50 years after King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, New Orleanians reflect on integrating Catholic schools
'I Have a Dream' speech anniversary
On Aug. 28, 1963, the day a vast crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., to make an epic stand for equality and witness the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, Lawrence Haydel, Jr., was about to turn 15 in New Orleans.
He was too young to fully comprehend it then, but that year Haydel had played a distinct role in the civil rights movement that King and the March on Washington embodied. Haydel had just finished his freshman year as one of eight African-American students selected to integrate Jesuit High School.
For him, civil rights struggles were an all-day, every day routine, less profound than the historic endeavor King and many others understood it to be.
"All that stuff was on the radio, but I was so tired of that issue," said Haydel, now 64 and retired from running his own construction company. "I didn't pay much attention to it at all."
It was only after becoming an adult, Haydel said, when he reflected more on the march and King's speech and related it to his experience at Jesuit, that he started to see the broader meaning of his own personal experience.
As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaches, Haydel and others who helped integrate local schools reflected recently on how their seemingly ordinary act -- attending school -- played a role in an extraordinary movement that helped change how people in our region saw and treated each other.
"I know that Jesuit has become a multicultural friendly place and accepting of all kinds of people, and I'm glad I was a part, hopefully a part, of making that happen," Haydel said.
"He paid the price, but he also opened a lot of doors," Haydel said of King. "And I walked through one of them. And I paid the price for that. And that made me a better person."
And more here: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5003044309302849981#editor/target=post;postID=809624310764413303
He was too young to fully comprehend it then, but that year Haydel had played a distinct role in the civil rights movement that King and the March on Washington embodied. Haydel had just finished his freshman year as one of eight African-American students selected to integrate Jesuit High School.
For him, civil rights struggles were an all-day, every day routine, less profound than the historic endeavor King and many others understood it to be.
"All that stuff was on the radio, but I was so tired of that issue," said Haydel, now 64 and retired from running his own construction company. "I didn't pay much attention to it at all."
It was only after becoming an adult, Haydel said, when he reflected more on the march and King's speech and related it to his experience at Jesuit, that he started to see the broader meaning of his own personal experience.
As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaches, Haydel and others who helped integrate local schools reflected recently on how their seemingly ordinary act -- attending school -- played a role in an extraordinary movement that helped change how people in our region saw and treated each other.
"I know that Jesuit has become a multicultural friendly place and accepting of all kinds of people, and I'm glad I was a part, hopefully a part, of making that happen," Haydel said.
"He paid the price, but he also opened a lot of doors," Haydel said of King. "And I walked through one of them. And I paid the price for that. And that made me a better person."
And more here: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5003044309302849981#editor/target=post;postID=809624310764413303
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