 |
| PHOTO | NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY |
| Former US Representative Eva Clayton (center) was a civil rights activist whom Martin Luther King Jr. invited to a rally in Durham on April 4, 1968. King bowed to lead a march on behalf of the black plumbing workers in Memphis, Tennessee. |
Martin Luther King Jr. was due to be in Durham on April 4, 1968 to help mobilize black voters.
He was led by Dr. Reginald Hawkins, a Charlotte dentist and the first black to run for governor of North Carolina, and Eva Clayton, a young mother and activist living in Warren County.
Clayton had volunteered for Congress that year and was thrilled with King’s arrival and participation. As a native Georgian, she knew this moment would be life changing for the Black North Carolinians.
“Dr. King had promised to come, and we knew that coming would inspire more people to get involved in voter registration,” said Clayton, then 33.
Instead, King was dragged to Memphis, Tennessee, because of a violent strike with plumbing workers and canceled his trip to the state of Tar Heel. The excitement of his visit was soon replaced by grief after the young leader and pastor was murdered. Violence broke out in cities across the state, including Durham, where 13 fires were set.
Clayton said that if King had come to North Carolina as planned, he would have made “a big difference” to blacks. Still, she thinks he did it. Soon more black North Carolinians became more politically active than before.
“The fact that he wanted to come didn’t come and his death happened, I can tell you, it got a tremendous response,” said Clayton, a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University. “His life, even his death, has caused the registry to go up a lot more than I could ever have done.”
There have been countless demonstrations, rallies and demonstrations in North Carolina during the civil rights movement in the struggle for voting rights and racial equality. The need for change burst and young people like Clayton knew that political representation was a solution.
After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there was immense pressure on blacks not only to register for the vote, but also to run for candidates during the 1968 election cycle. Clayton was one of the few black North Carolina women to race that year, and although she lost, the energy of the campaign was an inspiration to keep going as a political and civic activist.
In 1992, Charlotte’s Clayton and Mel Watt became the first black North Carolinians to be elected to Congress since George Henry White in 1901 when the state constitution was amended to disenfranchise black voters.
Clayton represented the state’s 1st Congressional District for five terms and fought to ensure that the eastern North Carolinians and rural residents had greater economic development, education and agriculture. She also manned efforts to fight hunger in the state.
Clayton’s activism in the civil rights movement began when she moved to Warren County with her husband and saw the need to register black voters there. She once impaled her husband’s law office for having a separate restaurant.
For all the work she and leaders like King have done, Claytton believes that much remains to be done to ensure a safer and fairer democracy.
“DR. King’s words and his positions and some of the same issues he fought against, we continue to fight,” she said. “We shouldn’t let this discourage us. It just means we have to fight harder.”
On January 5, Georgia elected its first black Senator since rebuilding, Rev. Raphael Warnock. He is also the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the king’s former church. Less than 24 hours later, supporters of the insurgent Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, displaying Confederate flags and terrorizing lawmakers.
“I was very, very discouraged,” said Clayton, who was watching the news with her grandson. “My reason was, ‘did this have to happen?’ and its reason was, “How dare we get to that?” It was painful to see that the people wanted to overthrow our government. ”
Clayton said American democracy is “fragile” and believes there needs to be more accountability for leaders like President Donald Trump and other Republicans who participated in efforts to question the November election results.
“Another message from Dr. King that goes with what we’ve seen … he put it this way,” We won’t remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends, “quoted Clayton King from his 1965 speech about Americans who would not stand up against racial discrimination.
She said the silence and complacency of some members of Congress until last week’s uprising spoke volumes.
“You were complicit when there were obviously disturbing signs that this Charlottesville president had immigrant children in cages. We had to wait for the house to burn down, ”said Clayton, who added that despite advances since the 1960s and after the King’s assassination, racism is still a problem.
“There is lingering structural, systematic racism and denial about poverty,” she said. “People are denied where they live, what education they receive, blacks are still exposed to police brutality, the list goes on.”
Still, Clayton is optimistic about the fight for justice and democracy. It recognizes the work of young people who help fill this gap and inspire older generations to “open their eyes” to open up new perspectives. Young people were referred to as the big voting bloc that brought Biden and Harris to the White House this November.
The 86-year-old former Congresswoman continues to encourage North Carolinians to get involved in their communities and take inspiration from leaders like King, whom she no doubt believes his hand is still involved in efforts to attract black Americans and marginalized communities to raise.
“We need to reinforce the importance of registering people and educating them. The more successful we are like in Georgia, especially for blacks or Jews, the more honest we have to be. There are people who think they should be against us, ”Clayton said. “But we should do it as American as anything else. We need to make sure that there are no excuses for violence. “
Comments are closed.