We Can Do More
My mom is my hero. She isn’t a talker, she’s a woman of action. Last year on Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, I wrote about her publicly, “I am grateful to be from a family that understood Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision and practiced it in real life. This is a picture of my mom Genevieve teaching black students in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. She went down there to help after learning that 4 workers and 3 students were killed, thousands were arrested and the KKK was threatening continued violence.
She was recruited with great thanks to Rep. John Lewis, who came to Syracuse University to get us. He believed that white students belonged in the South and could make a difference.
She taught me growing up that every human life was equal to the other, no matter where they were from or what they looked like. She also felt that in tense situations, the message of love is the strongest. In Dr. King’s words “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
We can be better at being more understanding of each other. We can hate less and love more. We can help the people around us no matter what they look like. I know I can, and it is days like this that remind me to do so.
My favorite quote from MLK Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech is “we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
More On Mom
Recently, a journalist interviewed my Mom for her work during that summer and afterward. I wanted to re-publish that interview because it’s important to re-tell stories. It keeps them alive and gives context to what we’re currently experiencing. Our family is Jewish, a famously good bunch of storytellers. Ask any Jewish mother about their children and they will likely “kvell” (to beam with pride) and tell a story from decades ago. In fact, Jews get together every year for Passover, one of the most sacred holidays, to tell a story that’s several thousand years old.
We should continue to tell our younger generations the stories of injustice in America. At least, it will guide them and help them understand inequality. At best, it will push more of them and us to action.
Why did you join the movement? What was your experience?
Genevieve Dishotsky: In 1963 I was an exchange student in France when JFK was assassinated. I was already friendly with some French students from North Africa in what are now the former colonies of France. They had seen the photos of demonstrators being threatened with dogs and being hosed down with fire hoses. They wanted to know what I was going to do about that when I got back. I told them the U.S. was better than that, but it was really an awakening for me. At Syracuse University I joined a small student civil rights group. The grad students in the group had worked with CORE, and we began to plan a demonstration aimed at discrimination in public housing. Later, in the spring John Lewis (now Congressman Lewis) came to campus to speak about Mississippi Freedom Summer. When I learned that part of the program was to create Freedom Schools to bring black history to high schools during the summer, I decided to apply.
How did your family and friends react to your involvement in the movement?
GD: My family had a history of social action, but this level of involvement was new. Looking back, I am still amazed at how supportive they were. It was many years later that my mother told me they had received late night phone calls while I was in Mississippi; some were death threats. I feel that their support and courage was a big part of my being able to volunteer to go.
What do you think was the hardest part about being active? Was there an emotional toll taken upon you?
GD: This is an interesting question. At the end of Freedom Summer, the delegates to the Democratic Convention, representing the disenfranchised black voters of Mississippi, presented their credentials to the all-white Credentials Committee. I was back home by then and watched with tears streaming down my face as they were denied representation — offered a token two votes. I felt that we had completely failed.
Fortunately for me, my husband, sons and daughter started urging me to attend the 50th Anniversary Celebration at Toogaloo College, just outside of Jackson. Over the course of 5 days, so many times strangers came up to shake my hand, give me a hug, and thank all of us for coming to Mississippi that long ago summer. We met doctors and lawyers, teachers — so many who said, in effect, “we saw what you did and it made us realize we didn’t have to be stuck in the old ways.” Going back to Canton, we happened upon the Freedom House, where we had held so many meetings, and planned each week. More than, anything it showed me that the really revolutionary part of the summer had been the “live-in”. Bob Moses felt the white students from the North were like an underground. Just by being there, living with black families, creating the Freedom Schools, and registering voters in the only available option, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, we were more powerful that we could ever have known at the time.
Do you think things will ever change?
GD: Every day we have an opportunity to bring change. But we may not know for many years, or even in our lifetime, how a different society will look. That was the biggest lesson of the Mississippi Reunion. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 really pushed the whole state into a new era. Now there are more changes needed, to really get funding for education. As we know, “Freedom is a constant struggle.”
Our Mission in Today’s Context
We started our company Starcity because we wanted to make cities of opportunity more accessible to everyone. We do that by creating a new type of home that is more attainable than luxury high rises. But we can do more.
My mom was one of my biggest inspirations to create a company with social justice as part of its mission. She channeled the values of Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and those who preached that doing what is fair is the right way. Our company started 7 months ago and sitting here today I feel humbled by those values.
Sometimes I get lost in the challenges of building a company. I will admit it’s not easy. But on day’s like today I feel strength because I know that what Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, the black students of Mississippi and even my Mom endured was far more difficult. I will never know what that’s like, but I can strive to be more empathetic and lend out a helping hand.
I am extremely lucky. Our team is extremely lucky. This is why we have a duty to help. It’s the responsibility of those who have found opportunity to pull those with less opportunity through with them.
This is the human condition and you can join or ignore. We chose to join.
