Only orders from my Doctors have prevented me from being with all of you gathered today to salute Ted Berry and the works of The National Underground Railroad Center. I have been looking forward to a visit to Cincinnati, the city, and to its citizens for whom I have great respect. I also wanted to restate and reaffirm my commitment to the ideals and works of The Community Action Agencies in our country. Ted Berry was a potent leader in getting those Agencies started; and, thanks be to God, The Community Action network of Agencies continues to be a powerful movement toward justice for all Americans, especially the financially poor among us.
Just for the record, and perhaps for the younger persons in the audience today, I’d like to recall and enumerate a few of the revolutionary elements in Community Action and the results achieved by those Agencies.
First of all, Community Action per se was and is unique. Our country is famous for initiatives started by our Presidents, by our U.S. Congress, by our State and municipal Governments, and by far-sighted, generous philanthropists. But, no country, so far as I know, has ever created and financed, nationally, the operations of local agencies representing only “communities” within states and cities. These “communities” have responded enthusiastically to the chance given to them by “Community Action”, -- the chance to manage their own lives, at least partially, and to decide among themselves what is best for them and how to go about achieving the results they desire. In brief, they have been given, for the first time in all their lives, the financial means to do for themselves what they desire for themselves. Governmental and political personages do not control what they do. Yes, they advise and participate in the decision-making process; but the final decisions are made by the communities and by their own chosen leaders.
Next, Ted Berry knew about discrimination first-hand. He was important in breaking down the barriers and revitalizing, among other enterprises, our “Head Start” program in Mississippi and throughout the country.
He was also one who reacted positively and creatively to others of our new initiatives. For example, he was a dedicated and competent participant in starting the “Foster Grandparents” Program and the “Upward Bound” Program. These were two additional creations of The War Against Poverty. Both of them exist today, and “Foster Grandparents” in particular has a budget approaching a billion dollars. Ted Berry knew that that was going to be a good program. He was an ardent booster of it. I might add parenthetically that some people don’t know that “Foster Grandparents” was started by the “War Against Poverty” and it exists today like “Community Action”, like “Head Start”, like the “Job Corps”, and other new initiatives created by The War Against Poverty. Most Americans don’t realize that those programs were started by the War Against Poverty, -- including the famous Ronald Reagan who was totally unaware of the origins of those programs even though Mrs. Reagan was herself a participant in the Foster Grandparents Program in California in its earliest days.
Despite his dedication to the War Against Poverty in general and “Community Action” specifically, Ted Berry experienced racial discrimination himself. In the early history of the War Against Poverty I asked Ted Berry and two other high-level officials in the War, -- Edgar May and Don Baker, -- to go with Ted to Mississippi for the purpose of investigating a program which was quite popular but controversial in that State. The Program was known as “CDGM”. It was located in Jackson, Mississippi. From the very moment that Ted and Edgar May and Don Baker sat down for breakfast in a restaurant in Jackson, where they were accompanied by some local leaders from that State, they found that their group had increased to eight persons so they needed to have-two tables sitting four apiece. Ted was at one table, and the other War Against Poverty persons with Ted at that table were all white. Mississippi taught all of them, however, a lesson that no one of them have ever forgotten.
The table with four white persons from the War Against Poverty were served expeditiously and politely. But the table where Ted Berry was seated with three white men from the War Against Poverty waited forty-five to fifty minutes before any waiter came to take their orders. Nevertheless, Ted and his white colleagues waited patiently. And by doing so gave an unforgettable experience to all the seven white men who were at that breakfast at that Mississippi restaurant.
Here’s another story told to me by Sandy MacNabb who was a Special Assistant to Ted Berry. This occurred in 1969 when Ted made another trip to Mississippi. Here’s what happened when Ted and his group entered a general store which was part of a gas station near the Mississippi/ Alabama line.
...Standing squarely in the middle of the store was a middle-aged man with a sheriff’s badge pinned to his suspenders. He looked at the several well-dressed and mature Black and white men and asked, “Where you boys from”. Ted Berry answered and said, “We are from Washington, D.C.”. “What do you do up there,” the sheriff probed. Without batting an eye, Ted reached out his hand to shake and announced that he was Theodore M. Berry and that he had been appointed by the President of the United States to serve as the National Director of the Community Action Program and that the group had been touring and inspecting “Community Action” Agencies throughout the state. This, of course, was a lot for the sheriff to absorb. The sheriff then said, “You boys seen any violence since you been down here?” They said “no”. The sheriff then added, with his version of a political smile, “Good, good, now when you get back to Washington I want you to tell that to those damn Yankee newspapers who keep giving us all the bad publicity that it’s ruining our tourist trade. Ted acknowledged the request and said that he would be glad to do so. This was probably one of the best validations of the work which Ted, OEO and CAP had done. “Times were a changing” and the sheriff had probably got word from the power structure and he was just carrying out orders. But this time the orders were different.
I could tell a dozen stories like this one where Ted Berry had the courage and the brains, right in the heart of the Deep South in the Capital of Mississippi, to speak out for the ideals embodied in the War Against Poverty. Yes, Ted Berry and his colleagues were leading a struggle for the betterment of poor people of all races, all religions, including even atheists.
I have been deeply impressed by the Executive Summary prepared by everyone present here today who is responsible for the creation of the New Freedom Center. I have read and re-read that summary and can truthfully say that it is the best presentation I have ever read outlining the background, the purposes both intellectually, educationally, and moral, for which this new Freedom Center is being established. I love the 175 “Freedom Stories” which will be available for all visitors to see. I love your staff members who will be called “21st Century Conductors.” They will explore and explain a series of dramatized, specialized audio-visually enhanced narratives, or “Story Theaters” describing situations from the past as well as examples for the future. Your “Freedom Center” will dramatize the runaways who had the courage to try to escape from slavery in the South. Their “Freedom Road” experiences will transform all visitors who take the time to go along the exploratory road and learn the lessons which will help them to realize the dream of Martin Luther King that one day, “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”.
That day has not yet fully arrived, but your “Freedom Center” will exert force in its achievement.
Yes, your “Freedom Center” will become the pilgrimage site, the National Cultural Institution where thousands of young American men and women will learn more about the last one hundred years ‘of American history than they will ever get from reading books or watching movies.
I salute profoundly every person who has participated in creating the vision for your “Freedom Center”. Each and every one who serves on your steering committee will surely thank God for the opportunity they were given to create this new and extremely important Center right here on the banks of the Ohio River. Your Center may well become the best known and most revered “beacon of freedom” not only in Cincinnati, but in our nation.
May God bless you all for the work you have done.
