Gregory Freeman: If Not Heroes, They Helped. P-D 8/14/1994

Headline: IF NOT HEROES, THEY HELPED
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Aug. 14, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 4B, Edition: FIVE STAR

HE WASN'T an activist. He wasn't an organizer.
   He was just a white New York college student who wanted to do the right thing when he decided to travel to Mississippi to register blacks to vote in what was called "Freedom Summer." David Goldman said he felt a strong sense of injustice about the treatment blacks were receiving in the South. So he boarded a bus and ended up in Mississippi, joining with about 1,000 other northern whites who traveled to the South that summer to work with black activists, trying to make a difference.
   Once there, Goldman was snubbed at times, cursed at others and called "Jew boy" more times than he cared to remember.
   But he did help blacks to register to vote, and felt he made a contribution.

It's been 30 years since that summer and Goldman, 51, says he doesn't feel he did anything special. "I just did what any person with a conscience would have done, " he said. "The sad part is that while things changed, they stayed the same."
Goldman, now a salesman in St. Louis, says that while blacks no longer face special tests, poll taxes and other obstacles to voting that once existed, they now confront different barriers.
"Things are a lot more subtle than they used to be, " he said. "But the problems are still here. They've just taken other forms."

Goldman says he was optimistic about ending racism when he traveled to Mississippi that summer, spending time in Cruger and Meridian.
"I was young, of course, but I thought that if we could just get blacks registered to vote, things would be a lot better. Obviously, I was wrong about that."
Well, not entirely.

Thanks to the help of Goldman and others, some 60,000 blacks registered to vote that summer, giving impetus to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The names of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Earl Chaney are often mentioned when people recall Freedom Summer. Schwerner and Goodman were white northerners. Chaney was black and lived in Mississippi. The three fought to give blacks political power in the South. Tragically, the three were killed by Ku Klux Klan members and their sympathizers. Seven people, including a sheriff's deputy, were later indicted and sent to prison for the murders.
Americans often forget, however, that so many others also participated in Freedom Summer. Many documentaries have glossed over the Freedom Summer except for Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman. Many of those have ignored the whites who participated in the struggle for civil rights.

Goldman is modest, but he - like so many others who traveled for miles from the North - had nothing to gain by going to Mississippi. He didn't live there. He didn't know the people - black or white - who did.
   "I just knew what was going on there was wrong, and I wanted to help do something about it, " he said. "But we're not heroes. We were just down there one summer. The black people who had to live with all of that all their lives were the ones who were the real heroes. When I'd finished, I went back to New York and didn't have to live with that. But they had to live there.
   "I've often wondered what happened to those people who spit on me and cursed at me when I was in Mississippi, " Goldman said. "They surely didn't all die off. I wonder if they've changed their minds about blacks. I wonder if times didn't change them, if maybe today they get along with black people or if they've become friends with blacks.
   "Friendships can go a long way in helping you understand people, you know."

Would Goldman do it again?
   "It wouldn't work today, " Goldman said. "People are so immune to marches, demonstrations, whatever. If what happened in 1964 was going on today, everything would be in the hands of lawyers. It would depend on who had the best and most expensive lawyers."
   Goldman acknowledges that he's no longer the optimist he once was. "I hope we'll someday see an end to racism, but I doubt that I'll live to see the day.
   "When I was young I used to think we could change the world, " he said. "I know now that we can't. We can just try to make it a little better."

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

back