Man, 92, honored for bravery in 1954 civil rights case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Man, 92, honored for bravery in 1954 civil rights case
By Verna Gates Verna Gates – 1 hr 46 mins ago

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) – In 1954, Charles Patrick set out to purchase a Boy Scout uniform for his son and instead sparked the first successful civil rights legal case in Birmingham, Alabama.

On Monday, an organization that every year marks the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized 92-year-old Patrick for his bravery.

"I am a blessed man to live to get it," said Patrick, who traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to receive the Open Door Award from the April 4th Foundation.

Patrick was trying to park on a crowded street in downtown Birmingham on December 11, 1954, when a white woman pulled into the spot he was waiting to take.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110404/us_nm/us_alabama_civilrights

[Judi Lynn]

1. MLK honor set for Birmingham's Charles Patrick after 1954 police beating

MLK honor set for Birmingham's Charles Patrick after 1954 police beating
Published: Monday, April 04, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Veronica Kennedy -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News


For Charles Patrick, life is not like a box of chocolates.

"It's like a tumbleweed: Sometimes you wind up on top, and sometimes you're on the bottom," he said.

The nearly 93-year-old veteran of three wars -- World War II, Korea and the battles for civil rights in Birmingham -- bears a deep scar as a reminder of a day in 1954 when he "sassed a white woman."

Tonight, he will become the 11th recipient of the Open Door and the I Am a Man awards from the April 4th Foundation.

More:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/04/mlk_honor_set_for_birminghams.html

[EFerrari]

2. What an amazing story!

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Speak Truth to Power brings civil-rights fight to life

Speak Truth to Power brings civil-rights fight to life
By ROBERTA MACINNIS Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 22, 2010, 5:33PM

http://www.chron.com.nyud.net:8090/photos/2010/10/19/23768566/260xStory.jpg

COURTESY OF CHARLES AND RUTH PATRICK
Charles Patrick, seen in this 1946 photo, took his
civil-rights fight to the courts in Birmingham, Ala.

In Birmingham, Ala., in 1954, it didn't take much for a black man to get in trouble. All Charles Patrick had to do was complain to the woman who had cut him off for a downtown parking spot. That woman happened to be the chief of police's wife, and by the end of the day, Patrick, then 36, had not only been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, but also beaten in the city jail by the police chief and two more officers.

But what happened next was unusual: Patrick fought back, legally, first to have his name cleared, then to have the officers punished for their behavior. In her new book, Speak Truth to Power: The Story of Charles Patrick, a Civil Rights Pioneer (University of Alabama Press, 130 pp., $16)Houston writer and teacher Mignette Patrick Dorsey, provides a meticulously researched account of how her father's case united a racially divided city, if even only for a time. I spoke with Dorsey about her father, who turns 92 today. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Q: Why, after so many years of being familiar with the story, did you decide write the book now?

A: I actually started researching the book while I was still at the Houston Post in the mid- '90s. (Because of work commitments) it took a long time. When you're dealing with someone in their late 80s, you have to go at their pace.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/7260003.html