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We were in Chicago again after this second experience at Union Seminary in New York. That was when my husband was asked to be the minister of education at the Winnetka Congregational church, and he was called there in 1963. Almost the first thing that happened that summer, was his going to the church council meeting and saying to these people, who he didn't know at all, "I want to go to Selma." Well, think of this church in Winnetka. This is a North Shore congregation, probably at that time I think Scarsdale had a higher per capita income than Winnetka. But anyway, this was quite different. This was a suburban setting. He was in charge of religious education. As far as I remember, I don't think there were any blacks in our church, but there were an awful lot of blacks in Chicago. The church had done those things that that kind of a church did, which was reaching out to the inner city. There was a lot of that. The women's fellowship had rummage sales that brought in $200,000, which they very carefully apportioned and budgeted for the various agencies in Chicago. And my sister-in-law Jean chaired that committee at one time, to apportion all that money. So we were aware, from the white liberal's point of view, of what needed to be done. We hadn't yet really worked with blacks. Newell asked to go to-did I finish that? He asked to go to Selma. He said he wanted to go and he wanted permission from the council to allow it. They said, "Not only do we want you to go, but-," one man, Lem Hunter, said, "I want to pay your way." So Newell was a witness and participated in the march on Selma. And I was always with him totally and emotionally, not with him physically, but I was always with him emotionally, so I was proud that he was going. You know, this was the sixties, I was about forty years old, and I was just totally present with him. |