The Warner School Celebrates Martin Luther King Day
Professor’s photos and memories spur dialogue with community

In 1964, at the height of the civil rights movement, Howard Kirschenbaum was 19 years old and a college student, spending his summer as a voter registration volunteer in the African- American community in Moss Point, Mississippi. Now chair of counseling and human development at the Warner School, he shared his experiences and moderated an audience discussion about their relevance on Monday, January 20, 2003. The event was designed to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of 700 volunteers, mostly college students and young people, Kirschenbaum went to Mississippi at the invitation of African-American residents and civil rights organizations as part of the “Mississippi Summer Project.” At the time, there were more than 400,000 eligible black voters in Mississippi, and fewer than 7 percent were registered to vote. Of those registered, only half actually voted. Fear kept them from the polls, and their fears were justified. “For years black people had been beaten and killed pursuing their basic democratic freedoms, and the country seemed not to care or even take
notice,” Kirschenbaum explained. “We thought ‘what if white civil rights workers were jailed, beaten, or even murdered because they believed in democracy?’ Maybe the country would take notice then.”

During his training preparation for the summer, Kirschenbaum met Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, the civil rights workers who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, later the subject of the film Mississippi Burning. He was terrorized by police, vilified by “white” Mississippians, and jailed. He came home to Long Island and spoke about his experiences in Mississippi, raised thousands of dollars, and returned to Mississippi for the rest of the summer.

Kirschenbaum shared other ’60’s civil rights experiences, notably time he spent in Selma, Alabama. He shared photographs from his personal album. “I haven’t been able to reduce the experience to a simple moral,” he said. That does not mean he drew no conclusions, however. “There is a necessity for continued, meaningful contact with one another.”

Audience members shared their own thoughts as well. “The fight isn’t over,” community activist Marion Walker said. “Today in Rochester there was a reenactment of the historic civil rights movement from Selma to Montgomery. . . . But we don’t need a reenactment of a civil rights march. We need a real march.”