The Unknown Harding Hero of the Civil Rights Movement.

Today in American we honor a Great Man - Martin Luther King Jr. 

In honor of that, I'll take a break from the fire story at the Fraternity house and pay tribute to a relatively unknown Hero of the Civil Rights Movement and celebrate the rich heritage of which I am so proud.  

           ...And the connection this hero has to Venice and Santa Monica 

(I'll come back to the fire story from the last post) and tell you about the dead body that Chewbacca found in my next post).

I have talked to you about my Aunt Mary who was a Catholic nun. In my blog I have mentioned her dedication and work in the inner city. I reported about the time my brother, Puke-Breath, had red fire ants pored down his pants and about how she and the other over-zealous nuns in the Detroit Convent were almost too enthusiastic in picking the ants off his skinny, naked - hinny (Blog post Naked Teenager 10/26/2013).  

Today on a more serious note, I would like to talk about my Aunt Mary and how her courage changed the course of History.  

This following part was Edited by Kurt Dahlin.

"The year was 1965; the place, Selma, Alabama.   For decades, local laws had all but prevented Blacks from voting.  And those who did venture to protest often faced harassment--even death.  Black Selmians, supported by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., decided to march to the state capital of Montgomery to draw attention to their plight. On a Sunday in early spring, dozens of peaceful protesters on their way out of the city were brutally beaten back by state troopers.

 

 

The violence of "Bloody Sunday" stunned Americans, focusing nationwide attention on civil rights. A group of American nuns from St. Louis were among the first to protest the violence.  When Dr. King receives permission to march to the state capital in order to petition Governor George C. Wallace for the voting rights of the state's Negro citizens, Sister Mary Leoline (Mary Ann Sommer), a teacher at Christ the King school in Kansas City, joins two priests in a 3-member Kansas City Catholic Interracial Council delegation to Selma. 

 

 MY AUNT WAS THE ONLY SISTER WHO WAS PRESENT throughout the entire 50-mile march to Montgomery.  I circled her in red below.

Six Catholic nuns from across the country answered Martin Luther King's call to join the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama.

Six Catholic nuns from across the country answered Martin Luther King's call to join the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama.

 

These courageous women risked their personal safety to become powerful agents of change. On the Wednesday following “Bloody Sunday,” the sisters led a procession defying a ban by church, city, and county authorities. Though the police cut the demonstration short, the images of these women in the national and international media had tremendous impact. People were shocked. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of Americans felt sisters should remain cloistered in their convents. For Dr. Martin Luther King the presence of the visiting nuns in the Selma demonstrations “had a special significance because the public knows a nun to be a woman of great sacrifice and dedication.”

 

My Aunt Mary -  Sister Mary Leoline.

She continued to be involved with the movement and was among those arrested in Washington, during the Poor People's March of 1968.

Sister Mary Leoline (in orange jacket) helps with crowd control.

On March 28, Congressman Dickenson of Alabama brings charges of “drunkenness and immorality” against the protesters before the House of Representatives in Washington. Sister Mary Leoline and nine clergy and seminarians who completed the 50-mile march; travel to Washington to refute the charges before Congress of disorderly conduct made against the marchers by Congressman Dickenson.   They present a signed “Statement of Morality during the Selma Crisis” to Congressmen Ryan and Resnick of New York. At the request of John McCormick Speaker of the House, Ryan and Resnick introduce the Statement of Morality for debate by the members of the House and for inclusion in the Congressional Records of the House and Senate. Sister Mary Leoline's key testimony at the press conference in Washington DC led to advancements in the civil rights movement.  

At the end of the four-day march, Dr. King’s famous words rang out to the crowd of 25,000: “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’...Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” As it turned out, it took only a few months from that famous speech for the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 to become law.

Mary Ann Sommer (Sister  Mary Leoline) chose to redirect her commitment to the cause of freedom and equality as a diocesan nun in Detroit. As an involved teacher in Michigan and California, she participated in Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, DC, attended the Mexican American Culture Center in San Antonio, helped Caesar Chavez set up the farm workers clinic in Salinas, California. 

This unassuming hero was raised in Santa Monica and was one of us living in the Harding 

house in Venice.  

Sister Mary continued her advocacy roll as a contemplative “free-lance nun” during her retirement in Salt Lake City.

Several of the nuns interviewed credit the Second Vatican Council with inspiring them to become involved in the civil rights movement. Sister Mary Leoline of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary remembers how she was responding to Pope John XXIII’s encouragement to “go where the need is.”

This is a picture of my late Aunt Mary at the time she was interviewed for a documentary titled "The Sisters of Selma" (which is available on NetFlix) 

My Aunt is quoted as saying "Canon law is set up so that if people do something which proves to be the right thing to do and it proves to be the religious thing to do--then the law changes." Sister Mary Ann Sommer. 

http://home.earthlink.net/~sistersofselma/sos9.htm

www.aptv.org/as/sisters/index.asp

Martin Luther King Jr. and Mary Ann Sommer, extremist who followed the revolutionary teachings of an radical who taught his followers to "Love their enemies"  - Jesus! 

 Jesus was radical extremist for Love, Truth and Justice.

I don't know why we, as humans, choose to be unkind to each other, but like Martin Luther King Jr advocated why we can't choose to love... Markie d   

After her retirement, Aunt Mary came to live in the Harding House for 6 years... 

 

A bunch of Family gather to celebrate her