Boycott events wrap up with downtown march
By TaMaryn Waters
May 29, 2006

From the front steps of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, onlookers watched as a crowd of marchers carved a path to the church.

A mix of generations walked side by side - swinging their arms to the march's cadence - walking a few blocks from the C.K. Steele Plaza to the church.

They sang "We Shall Overcome" just as marchers did 50 years ago when the Tallahassee Bus Boycott was first ignited by demonstrations and protests. It began when two Florida A&M University students, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, refused to give up their seats on a city bus, and leaders such as the late Rev. C.K. Steele helped to lead the city toward nonviolent equality.

The sound of their words was replaced by quiet footsteps as nearly 200 people entered Bethel to hear church leaders, city and county officials and later, guest speaker U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., comment about the weeklong commemoration of the bus boycott.
                                                                                                                                                 The statue of the Rev. C.K. Steele Sr. looks down on those
                                                                                                                                                                                                  commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bus boycott.

The service and its setting were symbolic in many ways. First of all, Steele was pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church when he led the boycott activities. His family was threatened constantly at the time. On Sunday, Tallahassee police officers were in full presence, patrolling intersections near the church on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

"Today is a great day - a day of celebration and a day of remembrance," said the Rev. Calvin McFadden.

A string of leaders echoed that message of reflection, while injecting a sense of fortitude needed in present issues involving underprivileged residents - particularly blacks.

"Things have not changed the way we think they have," said Charles Evans, president of the Tallahassee branch of the NAACP. He talked briefly about the controversy surrounding the death of 14-year-old boot-camp detainee Martin Lee Anderson and the government's move toward building more prisons, which house an increasing number of blacks.

Evans said, "The struggle lives on."

While others agreed, many believed blacks had come a long way since the days of segregation.

"It's good to be here in this historic church, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church," Lewis, 66, said in a booming voice. "If it had not been for the courage, the raw courage of Rev. C.K. Steele, Carrie Patterson and Wilhelmina Jakes, I don't know where we would be today."

Lewis helped lead more than 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965. Of his many civil-rights stories, he remembered when he was spat on and the burning sensation of a lit cigarette being put out in his hair during other demonstrations.

Some of the audience nodded in disbelief, others seemed to nod in shared grief. Tears rolled down the faces of a few listeners, while others pressed their hands to their mouths in an effort to stifle their emotions.

"We must tell these stories over and over again so our children will never, never forget what happened or how it happened," said Lewis, who was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966.

He shared another story about being incarcerated at the age of 20 for a nonviolent stand on injustice.

"The moment I was taken to jail, I felt free," he said. "I felt liberated. I felt like I had gotten in the way."

He challenged the audience to be more vocal and not to be afraid to "get in the way."

"I really do think that we are too quiet. We need to make a little noise," Lewis said.

Stephanie Jerger, 25, said she felt a sense of pride to hear about the many leaders who helped make a better life for blacks, especially Patterson and Jakes.

"I'm almost moved to tears," said the Tallahassee native and FAMU student who is majoring in political science and African-American studies.

Coreen Johnson, 77, remembers the turmoil brewing in the black community 50 years ago. She said the week of commemoration helped her to reflect on past struggles and renew the need to plant seeds in the next generation.

She said she would never forget riding in the back of a bus, drinking from a "colored" water fountain and being forced to walk through the back door of a building.

Phillip Agnew, SGA president at Florida A&M University, said he and many other young adults were learning from the "Tallahassee school of activism."

He said, "We stand before you as proud pupils and apprentices."