public restrooms. Throughout the season the black and white players on the Ramblers remained cohesive and loyal to one another. So, Loyola took the match up in Michigan in stride, barely giving a thought to racial implications.

In Mississippi it was another thing. The infamous racist Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, was set on stopping the Bulldogs from making the trip to Michigan. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! The Governor got a judge – a pal of his – to issue an injunction against the team, prohibiting it from making the trip and/or playing in the game.

Coach McCarthy was not to be deterred. Literally, he sneaked from the state in the darkness, avoiding the legal service of the papers upon him. The game became an immediate national news story and photographers and reporters from all across America descended on East Lansing. The flash bulbs (remember them?) popped like crazy when the captains of the two teams, Jerry Harkness of the Ramblers and Joe Gold of the Bulldogs, shook hands at center court before the tip-off.

The Loyola players remained unaware of the deep significance of what was happening. They had no idea of the secretive nature of their opponent’s departure from Mississippi. They had no idea how big an event the center-court handshake was. The general, pre-game consensus was that Loyola would win the game going away. It turned out to be a close, hard-fought game that Loyola only broke open in the closing minutes (61-51).

The game itself has been called “the beginning of the end of segregation in college sports” [Mark Hollins, Michigan State Director of Athletics at the time his university hosted the game).

Members of both 1963 teams were in attendance last night for the game in Chicago between the two schools.

The video that follows is only 4 minutes long. It’s very much worth your time to watch it. I was rather moved by it.

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.