Isn't it amazing how fast time flies? It's hard to believe almost a fourth of 2017 is gone. The sun rises earlier every day and sets later each afternoon. And Eagle Observer readers who are so inclined are itching to dig in the dirt, or at least are planning where to plant the beans and lettuce and corn and okra. But don't forget the tomatoes.
A few years ago I kept hearing "old folks" say that time goes faster as you grow older. I knew they were making it up. Or didn't know what they were talking about. Boy, was I ever wrong.
What brought that subject up? I'll confess. It was because I just finished reading a book a good friend gave me some 10 years ago. Actually, I was rereading it, having read it when the author, Al Kuettner, gave it to me.
"March to the Promised Land" is the title of this amazing book written by a former editor of the Gravette News Herald when he was 90-plus years young. Inside the cover he wrote these words, "Best wishes to you, Dodie, and your attitude about this American adventure." But it was a six-letter word he included in the next to last paragraph of the 180-page hardback volume. It chronicled the Civil Rights Movement in the south more than a century ago. I'll try to explain.
Al (he said, "Call me Al") was editor of the Gravette News Herald in the late 1980s when he, his wife Helen and their partner Leland Turner owned the newspaper. He and Helen lived in Gravette many years and were great boosters of Gravette and the area.
Al had lived a remarkable life. Born in Atlanta, Ga., early in the 20th century, he grew up in a segregated South and experienced a culture that small town northwest Arkansas couldn't begin to understand. I will add, railroad depots in this area had "white" and "colored" signs on their doors.
Al became involved with newspapers as a young man and in the early 1940s began working for United Press International, a global news service. It was because of his knowledge of the South that, when the Civil Rights Movement began, he was assigned to cover the southern states and the resulting events. The year was 1955 when Rosa Parks, a colored woman, refused to give up her bus seat to a white rider. It was that and the resulting boycott that helped trigger the movement that actually continues to this day.
During the following almost 20-year period, Kuettner fed the wire service many of the stories involving activities throughout the South in Birmingham, Atlanta, Jackson and Oxford, Miss., and yes, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Kuettner was present at many of the demonstrations and boycotts that occurred, some of which proved dangerous, and deadly. He met, interviewed and knew many of the movement leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, even before he became "Dr. King." He was only a few feet from King when the "peaceful protest leader" gave his unexpected "I have a dream..." speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the Nation's Capitol.
Kuettner saw it all. He reported it honestly and deliberately, as noted on the title page of his book: "The Civil Rights Files of a White Reporter, 1953-1958."
A fellow UPI reporter, who later covered those troubling times for the New York Times, was quoted as saying, "I think he (Al) was one of the most remarkable journalists of his period."
Down through the years which followed those tortuous days of riots and bloodshed and which saw the adoption of the Civil Rights and Voter Rights Acts, Kuettner often considered writing of his experiences. His files were filled with information of all he had experienced. Finally, in 2004, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of "the movement," Al decided to return and visit some of those places which he had written about. He wanted to see for himself any changes that had occurred.
It was then, the 91-year-old "reporter" from Gravette fired up his car and drove south. He visited Montgomery, Birmingham and, of course, Selma. In his book he describes his visits and his impressions comparing today with those earlier years. His words are sharp, yet poignant and thought provoking as he describes the positive changes he witnessed. He returned home and turned on his computer in earnest. The words flowed naturally. The reader can feel the emotion being transferred from the keyboard.
In the seventeenth chapter, the final chapter of his book, under a subtitle, "2004 -- Looking back 50 years later," Al reported much had been positively changed ... but "there is much yet to do" and added, "I thought of the legacy left by those white and black who ... were determined that the races could live together in a country where men and women accepted and respected those of all colors who crossed their paths in peace."
Finally, did you catch that six-letter word in that final sentence? It's there, the word that had filled the airwaves and TV screens during President Obama's final months in the White House. Commentators, panelists, newscasters all reported on the potential legacy the 44th president was polishing for posterity. History, not today's generation, will determine his legacy just as history determines the legacy of every person who walks on this planet.
And what a legacy a 91-year-old man left us in his words in "March to a Promised Land."
The book is available at the Gravette Public Library and may be purchased on Amazon. It is well worth the read -- again and again. Thanks, Al, you were so right. "There is much yet to do."
Dodie Evans is a former owner and long-time editor of the Gravette News Herald. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 02/15/2017