Greg Freeman: Activist Pursued Fairness And Justice. StL P-D 10/6/2002

Headline: ACTIVIST PURSUED FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Oct. 6, 2002
Section: METRO, Page: D3, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

Back in the 1940s, public, private and parochial schools here participated in something called Brotherhood Week. All of the schools, black and white, gathered once a year at Soldan High School, the nearby Pilgrim Congregational Church and the Young Men's Hebrew Association for auditorium sessions and small group discussions.
It was during one of those discussion sessions in 1947 that Vashon High School student Norman Seay met Margaret W. Dagen. Dagen, a young woman in her 20s, was a teacher at Clayton High School. And she was very passionate about civil rights.
Dagen - a true pioneer in the cause - died last month. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Washington University School of Law.

Those attending know a St. Louis that is much different than it was when Seay and Dagen were at that Brotherhood Week event.
In 1947, blatant racial inequality here was commonplace. Blacks were restricted in where they could live, where they could go to school, where they could work, even where they could eat.

That was the topic of the small group discussion that brought Dagen and Seay together. Seay was as passionate about the issue as Dagen, and she invited him to join a small, diverse group of students and other young people who had been meeting in the University City apartment that she shared with her husband, Irvin Dagen. The group dubbed themselves Humanity Inc.
   Even that was controversial. "Blacks weren't allowed to live in U. City then, and some of the Dagens' neighbors complained, " Seay said. "It took guts to invite us there.
   "We'd sit around their living room once a month, talking about the problems here and what could be done about them, " Seay said. And out of those meetings grew the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality.
   "We say that the Dagens were the founders of St. Louis CORE because it grew out of their living room, " Seay said.

I had the opportunity to meet Margaret Dagen on several occasions in her later years. Despite her age - she was 83 when she died - she always struck me as a woman with a purpose, someone who was passionate about the issues she believed in.
Others agreed with that assessment. "I respected them both very highly, " Seay said. "She was a solid thinker and a person you could always depend on. She helped open many doors in St. Louis. You can't think of racial progress here without thinking about Maggie and Irv."

Indeed, long before the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960, where four black college students sat, unserved, at the lunch counter of a Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C., the Dagens and St. Louis CORE were doing it here at downtown lunch counters. They also boycotted Famous-Barr and the old Stix, Baer & Fuller stores here. Long before most of America had ever heard of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CORE had established deep-seated principles of nonviolent social change.

But Margaret Dagen wasn't satisfied with merely helping to integrate lunch counters. While a teacher at Clayton High School, she also taught at Washington University, which, at that time, was a segregated institution. Through protests and demonstrations of both black and white students and others, the Dagens led the way to integrating the university's campus.
"She was always passionate about everything she believed in, " said Steve Hoffner, assistant vice chancellor at Washington University and one of Dagen's longtime friends. "She was absolutely committed to civil rights of all kinds. She was unwavering, uncompromising in her pursuit of fairness and justice."
Hoffner said Dagen had always told him that her Quaker background had shaped her views. "Her parents were liberals who believed that all people deserved to be treated equally, with dignity and respect, " he said.

In their latter years, Margaret and Irv Dagen decided that they should write a book about the first 10 and perhaps most crucial years of CORE here. Although Irv Dagen died in 1998, Mrs. Dagen took on the project, and with the help of writer Mary Kimbrough, produced a book called "Victory Without Violence: The First Ten Years of the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality." The book is fascinating, and offers an interesting picture of what this city was like in those days.

It's far from perfect these days, but it's a lot better than it was then.
We have individuals like Margaret and Irv Dagen to thank for that.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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