Black Mountain College (BMC) in Asheville, North Carolina was in existence briefly (1923-1957), during the Jim Crow era of racist segregation and brutality. BMC became known for the profound impact on American art by many of its instructors and students, including Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine and Willem DeKooning, composer John Cage, and choreographer Merce Cunningham. However, very little is known about BMC's place in civil rights history.
That is changing because of Dave Sear, internationally known folksinger and activist, who attended Black Mountain College from 1950-51. He called Alice Bernstein asking for a chance to speak about the people he met in North Carolina, including Professor Flola Shepard, who taught linguistics at BMC. Dave asked Ms. Shepard if she would design a literacy class for black and white people in the community, which would help adults meet voting requirements. Flola Shepard welcomed this idea, and as a result, many people not only learned to read and write, but many qualified to register to vote for the first time!
And Dave Sear helped bring to new life to a man almost lost from history, Lawrence Daugherty (1916-1980), a beloved leader in the African American community 
and music producer in Swannanoa. Mr. Daugherty took Dave on his travels throughout North Carolina, enabling him to hear, record, and preserve black music. The two men worked to organize a successful voter registration drive for blacks, and
founded an organization to promote equality in employment--heroic actions during those dark and dangerous segregation years.
Last month, Dave Sear and I participated
in the Loretta Howard Gallery event in New York City, celebrating the exhibition "The Legacy of Black Mountain College". There he told of his friendship with Lawrence Daugherty, while he played the banjo and sang songs of that era, as well as a railroad "work holler" originally sung by prisoners, which he preserved.
Alma Stone Williams
I introduced Dave at the event, and described my research, which had uncovered more history placing BMC in the forefront against racism in the South. In 1944, Alma Stone Williams, a pianist, became the first African American to enroll at BMC, and was soon followed by other black students and instructors. In conversations, Mrs. Williams told me more of that history, and asked me to convey this to the audience at the Loretta Howard Gallery event.
(continued, right column)
In the news . . .
(New Orleans, LA) One of the great civil rights lawsuits in American history took center stage in March in a special event at Tulane University Law School (TLS) in New Orleans: “The People of Clarendon County”—A Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism! In his welcome, Dean David Meyer said Tulane Law School was privileged to host this event, and he thanked the Black Law Students Association and Alternative Dispute Resolution Law Society for sponsoring it.
Law Professor Edward Sherman introduced the speakers by saying this was a “very important event, presenting the interconnection between politics, ethics, art, and law, based on Aesthetic Realism,” with the focus on racism and “what we can do in terms of our own thought processes and education within our society to deal with it.” The play was stirringly performed by Tulane and Loyola students: Erin Sanders, Victor Jones, Erica Zacharie, and W.B. Whitted, with musical accompaniment by soloist, Ebonee Davis.
Speaking with Ms. Bernstein on the answer to racism, were Dr. Jaime R. Torres, founder of Latinos for National Health Insurance; Allan Michael, the first African American maritime captain in the New York harbor; and Dr. Arnold Perey, anthropologist and teacher educator on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Elementary school educator, Monique Michael (born in Haiti), gave an interactive first grade science lesson on diversity in birds and humans, illustrating the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method’s power to bring out every child’s true intelligence and kindness.
The Clarendon County / Answer to Racism event, now in its fourth year, has traveled across the country to schools, libraries, universities, and museums— free to the public—including in the US Congressional Auditorium in Washington, DC. In each city, unsung heroes of civil rights in the community are introduced, showing history as alive!
The Tulane audience gratefully acknowledged the important work of: Nolan Rollins, President & CEO of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans; Lorenzo DuFau, World War II veteran whose courage inspired the film "Proud"; Eddie Ponds, of Ponchatoula, publisher of The Drum newspaper, now celebrating 25 years of preserving history and current contributions of African Americans.
From Baton Rouge: Keith Beauchamp, filmmaker of The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, whose TV series, The Injustice Files, is opening opportunities for justice in 100 civil rights murder cases; two women, Dr. Roberta Tyson and Mrs. Inez Anderson, who worked with theirr late husbands, Dr. Bertrand Tyson and Dr. Dupuy Anderson, for the cause of Civil Rights.
And the little known civil rights activism of TLS Professor Edward Sherman 
was brought to light, including his role in the 1964 legal action which integrated restaurants in Juarez overnight!; how in 1965, he and his wife, Alice Sherman, joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s school integration efforts, teaching in a Freedom School in Crawfordsville, Georgia; and how, as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Law School, Ed published an article arguing the case for northern attorneys having to be allowed temporary admission to represent blacks in civil rights cases in the South where black defendants couldn't otherwise get a lawyer.
What audiences nationwide have expressed in comments following these events was confirmed at Tulane: the message of Aesthetic Realism “My gratitude is immeasurable,” Alice Bernstein said, “as all humanity's will be, to Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, for the knowledge that can finally defeat the filth and poison of racism and replace them with true respect and kindness!” This message resonates with people of all ages, and makes for new, wide, more just thinking about people different from oneself.
The event ended with a celebratory reception.
My gratitude is immeasurable, as all humanity's will be,
|
-
Alice Bernstein and Dave Sear
at the interview in his LI recording studio.
is part of Alma Stone Williams' message to the audience at the Loretta Howard Gallery event:
"People need to know that the students and faculty of this extraordinary school had the courage to bring a black student into their life and study in 1944, long before other colleges and universities in the South did so, and that it was done with peace, harmony, and respect. It is also important to know that music was one of the crucial enablers for this achievement..
"Folk music played, and still plays, a major role in the Black Mountain College experience. In the summer of 1944 class 'New Roads in Music Education,' for instance, we shared children's songs and other folk music from Africa and America as well as songs from Russia, the native land of our teacher, Dr. Edward Lowinsky. He was delighted to learn from me, as I was to learn from him and the other fine teachers and students from around the world who became my friends."
—Alma Stone Williams
Meet some of the Unsung Heroes of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Mrs. Inez Anderson, with her late husband,
Dupuy Anderson, worked in the 1953 Baton
Rouge Bus Boycott, which inspired Dr. King to
take up the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- The Andersons survived the bombing of their home and cross burning on their lawn, and never gave up the fight.
Dr. Roberta Tyson (right) and her late
husband, Dr. Bertrand Tyson, were civil rights
leaders, working closely with Dr. Martin Luther
King and James Farmer of CORE. Bertrand Tyson
was jailed 3 times. Below, he is shown next to Dr. King, on the right side of the photo.
In the 1950s, Mrs. Tyson's
mother, Camille Shade, organized the integration
of the Louisiana Library Association and
worked to integrate the YWCA
—bringing the
matter to court—and won!
World War II veteran Lorenzo
DuFau was a sailor on the
USS Mason, the first naval ship manned by African-Americans, whose courage inspired the film
"Proud." Here he is shown with Ossie Davis, the actor who portrayed him in the film.
-
Alice Bernstein and Dave Sear
at the interview in his LI recording studio.
is part of Alma Stone Williams' message to the audience at the Loretta Howard Gallery event:
"People need to know that the students and faculty of this extraordinary school had the courage to bring a black student into their life and study in 1944, long before other colleges and universities in the South did so, and that it was done with peace, harmony, and respect. It is also important to know that music was one of the crucial enablers for this achievement..
"Folk music played, and still plays, a major role in the Black Mountain College experience. In the summer of 1944 class 'New Roads in Music Education,' for instance, we shared children's songs and other folk music from Africa and America as well as songs from Russia, the native land of our teacher, Dr. Edward Lowinsky. He was delighted to learn from me, as I was to learn from him and the other fine teachers and students from around the world who became my friends."
—Alma Stone Williams
- The Andersons survived the bombing of their home and cross burning on their lawn, and never gave up the fight.
Mrs. Inez Anderson, with her late husband, Dupuy Anderson, worked in the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, which inspired Dr. King to take up the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Dr. Roberta Tyson (right) and her late
husband, Dr. Bertrand Tyson, were civil rights
leaders, working closely with Dr. Martin Luther
King and James Farmer of CORE. Bertrand Tyson
was jailed 3 times. Below, he is shown next to Dr. King, on the right side of the photo.
In the 1950s, Mrs. Tyson's
mother, Camille Shade, organized the integration
of the Louisiana Library Association and
worked to integrate the YWCA
—bringing the
matter to court—and won!
World War II veteran Lorenzo
DuFau was a sailor on the
USS Mason, the first naval ship manned by African-Americans, whose courage inspired the film
"Proud." Here he is shown with Ossie Davis, the actor who portrayed him in the film.
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