When the Student Movement phase of the Civil Rights Movement started I was a Student at Cass Tech High School in Detroit, Michigan and an active member of the NAACP youth council. We organized support demonstrations in Detroit during the winter (sub zero weather) of 1960-61 by picketing Woolworth and other similar stores in downtown Detroit. It was clear to me that the real battle was in the south so I applied to Morehouse College in Atlanta to be on the front lines of the Revolution.
In the Fall of 1961 I met with several student leaders from the Atlanta University system who had recently form a group called The Committee On Appeal of Human Rights, or COAHR (pronounced core). This group was the Atlanta Student Movement and founded by Lonnie King, Frank Smith, Julian Bond and other students from Morehouse, Spelman, Clark, Morris Brown, Atlanta University and ITC. They had issued a Statement of Purposed the previous year and then mobilized the powers of non violence to energize the students into action.
When I arrived at Morehouse I soon became very active in COAHR and was a front line activist in several demonstration, sit-ins and protest. Consequently, I became very familiar with the jail system in and around Atlanta.
THE FOLLOWING WERE SOME OF MY ACTIVITY:
Grady Hospital Demonstrations
Georgia State Capital Sit-in: Arrested
Public Accommodations Sit-in: Arrested
The Pickrick Restaurant Sit-in
Rome Georgia Student Organization
Albany Georgia Demonstration with Martin Luther
King
Voter Registration Campaign, South Carolina and
Georgia
Was President of the South Carolina Student Council of Human Relations which organized Benedict College, Allen U, Univ of SC, SC State, Voorhees College, and others into focus groups of understanding and dialog.
I was elected vice Chairman of COAHR and joined efforts with SNCC, SCLC, and other groups in Nashville to help create common goals and purpose for the coordinated movement from 1961-1965. Some have stated I had no fear of being hurt — or maybe I suffered from the follies of youth thinking it would not happen though me. However, that was not the case. I was raised to serve and to fight for what was right. I was the son of Rev. Stephen C. Campbell and Pauline Campbell both instilled in me the passion to stand up against injustice and fight for what is right even if all others falter. I believed that God was on our side and even the ultimate sacrifice would have its purpose.
People like Nell Braxton, Big Frank Smith, Ruby Doris Smith, Larry Fox, Ralph Moore, Leo Meadows and others were equally willing to resist the oppression of the Racist. Non Blacks like Anna Jo Weaver, Elizabeth Heath, and Brad equally put their bodies into the breech. These and 1000 more made the Revolution possible. Once Dr. Benjamin Mays, president of Morehouse College, call me into his office and gave me a speech (at my dad request) about putting the "cart before of the horse." I set politely and after he was finished I state my appreciation for his advice and went directly back to Rush Church (COAHR's office) and organized another demonstration. My cart was the people and the Black community and my horse was The Movement. Today. Like others, I continue to fight the battle opposing racism. As an EEOC officer and director of Human Resources.
LONG LIVES THE REVOLUTION FOR IT IS NOT OVER.
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