Posts Tagged ‘Martin Luther King Jr’
Contributed by: Kevin Gillespie
My mother, Faith Gillespie, wrote a cooking column in the ‘60’s called the “Queen of Hearts” for the Observer/Eccentric newspapers. She was a trained chef but, really, it was a weekly column that she used to spread her wisdom and wit about all things domestic and beyond. That being the case, the editor was reluctant to provide her with press credentials when she requested them. “You just write a cooking column!’ they told her. Her response was that she worked as hard for that newspaper chain as anyone and deserved to be as accredited as any of the rest of them.
Faith be of Love
She got her press card.
My mother was also very politically active and in March 1968 she took my sister, my brother and me to see Martin Luther King speak at the Grosse Pointe High school auditorium.
Demonstrating amazing courage, she dragged us through a literal gauntlet of racial taunters and otherwise loud and angry people that lined the streets that led to the school. The whole scene felt like a powder keg and someone, somewhere just had to be lighting the fuse.
When we finally reached the entrance, the two sheriff deputies at the door stepped in front of my mother and told her that the Fire Marshall had ordered the doors closed and, even with a ticket, no one was getting in.
No sooner had the words left the deputy’s mouth than my mother Continue Reading