Dear SCOPE Veteran,
As you know, during the summer of 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. assigned the late Rev. Hosea L. Williams and the Field Staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) — along with about 500 summer college student volunteers — to voter registration projects in 120 "Black Belt" counties in five southern states.
This effort, known as the SCLC Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project, has been a "lost chapter" in the media based history of the civil rights movement (though it was well covered by the press as it happened across the South). More than 49,000 new voters were registered by the predominantly white college students and the African-American community activists and the SCLC Field Staff with whom they worked.
You are on the roster of SCOPE volunteers that Rev. Williams had in 1979, when we first discussed the need to have a program with the SCOPE volunteers themselves — wherein we would describe the intent, impact and historic activities in which we were then engaged. With various, and sometimes, award winning books/films in which SCOPE was either ignored (e.g., "Eyes On The Prize" series; "Judgment Days," otherwise quite good, in the most part, this year from Nick Kotz) or otherwise slandered, Hosea and SCOPE veterans felt the need for us to tell our own history.
Hosea worked for many years on his own autobiography, in which SCOPE would have had an important part. However, Hosea was too busy helping the poor through his "Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless" ("HFTH") program. Now administered by his daughter, Elisabeth Williams Omilami, the year-round program recently served it's one millionth meal and is the largest such program in the nation (www.hoseafeedthehungry.com). Rev. Williams was always doing other good works (including getting President Reagan to sign the King Holiday legislation) — too busy living the life of Hosea Williams to finish writing about the life of Hosea Williams.
For the first time there will be a reunion and analysis of the success and legacy of the SCLC-SCOPE project. On July 3, 2005 from 1-9 pm, there will be a conference in Atlanta, Ga. with speakers — including Andrew Young, Hosea Williams' children, journalists, field staff and summer volunteers — as well as, panel discussions, and films.
You were one of the committed and courageous persons to answer the call by Dr. King and the SCLC. On behalf of the SCOPE 40th Anniversary Organizing Committee, we invite you (and your family and guests) to join with us on this occasion and again be a part of history.
"HandsOnAtlanta" (the largest community service organization in Atlanta, with over 175 AmeriCorps members on staff) has provided programs on the King Holiday for many years. This fine organization is co-sponsoring, doing the publicity for, and hosting this event at their offices located near Georgia Tech University, not far from where we had our own orientation at Morris Brown College from June 14-19, 1965.
Please contact Willy Siegel Leventhal at Email: Willy_21@hotmail.com, or Barbara Jean (Williams) Emerson at Email: bemersonltd@aol.com, and we will provide you with a conference schedule and directions.
Some financial aid may be available for those who are in need of travel or housing subsidy. Though there is no cost to the SCOPE volunteers or public attendees, we are requesting all who attend to bring a can, or box of non-perishable food to donate to the "HFTH" program, and make at least a five hour commitment to tutor or mentor a student who can benefit.
On behalf of the SCOPE 40th Anniversary Organizing Committee, we invite you (and your family and guests) to join with us on this historic occasion.
Best Personal Regards,
Willy Siegel Leventhal, SCOPE volunteer Macon (June/July '65)/Americus - SCLC field Staff (July-August -Sept '65 and Macon, Sept '65); West Coast SCOPE coordinator, Fall '65 to Spring '68; Resurrection City, DC, June '68; McGovern, Henry Jackson and Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign National Staff, Carter Administration staff; Author, "Report to the President and the Congress on the First Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday", 1986; and Editor and Co-Author of The Children Coming On: A Retrospective of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1999; journalist, public school teacher in South Central & East LA (5 years), Adjunct Sociology Professor.
Dr. Barbara Jean (Williams) Emerson - SCOPE, Fiscal Officer, April - August, 1965, Atlanta, GA.; Resurrection City, D.C. Office Director, 1968; National CORE, Community Organizer, 1969 - 1970; City University of New York, Faculty/Dean, 1971 - 1994; Hosea for Congress, Campaign Manager, 1984; Forsyth County Anniversary March, Coordinator, 1987; New School for Social Research, Associate Provost/Vice President, 1994 - 2000; Audrey Cohen College, Vice President, 2000 - 2002; Executrix to the Estate of Hosea L. Williams, Sr., 2001 - 2004; Emerson Educational Consultants, LTD., President, 2002 - present.
Peter A. Geffen is the Founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel (the rabbi with Dr. King, in the famous picture of the front of the line of march from Selma to Montgomery — King was en route to NYC to attend the Heschel family Passover Seder when he was killed in Memphis in 1968) School in NYC and the Executive Director of The Center for Jewish History. In 1965 and '66, he was a SCOPE volunteer in Orangeburg, South Carolina with the project group from Columbia University headed by (Rabbi Moshe) then Mickey Shur. He holds a BA from Queens College of The City University of New York, an MA in Religious Education from New York University and a Certificate in Psychotherapy and Counseling from the Alfred Adler Institute in New York City. Peter speaks and writes regularly on the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with particular emphasis on Heschel's social justice message for educators and parents. He is married, has three children, and lives in New York City;
Dr. Jo Freeman: SCOPE volunteer and SCLC staff 1965-66 in Newberry SC, Abbeville, AL, Selma AL, Greenville AL, Birmingham AL, Macon Co, AL, Grenada MS, Atlanta, GA, and Chicago, IL. Active in S.F. Bay Area civil rights movement 1963-65. A founder of the women's liberation movement (1967) and editor of its first national newsletter (1968-69). Author or editor of ten books and hundreds of articles on women, feminism, social movements, political parties. More information is available at www.jofreeman.com
And, other participants of the summer 1965 SCLC-SCOPE Project.
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