Dealing With Adversity

Posted on November 1, 2011 by jhowell

One of the major themes in Civil Rights Journey is dealing with adversity. In my case the adversity was polio; and as it turned out, while a difficult experience, it had a major influence in shaping my character. I believe was in part responsible for my getting involved in the civil rights movement. Looking back on the experience now, I even wonder whether adversity is the right word. The positives far outweigh the negatives, and I have been extremely fortunate to have lived a relatively normal adult life as far as physical health goes. A question many people ask me after reading the book is, “You, polio? I would have never dreamed…”

But adversity is a very real part of human experience. We all experience it to one degree or another. In the case of Embry and me, in 1969 we lost our first child, Katherine, weeks before what would have been her first birthday. She was born with a heart defect, which we were told was relatively minor and could be corrected with surgery. She did not survive the operation. We were in no way prepared for this loss—not that you can ever be prepared for the loss of a child at any age. That’s adversity.

My guess is that if you dig deep enough you are going to find adversity in the lives of everyone you know, not to mention your own life. It may not be as dramatic as some, but is nonetheless very real—depression, a learning disability, loss of a good friend, loneliness, a difficult childhood, substance abuse, poor health, divorce, business failure, career disappointments: the list is very long. And most of us will experience death very personally at some point with the loss of our parents or a sibling. And in the end, of course, we all die.

You might say that how we deal with adversity is one of the main themes in any life story. It is certainly grist for the mill for most novels and short stories. In a way, we thrive on it. How we deal with it determines who we are, what we are made of, what our lives are really all about. It is at the heart of almost all religions—trying to make sense out of a world that is at its core so fundamentally hard for so many people.

The summer after my freshman year in college, I was head boys counselor for Camp Easter Seal, a camp for “crippled children” in Middle Tennessee. There was not a child in that camp whose disabilities did not far surpass anything I had experienced with my bout with polio. A good number were blind, some were deaf, several had severe birth defects, many had cerebral palsy or developmental disabilities (called “mental retardation” at the time), and some had muscular dystrophy, which meant they could barely move on their own and would not live much beyond their teenage years.

Camp Easter Seal

You would think that working in an environment like this would be a downer, but it was anything but. There was no moping or feeling sorry for oneself—at least none that I can remember. These children were upbeat, enthusiastic, generally happy and enjoyed the activities just as much as you would expect any “normal” kid to do. Self pity did not seem to be in their vocabulary, and feeling sorry for these kids was not part of the camp culture in any way. While few of these children would ever be able to live a “normal life” (in the sense that we understand the term) that did not stop them that summer from pursuing life to the fullest that they were able. Their experience at Camp Easter Seal was just for a few weeks out of the summer. Sometimes I wonder what happened to them the rest of the year and what their lives were like when they grew up. My guess is that most of them gave it all they had; and if you asked them about their life, they would say that it was good with some of the same caveats we all use. Talk about overcoming adversity. I will never forget the kids at Camp Easter Seal.

A Nation Can Change and Correct Injustice

Posted on October 3, 2011 by jhowell

SNCC workers – Photo by Danny Lyon

The civil rights movement in the US is a testament to the fact that nations can and do change to correct injustice. Change also occurred in South Africa to correct the horrible system of apartheid—which was actually more similar than dissimilar to the situation that existed in the South at the time Civil Rights Journey begins. It happened in Eastern Europe with fall of Communism. It is happening now in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

The question is not so much can a nation change but how, and the kind of new order that replaces the old order. The early Communist movement was viewed by its followers as a positive change to address the horrible working conditions and economic and class disparities that were prevalent at the time. The outcome of that change turned out to be in many respects worse than the injustices it tried to address. Often violence and bloodshed are associated with change as was the case in our own Civil War and in many countries where dictators and oppressive governments have been overthrown.

One of the most important legacies of the civil rights movement in the US is that with relatively little bloodshed our country was able to change the laws that enslaved many African Americans and to diminish (but regrettably not eliminate) the culture of racism. Yes, lives were lost, and many people were harmed; but it could have been a lot worse. The reason it was not a lot worse was due in large part to the principle of non violence, which was at the heart of the civil rights movement . The non violent aspect of the movement was one of the main reasons Embry and I were motivated to head down to Southwest Georgia in 1966. That non-violence was being questioned by some in SNCC and, at the time, was both disconcerting and frightening to us and is one of the themes in my book.

So how do you bring about change to correct injustice in a non-violent way? How do you avoid the collateral damage that is so often associated with change? Strong leadership is part of the answer–and we had that in the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis and others as described in Civil Rights Journey. But it often takes more than that. It takes a lot of people –ordinary people—joining a movement and doing small things to make a difference. These things begin to add up and tip the balance. But there is always the risk that the movement could get out of hand and turn in a wrong direction. That is the risk of trying to bring about change for the better.

Search for Meaning and Purpose in Life

Posted on September 26, 2011 by jhowell

Joe & Embry Howell

Civil Rights Journey is about growing up. It is about how a kid from a prominent Nashville family marched to a different drum beat—according to my reflections anyway— due in large part to having suffered with polio as a child, which caused him to identify with the underdog and people not part of the American mainstream.

Part of the experience of growing up is having to come to terms with the way the world is and the fact that it is far from perfect. In a perfect world, Africans would never have become slaves in the United States. There would never have been the period of Jim Crow. In the 1950s and 1960s when the story takes place, African Americans would have enjoyed equal status with whites and would have been able to get good jobs, live in nice homes in good, safe, integrated neighborhoods, go to good schools and have enough money left over for a nice meal out or a vacation. And then and now, there would not be big differences in income and financial wealth for all people. Families would be loving and strong.

In a perfect world, there would not be any wars or illness or suffering. And there certainly would not have been polio, striking down innocent kids in the 1950s.

But we do not live in a perfect world, and each of us in our own way has to come to grips with this fact and that, in all too short a period of time, we die. These are themes that run through Civil Rights Journey and give it a dimension beyond simply being a story of historical interest.

There is no silver bullet which answers these questions. Some people turn to religion, others to philosophy and some try to sweep these big questions under the rug. One message I think that comes out of the book is that jumping into the fray, trying in your own modest way to make a difference, to make the imperfect world just a little bit better, provides–if not an answer to the questions of meaning and purpose–a kind of meaning in itself. When you are in the fight, when you are engaged, when you are struggling for what you know is right, you magically discover that meaning is not inaccessible after all.

You Never Know

Posted on September 22, 2011 by jhowell

Holt and Broadway families early 1970s

Think about your own life for a moment and the people who influenced you the most and made a real difference in your life. Maybe you let some of them know. If you are like me, you let a lot of moments pass when you could have communicated to them a very important message—that they really counted. And by the same count, you really never know whom you might have made a difference to.

I was breezing through the Amazon review section and came across a recent entry I had not seen before by Noah (Jackie) Holt. “Jackie” as we called him then was the oldest of the two boys who were the children of Jack and Dovanna Holt, the African American family we lived with when we were in southwest Georgia in 1966. Their small farm house was modest. There was no running water, but they were proud people and courageous people, who took us in at a time when just having a white person in your house could have gotten you killed. The year before there had been a standoff in their front yard between the Holts and members of the KKK, guns drawn on both sides.

The Holt family with Joe, Embry and Ashley at the reunion in 2009

Jackie was a teenager then and had hopes of some day attending college. He would have been the first to do so in his family just as he was the first to graduate from an integrated high school in Newton, Georgia. When we left southwest Georgia, we had no idea what his odds were.

For those of you who have read the book, you know that Jackie graduated from college in Texas at a traditionally African American school, then went on—with his wife whom he met there—to do graduate work at Stanford University and ended up as chief financial officer of major railroad, and his wife had a similar position for a major health insurance company. They made their home in the Bay area, received numerous civic awards and were pillars of their community. A few years ago retired back to Albany and live in an attractive suburban neighborhood.

Here is the review I stumbled across yesterday on Amazon by Noah Jackie Holt:

“This book has given honor to my family. My mother, Dovanna, my father, Noah Jack, along with others who lived in Holt Quarters, Newton Georgia. It tells an honest story of our life, good and bad during those years. The greatest honor would be for America to read this book and understand the real truth about the civil rights movement. After a 40 year journey, I have returned to my home in south Georgia. That journey began because Joe introduced me to a part of America that was good and hopeful.
I sincerely would like to thank Joe Howell for the valuable time spent in our home. I will always love him for that.”

You never know.

My son, who now lives in London, observed, “Dad, you know, if not another person reads your book, you will have fulfilled your mission.” He is right.

Joseph Howell's Blog

Author of "Civil Rights Journey: The Story of a White Southerner Coming of Age during the Civil Rights Revolution"

Tag Archives: coming of age

You Never Know