Harwich Residents Celebrate Diversity, In Dr. King’s Name

Cape Cod Chronical - By Allan Pollock

HARWICH — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a civil rights leader, a preacher and an orator, but most of all, a teacher. And, as evidenced by a gathering in his name Monday, Dr. King’s lessons still reverberate in Harwich.

The Harwich “No Place For Hate” group held a commemoration of Dr. King’s life at town hall on the holiday that bears his name. “It’s not a shopping day. It’s a thinking day, I believe,” organizer John Bangert said. The day is a time to remember Dr. King’s contributions to our nation, and to take time to meet and embrace unfamiliar neighbors, particularly those who don’t look like ourselves, Bangert said.

Speaking before a full meeting room, State Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, said Americans tend to find each others’ differences, creating a nation of special interest groups. Even on Cape Cod, people see themselves as residents of a particular town, or as year-round residents, or as other subsets of a community, she said. Instead of finding distinctions, Dr. King taught people to find commonalities. When we follow that lesson, “this place we call home becomes bigger and bigger every day,” Peake said.

The keynote speaker at the event was Harwich attorney William Crowell, who has been a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the last 18 years. Two years ago, Crowell decided to visit the SPLC headquarters in Montgomery, Ala., which sits in what was the epicenter of the civil rights movement, less than a half mile from landmarks like the state capital, the Greyhound bus terminal, the Dexter Avenue Church, and the place where Rosa Parks was arrested for not yielding her bus seat to a white person. For a person looking to learn more about the civil rights movement, there is no better place than Montgomery, Crowell said.

The SPLC has two major approaches to fighting discrimination and hate: filing civil lawsuits against groups like the Ku Klux Klan, and distributing a “teaching tolerance” program for use in school systems around the country. The SPLC headquarters was burned down once, and the attorneys—who are paid by donations, not legal fees—regularly face death threats. To Crowell, who runs a practice of real estate law, it’s hard to imagine.
“These lawyers are very courageous,” he said.

Traveling alone to the Deep South was “a little bit intimidating,” Crowell said. In a Starbucks coffee shop at the Atlanta airport, he noticed a distinguished Black man who looked familiar. On a hunch, he later spoke to the woman with whom the man was speaking, and confirmed that it was civil rights leader and NAACP President Julian Bond. The man, she told Crowell, is her husband, and he was conferring with her about a speech he was about to give at the SPLC headquarters.

Later, Bond invited Crowell to share a ride to his hotel. Seated together in the back seat of the car, Crowell admitted he felt like Bond had nothing in common with him. “Here’s a white, New England conservative lawyer,” Crowell said with a chuckle. But the two did strike up a conversation, discussing whose alma mater had the more beautiful campus. The important lesson was that Bond made an effort to reach out to Crowell “to make me feel comfortable.”
Crowell also attended a service at the Dexter Avenue Church, where Dr. King was pastor. Seated on either side of Crowell were people of color. There, during the prayer portions of the service, as is the custom, the worshipers all held hands.

“That really had a powerful effect on me,” he said.
Seeing the SPLC headquarters, hearing Bond speak, and seeing the various civil rights landmarks in Montgomery all were powerful experiences, Crowell said. But in retrospect, the most meaningful parts of the trip were his encounters with strangers with whom he assumed he had little in common. In the end, building relationships with these strangers was the most meaningful part of the trip, and the part most germane to Dr. King’s message.

“That was a glimpse, for me, of what Martin Luther King was talking about: the promised land,” Crowell said.

After Crowell’s speech, the Harwich assembly held a moment of silence, and then heard a reading from the Quran from Harwich High School junior Amira Downes. Then, members of the community stood to offer their thoughts about Dr. King and the holiday. One of those to speak was Carolyn Crowell, attorney Crowell’s mother.


(Hey- Who in Harwich Remembers This event in 1964?)

Mrs. Crowell said that one of her sons, Timothy, (William’s older brother) was a member of the Harwich High School Class of 1964, the last group to make the traditional class trip to Washington, D.C. After seeing the sights, the students stopped to have lunch at a restaurant, and the manager pulled one of the chaperones aside. The restaurant, he explained, would be unable to serve some of the Harwich students because of their skin color.
“And the entire class rose up and walked out,” Mrs. Crowell said.

Harwich Remembers Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Harwich - About 60 people, many of them students from Harwich High School, turned out at town hall Monday for the annual commemoration of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Organized by Harwich No Place for Hate, the program featured singing, talks and a moment of silence. John Bangert, a local leader of the No Place for Hate initiative, served as master of ceremonies while William Crowell, a Harwich Port real estate lawyer, gave the keynote speech. Crowell is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Montgomery, Ala., and related to the audience his experience at the dedication two years ago of the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery.

State Rep. Sarah Peake (4th Barnstable District) also addressed the group, and spoke about King’s legacy. Selectmen Robin Wilkins and Ed McManus attended.

Harwich High School junior Amira Downes offered a community prayer and affirmation in a reading from the Koran. Others stood or took the podium to express their feelings about King and the ongoing struggle for civil rights.

Local girl and boy scouts led the group in the Pledge of Allegience, and several scouts served as honor guard. The hour-long program took place in the Griffin Room.

A Day ON, not a day off !

Monday, January 21, 2008
11:00 AM Harwich Town Hall –
3rd Annual MLK DAY
(A day on and not a day off!)

Commemorates the Life and Legacy of
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Email: noplaceforhate@comcast.net
Phone: (508) 432-0545

Singing of our National Anthem ~ The Star Spangled Banner -1814

Words by Francis Scott Key ~ Music by John Stafford Smith

O say, can you see,

by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed

at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,

through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched,

were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare,

the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night

that our flag was still there.

O say does that star spangled

banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free,

and the home of the brave.

Honor Guard Harwich Cub Scouts
Pack 76

Welcome and introductory remarks: NPFH organizing Committee members John Bangert, Selectman Ed Mc Manus, Harwich Youth Counselor - Sheila House, Jane Henry and Chuck Micciche




State Representative Sarah K. Peake


Massachusetts State Representative, Sarah K. Peake gets cooking with cranberries during the Harwich Cranberry Harvest Festival.

Harwich Celebrates Our Diversity!

“Welcome to the Harwich’s—a place for all to live, work and play

Get to know your Harwich neighbors

Mr. & Mrs. Mike Massad -Lebanese Americans Operators, of Harwich Center Getty Station
Mr. & Mrs. Marcos Miranda - Brazilian Americans, Miranda Landscaping, Harwich, MA

Keynote Speaker: William Crowell, Esq. *

Topic: Southern Poverty Law Center and Harwich


(*) Bill Crowell, a lifelong resident of Harwich. lives in Harwich with his wife Dru and their children. Bill is a graduate of Harwich High School, Cornell University, and Suffolk University Law School. He is in his 30th year of practicing law in Harwich Port and for the last fifteen years has been a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, a block away from the Dexter Avenue Church in which Dr. Martin Luther King served as Pastor. Two years ago, Bill was invited to attend the dedication of the Civil Rights Memorial constructed across the street from the Law Center in Montgomery and would like to relate his experiences from that trip.

Community Prayers and Affirmations - Lead by Harwich High School junior Ms. Amira Downes, in the Islamic tradition.

We also have a dream!

And now a word from our Community!

(Share Your Dream in a phrase or in a word!)


Closing Hymn: We Shall Overcome


1.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
·
· CHORUS:

Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day

· 2.
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand some day
· CHORUS

3.
We shall all be free
We shall all be free
We shall all be free some day
· CHORUS

4.
We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid some day
· CHORUS

5.
We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone some day
· CHORUS

6.
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around some day
· CHORUS

7.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
· CHORUS


Reception: Albro House

Town of Harwich No Place for Hate Committee