When the Columbus Bartholomew County Area Branch of the NAACP launched a half century ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been gone only eight months, the first black Supreme Court Justice had served only a year and the ink scarcely had dried on the national Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Through the years since then, the chapter — focused mainly on the elimination of racial discrimination — has helped organize celebrations of King’s legacy on the national holiday that unfolds Monday.
The organization’s highlights include calling attention to workplace racial intimidation and hatred in 2007 when a noose was found near the work area of two black workers at a local factory, among other actions.
Some of the greatest visibility of the chapter, formed Dec. 8, 1968, has been at its annual fall Freedom Fund Scholarship Banquet, during which it presents college scholarships of $200 to $500 to area students. That event’s attendance, which dipped to about 50 people about a decade ago, in recent years has surged to more than 200 people.
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The chapter also triggered substantial controversy in 2003 when it forced the local cancellation of the classic play “To Kill a Mockingbird” because it contained a racial slur.
In the aftermath of a two-term black president of the United States, local leaders offer a reminder summarized by Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop about groups such as the NAACP.
“We still have people today who remind us that the quest for civil rights for all is not yet over — and that there are those who have not yet recognized and embraced that fact, and the idea that civil rights belong to all of us,” Lienhoop said. “We all must be reminded that civil rights are universal.”
Legacy of racial harmony
Lienhoop has offered similar messages at past Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfasts and also when he offered thoughts in the past on subjects such as the now-defunct Black Lives of Columbus chapter.
Lienhoop acknowledged that the local NAACP chapter is especially important in a community that once was home to civil rights leaders such as former Cummins Chairman J. Irwin Miller. The leader regularly hired and promoted blacks for leadership roles and, under his leadership of the then-powerful National Council of Churches, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, a big part of the civil rights movement.
Plus, the Columbus Human Rights Commission, begun in 1962, was the first such agency formed in the state. Local NAACP leaders mentioned at its annual meeting in the fall that, ideally, the NAACP stands against all race-based-discrimination, not just that involving blacks.
“Our commitment to civil rights and to human rights will not wane,” Lienhoop said. “And part of the reason is because we have an active NAACP chapter to serve as a conscience. Every community needs to have a group of people serving as a conscious for what we need to do.”
Columbus native Olisa Humes, the new local NAACP president, participated in the chapter’s and the city’s King-day events in the 1990s.
“We still face the same issues that we have faced from 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago,” Humes said. “I think the NAACP is still trying to get people involved and connected. Because we’re not going to solve problems if our different cultures and ethnic groups are not connected. So we have to be able to work with people of different ideologies.”
She also said the chapter needs to boost its $30 annual membership, as total membership has dwindled to 63 people. In 1992, by comparison, membership stood at more than 200, according to leaders.
That dip explains why Humes already has begun carrying membership forms with her in her car wherever she goes.
“You can’t change the system if you’re not part of the system,” she said.
Racism normally not overt
Through the years, black residents have said at a variety of events celebrating King, black history or civil rights, that racism in Bartholomew County rarely surfaces in overt ways. However, in April 1975 and June 1976, a biracial Columbus couple found a cross burning on their front lawn and hate-oriented United Klans of America literature on their property.
In April 1977, robed members of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan paraded around the Bartholomew County Courthouse and passed out pamphlets, according to The Republic’s archives. The hate group tried to stir controversy about forced busing that never existed with schools here.
The Rev. Mike Harris, leader of the local African American Pastors Alliance, has mentioned that segment of local history before. The pastors alliance has worked alongside the NAACP on a variety of events, especially during the past several years.
Harris said minorities would face more significant challenges locally than they currently do “without their (the NAACP’s) voice in this community helping all African Americans.”
Former longtime Columbus resident Gwen Wiggins served as the local NAACP president from 1990 and off and on until 2014, when she moved for her retirement years to San Antonio, Florida, a small city near Tampa. Since then, she has heard of white supremacy groups’ presence in Columbus in the past two years, and has one reaction.
“It makes the NAACP just that much more important,” Wiggins said. “And it should actively be watching that, and being on guard.”
Humes acknowledged that complacency can be a danger when it comes to ending racial discrimination.
“We cannot afford to think today that we have arrived at the promised land,” Humes said. “Because we are not there.”
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Begun: Dec. 8, 1968.
First goal: To pass an open housing ordinance in Columbus, according to members, and "to speed peaceful change," leaders said.
First president: William D. Smith.
First meeting site: Second Baptist Church.
Wide-ranging impact through the years:
- Lobbied and got the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. to make the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday a school holiday in 1999.
- Lobbied and got local police diversity and sensitivity training in 1991.
- Has promoted black history through Black History Month speakers, programs, art and more.
- Fought workplace racism.
- Has helped organize programs and projects on Martin Luther King Day to highlight the civil rights movement.
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The Columbus Bartholomew County Area NAACP Branch is seeking new members in its mission "to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination."
Membership is $30 per year. People can enroll at naacp.org. The number for the local chapter is 3071.
Information: 812-314-2708.
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