Rev. Martin Luther King memorabilia is a part of civil rights assortment

Springfield’s Aaron Pearl-Cropp admitted that the likelihood of finding a pennant commemorating March 1963 in Washington, where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, was “very rare.” .

Pearl-Cropp, 52, a Springfield City Public Works clerk and civil rights memorabilia collector, said he only saw the pennant twice, both times in museum settings, and an auction house he works with told him it was one Piece that rarely came up for sale.

But a chance conversation with a worker who had been painting his house last summer ultimately led to Pearl-Cropp receiving the award.

During the king’s life commemoration holidays, the pennant is the centerpiece of a collection of photographs, buttons, covers, and other museum-quality memorabilia in the basement of Pearl-Cropp’s house on the west side.

Among the other rarities are full eulogies for King’s funeral in 1968. The programs came from the estate of Bernita Bennette, who became Scott King’s personal assistant after the murder of King Coretta.

The civil rights movement is also part of Pearl-Cropp’s DNA: his maternal grandfather’s nephew, Isaac Newton Farris Sr., was married to Christine King, sister of Martin Luther King Jr., who is now 93 years old.

Pearl-Cropp’s maternal uncle, Carl Farris, attended the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a contributor to King’s.

A college internship at the Central Illinois African American History Museum in Springfield sparked his passion for museums and collecting, which began in earnest about three years ago. Springfield friends Clint Handley and Marc Sigoloff, who are also involved in the collection, have helped Pearl-Cropp.

“I want this to look like a museum when people walk in, and I want people to see where we’ve been, how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go,” said Pearl-Cropp. “I want this to be a think tank.

“It’s not an African American story. This is America’s story. This is what’s going on.”

Some of the framed photos on the walls are painfully reminiscent of the past: a police officer with a raised club threatens a group of young black people. Three young people are pushed against a building where water is being hosed off.

One of Pearl-Cropp’s favorite photos is Bruce Davidson’s 1965 portrait of black youth, his face painted white and “Vote” stenciled on his forehead. The youth were part of the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to fight for black suffrage.

“I see a young man who was brave to change something,” said Pearl-Cropp, looking at the picture. “I see a young man who was willing to give up his life so that someone else would have a better opportunity. We will fight for what he (1965) fought for in 2021.”

Pearl-Cropp shows the Big Six in a photo – John Lewis, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, King, James Farmer and Roy Wilkins. There’s a separate photo of Randolph and Bayard Rustin, one of the architects of the March for Freedom who never got the recognition he deserved, Pearl-Cropp said for being gay.

In Pearl-Cropp’s button collection, numbering in the hundreds, there is one that simply says “King ’68”.

King considered a presidential offer with Dr. Benjamin Spock as his colleague, but ultimately decided against it.

A poll tax button recalls the draconian measure that some southern states have adopted as a means of restricting voting rights. A “Stop the Lynch” button was manufactured in the 1930s by the NAACP, which was formed in Springfield after the 1908 Race Riot.

As he began collecting buttons from colleagues in the Alpha Phi Alpha Brotherhood (including King), Pearl-Cropp’s circle expanded to include activists such as Medgar Evers, Stokely Carmichael, and Angela Davis.

“This is the story that needs to be preserved,” said Pearl-Cropp. “This is a story that needs to be told.”

Pearl-Cropp said he bought a Work and Freedom Button in Washington from March 1963 in 2019, which was attended by around 250,000 people.

In a casual conversation, Pearl-Cropp showed it to Butch Stemmons, who was making improvements to Pearl-Cropp’s newly bought house.

“(Stemmons) told me he had something to do with (button),” recalled Pearl-Cropp.

Stemmons had saved the pennant about 30 years earlier when a friend tried to throw it away, Pearl-Cropp said.

The pennant was mounted on a dry board, so Pearl-Cropp enlisted the help of David Bourland, who owns an art gallery in Springfield. Bourland carefully removed the pennant from the board.

“I told (Bourland) that I wanted him to frame it,” said Pearl-Cropp, “but there’s no way this button can be without that pennant.”

Bourland, who also hung the pictures for Pearl-Cropp, worked a black and white theme in the background and in the frames that was reminiscent of the black hand that held the white hand on the button and on the pennant.

“All the pieces have to come together to create a unit,” said Pearl-Cropp.

Kathryn Harris designed Pearl-Cropp for the board of the African American History Museum after his internship. Harris said she would like to see the collection as part of an exhibit at the African American History Museum or the Illinois State Museum.

“Aaron’s collection is history. It tells the story,” said Harris. “If you close your eyes, you could have been to Minneapolis or Portland or Washington, DC January 6th this summer. That is part of the story that can be linked then to today.”

Pearl-Cropp reminded that the collection is not there to make people feel bad.

“This is a dialogue to let you know that even though we think everything is fine, we still have work to keep doing,” he said.

Pearl-Cropp and his wife Annie Brooks-Pearl both understood the importance of education. Brooks-Pearl, the youngest of 12 children, said her mother and father picked cotton in Mississippi – neither of which had graduated from high school – before they came to Springfield.

Brooks-Pearl holds a PhD and two Masters degrees and is the Executive Director of Regulatory Services with the Illinois State Board of Education.

Pearl-Cropp returned to college in his 40s, first to Lincoln Land Community College and then to the University of Illinois Springfield, where he will graduate with a Masters in Public Administration this spring. His father is the late Isaac Cropp Sr .; His mother, Geneva Farris-Pearl, is a founding employee of Sangamon State University, now UIS.

“Dr. King showed us that we need to educate and educate to be a vessel for the changes that need to be made,” said Pearl-Cropp.

While King left a legacy of things to think about and address, Harris said the extreme division and polarization of the nation negated talks about racial issues.

“Talking about race and injustice is bold conversation because it’s tough conversation, but it’s conversation we need to have,” Harris said.

“(The King Holiday) lets me know that we were brought to this earth to be a ship for someone else,” said Pearl-Cropp. “If we ever think it’s always about us, we’re totally wrong. We should be here to serve others, and that’s what Dr. King did. It makes me realize we have so much to do.”

Contact Steven Spearie: 622-1788, [email protected], twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.