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The following is based on an article I wrote for Ted Kheel, from material in the Kheel archives, for the occasion of the “I Have a Dream” International Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the celebration of the historic inauguration of our President-Elect Barack Obama, at The Gabarron Foundation Carriage House in New York City on January 21, 2009. Voila!! “I Have a Dream” “Equal opportunity to enjoy the bread which is earned by the sweat of one’s own face in the plain words of Abraham Lincoln – is among the basic principles of American democracy…..As heirs and co-owners of certain unalienable rights, Americans have made un-precedented progress for themselves and for the general welfare. In this progress, we cannot fail nor falter.” In a follow-up letter on December 1, President Eisenhower wrote: “Dear Mr. Kheel: It is a pleasure to join in the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the National Urban League. Our nation was founded on the concept of liberty and justice for all its citizens. Steady progress has been made in applying this concept in the daily life of Americans but the need for further work and vigilance remains. As the National Urban League champions the cause of equal opportunity, it renders a splendid service to our people and to the hope of freedom around the world.” Kheel subsequently wrote an article “The Gains of Democratic Employment” in which he said that the most persistent cause of industrial strife was discriminatory treatment of employees. Thereafter, notable gains were made in hiring practices of minorities. In pursuance of the goals of human rights and equal opportunity, Kheel was Chairman of a fact-finding committee that went to Kenya in 1960 to supervise the airlifting of African scholarship students to the United States. The students’ airlift was a dramatic and symbolic expression of their ability and willingness to fulfill Africa’s greatest need – education and training for independence. One of the students who benefited from the airlift program was Barack Obama, Sr., who attended the University of Hawaii where he met and married Obama's mother. Another was Wangari Maathai, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Visit www.AirlifttoAmerica.org Shortly after the airlift, Ted and his late wife, Ann Sunstein Kheel, became involved with the civil rights movement and formed a wonderful relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When four ministers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were involved in a libel suit stemming from an advertisement in the New York Times, they funded an event to help pay for legal fees. On August 9, 1961, Dr. King wrote to them to express his appreciation for their support: “Dear Ted and Ann: So very many things have been happening since I spent the very pleasant evening in your home not very long ago, that this note is long overdue. I can never say in words what your dedication and generosity mean to our freedom struggle in the south. Your sensitivity to one of America’s great problem was reflected so beautifully in the kind gesture of your two lovely daughters. This will live with me as long as the cords of memory shall lengthen. At times our struggle is difficult and we inevitably face our frustrating moments, but then the support of friends of goodwill, like yourselves, comes to give us renewed courage and vigor to carry on. I cannot overstate the fact that your moral and financial support are of inestimable value for the continuance of our humble efforts. Each of the men involved in the libel cases asked me to express to you their great appreciation for the funds raised at the dinner party. Dr. Abernathy, Rev. Shuttleworth, Rev. Lowery, Rev. Seay, all wish to be remembered to both of you. As you know, the wind in Mississippi has taken a sudden shift and it appears that we shall have to arrange for more than 170 people who have been freed on cash appeal bond to return to trial on August 14. Thus, our hands are always busy with some new crisis in the struggle. My warmest personal regards, and I hope it will not be very long before I shall see both of you again.
Thereafter, together with Harry Wachtel, a prominent New York lawyer and Clarence P. Jones, King’s trusted legal advisor, Kheel formed the Gandhi Society for Human Rights, to parallel the Gandhi movement in India, and created a tax-exempt fund to cover expenses related to the suit and to channel much needed financial support to the non-violent civil rights movement. At a related luncheon, Dr. King noted that May 17 marked the anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that made school segregation unconstitutional and that 1962 was the anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which paved the way for the abolition of slavery and Henry Thoreau’s death, whose ideas on civil disobedience inspired Mahatma Gandhi. But by January 1964, the Society’s account was overdrawn and King donated $25,000 of his Nobel Prize money to the account. Although non-profit status had been granted, there were many other difficulties facing the Society and it was later renamed the American Foundation on Non-Violence. Dr. King faced many adverse circumstances, being incarcerated as a result of his ideals and involvement with the freedom struggle in the south. But, with the Bible in one hand and Blackstone in the other, and Gandhi’s passive resistance as the driving force, Dr. King led the nation’s 250,000 blacks on the march in Washington, the largest non-violent civil rights demonstration in history at which he made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King’s dream became a reality when Obama was elected president. |