[Dialogue] MLK Weekend, April 6, 1968

Mon Apr 10 12:23:23 PDT 2017

Thanks, Jo, for your witness and continuing leadership and commitment to facilitating and partnership with local people's leading local communities.

Ellie
elliestock at aol.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Nelson via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Dialogue List <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sun, Apr 9, 2017 8:54 pm
Subject: [Dialogue] MLK Weekend, April 6, 1968

I posted this in my blog on the weekend, and it forwarded to my Facebook page.  Someone requested that I also send it to the O:E list, but I am no longer on it, so I chose to put it here.   

MLK Weekend, April 6, 1968
49 years ago, I participated in a history- and life-changingevent on the West Side of Chicago.
I was 19 years old, in my second year at the University ofIowa, and traveled with my campus Wesleyan Foundation group to take a coursecalled “Cultural Studies I” at the Ecumenical Institute on the West Side ofChicago.  
 The day before the course was scheduled to begin, MartinLuther King was assassinated.  From oursmall-town Iowa perspective, though, we saw no reason not to go to Chicago forthe course.

 When we arrived in Chicago after a 5-hour drive on Friday,it was clear that the assassination had catalyzed unrest, but it wasn’t clearwhat was going to happen.  The others inthe car decided to turn around and go home, just in case.  My brother and his family (David and LindaZahrt, Jay and Heidi) were working at the Institute, and they weren’t fleeing,so I decided to stay. 

 The first session on Friday evening began as scheduled in alower floor room with windows at ground level.   I remember sitting next to what seemed to meto be an older man, Sheldon Hill, and thinking “there is no generation gap”,because we seemed to be on the same page of understanding.  As the session progressed, we heard shoutingout on the street and saw legs running by with gun barrels. 

 After the session ended, I went up to my dorm room andlooked out.  I could see fires burningwithin a block or so on 3 sides of the building, and on the fourth side was theEisenhower Expressway filled with cars getting out of the city. 

 I went to my brother’s apartment to talk with him and hangout with family. I didn’t want to be alone, as it was pretty scary and I wasstranded. After a little while there was a knock on the door, and we were toldeveryone was evacuating the building, as someone had broken in and tried tostart a fire in the building.

 There was a long-unused tunnel between the Institute campusand a hospital across the street. Somehow the tunnel was opened and we all went across to the hospitalbasement.  By this time almost everyparticipant had escaped via the expressway, so there were only a couple ofparticipants and Institute staff.  Mybrother and sister-in-law asked me to watch their two small children, who werewild with the energy around us.  Atvarious points the National Guard would come in to get coffee, and smoke wouldroll in with them.  Someone had a radio,and we heard that inner cities were burning all over America.  It felt like Armegeddon. 

 At daybreak on Saturday, when the rioters were exhausted andit was a bit quieter, we walked across the street back to the Institute.  The entire staff (maybe 40 people) gatheredin Room A to decide what to do.  Thechildren were in a nearby room with a couple of mothers.  There were only 3 of us who were not staff,one of whom was the president of the Institute’s board.  I watched as the staff talked through their profoundcommitment to help the community develop, and the dangers that staying therewould have.  In the end, they decided byconsensus to stay and risk their lives to support the community, since they hadmade a commitment.  They also decided tosend out the children and the women who were pregnant to friends and supportersin the suburbs for safety, since the children had not made a conscious decisionto risk their lives to stay.  

 As a non-staff family member who did not live there, I wasalso sent out with the children to the home of a suburban colleague who wasmobilizing her entire network to find places for all the “refugee” kids tostay.  I was then sent to a home in LakeForest, Illinois, which at the time was the richest town per capita in theworld, with two toddlers. David Prather was 1 and Dietrich Laudermilk was 2years old.  I had no idea of how to takecare of toddlers, and spent the night putting them back on the bed after theyhad rolled off. 

 On Sunday morning I was able to get through to my brotherand tell him where his kids were, and where I was.  The one other stranded participant was astudent from Nebraska, and got in touch with me to ride back with her.  By Sunday afternoon we were on the road home.

 The next day I got up for my first class, but couldn’t makeit through.  I came back to the dorm, andslept for 24 hours straight.  

 During that event in Chicago, I witnessed a group of people decidingby consensus to risk their lives to honour their commitment to work with thecommunity.  That is a rareexperience.  I realized that this groupof people were no ordinary group.  Theircare was profound.  It’s a big part ofthe reason I started to work with the Institute (which morphed into theInstitute of Cultural Affairs) as soon as I graduated from university, and whyI am still with it all these years later.

 Some of the impact of that event was the catalyst thatcreated ICA’s mode of radical participation in development:  it became very obvious that communitiesdidn’t thrive from nice white educated do-gooders trying to help, but that theychange deeply from local people and local leadership working collaboratively.  Outsiders have a role in the partnership, butthe lead comes from the community.  Thefacilitative approach as an equal partner is the only way to make adifference. 

--
Jo Nelson, CPF, CTF  <jnelson at ica-associates.ca>
Certified Professional Facilitator and ICA Certified ToP™ Facilitator
ICA Associates, Inc.  
401 Richmond Street West, Suite #405, Toronto, Canada. M5V 3A8

Ph. 1 416-691-2316, x2230  Toll-free 1 877-691-1422  Fax 1 416-691-2491
Website http://ica-associates.ca
Cellphone 647 233 6910
Skype “jofacilitator”

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Pre-qualified Vendor, Alberta Education Resource List

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Richard Buckminster Fuller”

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