Loose Leaf Notes

– The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on January 23, 2014.

Students and the staff at Blue Mountain High School (BMHS) hosted a special program on Martin Luther King Day in honor of King.  Middle school students at Blue Mountain Elementary School were invited to attend the event, which was held at the EcoVillage where the high school is located.  The program included singing civil rights folk songs that the high school students learned in a class called Songs of Social Change, taught by parent volunteer Craig Greene.

Greene talked about how important the songs were to the Civil Rights Movement, saying they helped to instill solidarity and courage in civil rights activists during a time when their activism put them at risk.  BMHS director Joe Klein encouraged students to reflect on their own personal experiences and on ways they could be a voice for justice in the future.   

The program also included a guest talk by retired Lutheran minister Dick Giessler, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement and met Dr. King in the mid 60’s.   Giessler explained that he was on a committee of pastors who invited King to speak at the annual Ohio Pastors Convocation in Columbus.  He recalled that King was small in stature, 5’ 8” like himself.  “He was soft spoken when he was not speaking to large crowds,” Giessler said.  

Giessler spoke of a formative early childhood friendship with a boy of African-American descent.  At the time, Giessler and the boy were not aware of segregation.   He choked up when he recalled that his friend, who died at the age of 12 from Tuberculosis, was not afforded the same rights that Giessler was because of the color of his skin.   “My civil rights education began early,” he recalled.  

As a pastor, Giessler helped integrate parishes in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia.   He married one of the first mixed race couples in Virginia when it became legal to do so, and his family hosted a young southern girl of African-American ethnicity who came to the north to receive an education. 

Giessler also shared a newspaper letter he wrote after the Birmingham Church bombings that killed four African-American children.   The letter, calling for prayer, was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in newspapers around the country.

“Service to others, that’s what King was about and that’s how we can honor him,” Giessler told the students.  He also spoke about the importance of friendship, encouraging students to make friends with people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds.  ____Colleen Redman