Freedom Day honored at Ellwood Christian Academy

Ellwood Christian Academy held a program on Tuesday to commemorate 1963 Freedom Day that was organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

SNCC representative Worth Long, a revered Civil Rights leader of the movement who passed away in May, led the event that recognized Freedom Day of Oct. 7, 1963, when African Americans in Selma were encouraged to register to vote when at the time only 1% of Blacks were able to complete the process. It was also a day where African American students integrated segregated places in the city.

Charles A. Bonner, who is also a member of the Ellwood Christian Academy board, donated to the school’s library his book, Tip of the Arrow, that is now available for students to check out.

Selma Mayor James Perkins also made a proclamation for the October 7, 1963, Freedom Day and three Ellwood students read the proclamation.

The event was hosted by Pastor Crum inside of the cafeteria at the new school at the former Meadowview Christian Academy location. Keynote speaker was William Long, who is the son of Worth Long. Attorney Faya Rose Toure sang one of the Civil Rights songs of the movement, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” with Tasha “T-Honey” Brown.

Bonner discussed the biggest incitement that led up to the historic Freedom Day of 1963 for them – the September 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls.

Bonner, who was 17 at the time said, “We rush over to the ‘Freedom House,’ right over by the Hudson High school – First avenue and Union Street – and we knocked on the door. No answer. … We went inside, we picked up the black telephone, and we called SNCC headquarters in Atlanta. We said, ‘we want some adult to come to Selma, to help us lead a demonstration, to protest the killing of these young girls.” Bonner went on to explain how they were told that no adult was available to come down at the time, and civil rights leader Bernard Lafayette and his wife had told them that, “we would be our own leaders.” 

Bonner says that they went down to the school next and spoke with the children, “We not going to school today. We goin’ to church today.”

While at the church, Bonner says that they developed a game plan on what their next move was going to be, concerning organizing a demonstration: a lunch counter sit-in at a local store and burger joint called Carter’s Drugstore. There was violence against the young demonstrators by whites during this time. Four Black children were arrested in the segregated store and one of the demonstrators was “in the hospital– his head split open,” Bonner said. They all then discussed what they were going to do next. 

They agreed to go down to the jailhouse to protest the arrests of the four students who had participated in the sit-in. They all were arrested. There was also violence to occur against Worth Long while they were within the jail. Bonner states that Worth Long’s nonviolent stance “taught us the power of nonviolence.”

Worth Long was the director of the Field Secretaries for SNCC. Worth Long later joined Bernard Lafayette in Selma, organizing in the Black community. Bonner explained to the ECA students what happened on October 7, 1963:

“On that day, we decided we were going to integrate everything that was segregated, which was everything. And, so, we had been organizing all of the adults to go down, to register to vote. So, we told all the teachers, the adults, to come down to the Dallas County Courthouse. We want you to register to vote. And all of the students – we’re gonna’ go to every place that’s segregated; we’re going to go into movie theaters, libraries. I personally went into the library because it was ‘All-White’ and to my shock and surprise, I went in, just acted like I was a regular student. We were not allowed to go in there (and) took the books, sat them on the table, and the white librarian walked up and said: ‘How are you doing? How can I help you?’ And she was so nice. And, I thought, Oh, this is easy. Integration is quite easy. This lady didn’t mind at all. She just had this human godliness inside of her and was totally receptive.” 

Bonner went on to explain how they had also gone down to the movie theater, restaurants and hotels, making space for themselves in their ‘All-White’ sections.

Bonner climaxed his story by stating, “consequently, that move started the birth of the March, and we stayed in the streets, until we got the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voters Rights Act that gave everyone the right to vote.” 

Long spoke about his father, Worth Long, near tears, saying “We gather today, not just to honor a man, but to celebrate a spirit; the spirit of nonviolence, of dignity, of the unyielding belief that ordinary people can bend the moral ark of the universe towards justice. ... Today is equally personal for me. ... He was my father; he was my teacher; and my hero.” 

Long spent the last 15 years turning the story into a book. “When your Dad is telling you how the police beat him up, about how he was treated, about everything that he was trying to do for the people in your family, your community ... it kind of hits different.” He encouraged the students to go home and learn the history of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. 

“The duty that, really, we have is creating a bridge to connect past to present, and then moving it to the future,” he said. “So if ya’ll take away anything from me today, just go home and try to have conversations with people in your community, because it has inspired me in a completely different way, to have that experience, and I think that it might hit different for ya’ll as well.”