Dedication
Ceremony, Thursday January 17
On Thursday, January 17th at 9.30 am, as part of
the Island's celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther
King, St. Andrews Episcopal church in Edgartown will become
the twentieth site on the African American Heritage Trail
of Martha's Vineyard. The church was the site of the first
meetings in 1964 of the Martha's Vineyard chapter of the NAACP
and a bronze plaque will be unveiled honoring those citizens
of all ethnic groups and from all walks of life who organized
to participate in the building of a color blind society.
Those founders were united in horror by the assassination
of President Kennedy and the violent and unconstitutional
treatment of African Americans in the South. Placing personal
safety at risk, they traveled to the south to register voters,
endured mistreatment and made personal sacrifices to make
the American Dream of equality a reality in their own community.
They included the Reverend Henry Bird, now living in New
Mexico, Nancy Whiting, George Jacobs, Virginia Mazer, Audria
Tankard, Kivi Kaplan,Toby and Lucille Dorsey, all now passed,
and Nancy Smith, Audrey LeVasseur,Chris Murphy, Woolcott
Smith, Polly Murphy and Peg Lilienthal.
Those who participated in those events as teenagers, Dianne
Powers, Tony Alleyne and Robert Tankard will also attend
the ceremony of dedication. Representatives from all of
the families will be present at the dedication as will high
school students and Alicia Knight's third grade class at
Edgartown school. Young Toby Riseborough, grandson of Toby
and Lucille Dorsey, will lead the group in singing 'We Shall
Overcome'. A group of Minnesingers from the high school
will sing. Also on the program will be Kate Taylor,who will
perform "Harriet Tubman," a song written by her
friend Walter Robinson, who lived for many years in West
Tisbury.
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