In the winter of 1965 I met Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Unitarian Church in Santa Barbara. He turned me on to Civil Rights activism. At the time, I was a teacher in Santa Barbara and at Univ. of Cal. at Santa Barbara extension program. Course was at the former Center of Democratic Institutions/Fund for the Republic. This was established by the late Dr. Robert Hutchens, formerly head of Univ. of Chicago.
From the day I met Jesse, I began to organize our team: I had the good fortune to meet and hook up with Lanny Kauffer who was studing at the UC Santa Barbara. We 'teamed up' together and NEVER LET UP. His late mother got involved and without her, we may have never been able to raise the money to go south in June of '65. We did everything under the sun to get that done!!!
In late ' 64 or early '65 I was "selected" to give a token amount to the SCLC at an event in Los Angeles, CA.
I was honored to go on stage and personally hand a check to the late Hon. Dr. Martin Luther King. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal. At the time, it did not seem to be such a big thing. In retrospect, it WAS a big deal.
Some of our team went to Atlanta for orientation on civil disobediance, safety measures with Rev. Young , now Congressman John Lewis, and others. As I was still completing the school year, some of our team drove straight to Sussex , VA. where we spent the summer registering voters, marching, and doing lots of stuff, including dodging bullets etc.
Check-out Lanny Kaufer for more details, and a film I made of some of our activities. BEST THING I EVER DID IN MY LIFE. I.e. going South.
Since then? Got a job in the Foreign Servivce, Dept.of State, studied at Boston Univ, and at Harvard, Univ. with one on one tutering by Dr. John Nye, since aAsst. Sec. of State under Clinton and now head of the JFK Lib./Ctr.
I was posted to Tanzania as Community Development College living on Mt. Meru and faceing Mt. Kilimanjero 50 miles to the East. Later worked in education in Nigeria during the civil war. '67-'70. Later, I had more luck.. getting a job at the United Nations HQ in NYC in the Population Division (best job ever).
Then I took a trip to Morroco, my first, and invited by the late Ornette Coleman. Once again, my life took a 'turn'. Back in NYC, the UN left me!!!! I moved to Ibiza, where I taught Yoga and did Hollistic Health work. After much study of course. I.e. Yoga certification. and taught directly by the late Hon. Swami Satchidananda. After about 25 years of spending summers there and winters in the Canary Islands, doing the same I moved back to the U.S. with my then girlfriend Claudia Gonzales and lovely boys, one born on Ibiza, Emanuel Kai and Victorino Omar born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. to cut this story short, I now live in Santa Barbara, CA
Our team was recently honored by and at the University of California for the work we did.
I'll fix the typos later!!!!!!!!!
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