The Radical Grassroots Poetry of John Beecher -- Southern Activist and More

Note by Hunter Bear:  January 29 2012

Very recently, I had occasion to say a good word about Robin Kelley's excellent 1990 book, Hammer and Hoe, on the role of Communists, and some other  radicals, in groundbreaking civil rights and labor work in Alabama in the 1930s to 1941.  (I received the book a few years ago as a gift from an old friend, who had been best man at my wedding in 1961, a sociologist and a retired Marine Corps colonel.]  The book has a heavy focus on the struggles of sharecroppers and, from that perspective, I suggested that the great and long epic poem on that very topic by radical poet, John Beecher, In Egypt Land, be read.  John was an Alabamian and much of his always strong work has a Southern social justice focus.  He also did some great stuff on Arizona and other challenging settings.

And that leads me to post this of mine on John Beecher himself.  I wrote this piece following John's passing in 1980. We were always very good friends indeed.  Eldri and I remain in good contact with his spouse, Barbara, always a very fine friend, who lives in North Carolina -- an excellent artist in her own right. [H]

THE NEXT GREAT STEP OF THE WAY: JOHN BEECHER'S GRASSROOTS POETRY [HUNTER BEAR]  

INTRODUCTORY COMMENT BY HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR [JOHN R SALTER, JR]  January 19 2004. 
This article of mine -- commemorating the great Southern social justice poet, John Beecher and his wife, Barbara -- appeared initially in SOJOURNERS, the Christian social justice journal, March 1981.

In the spring of 1979, the first edition of my own book came out, JACKSON MISSISSIPPI:  AN AMERICAN CHRONICLE OF STRUGGLE AND SCHISM.  I immediately sent a copy to John and Barbara , and my inscription read:  "For John and Barbara Beecher - Old, firm friends -- the kind of people who help make the sun shine on the water.  With best wishes, always - John R Salter Jr  - May 10  1979."

John Beecher died in May, 1980.  We maintained close contact with Barbara -- who went back to North Carolina.  Eventually their library appeared at a large Asheville bookstore -- and on ABE.  My book was there and the price was very hefty.  When a few weeks passed with no purchasers, we bought it and it now sits next to the many inscribed books John Beecher sent us over the many years.  
 

THE NEXT GREAT STEP OF THE WAY: JOHN BEECHER'S GRASSROOTS POETRY [HUNTER BEAR]

  
A great mountain lifted into the clouds when John Beecher,  American poet of social struggle, died last May in San Francisco.  The scenery is not the same for many of us for whom he was a major force in connecting hearts and minds with the nonviolent battle for human rights.


I met him for the first time in Arizona in the fall of '59.  It was a bitter time in my home state.  From Butte, Montana to the Mexican border, copper workers were on strike, led by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.  Arizona was a bastion of reaction in those days. Adamant recalcitrance from the huge mining companies backed by anti-labor judges and lawmen,  coupled with a sweeping Federal "Communist conspiracy" trial of the top Mine-Mill leadership then in session at Denver,  made the hard-rock miners' struggle a flashback to the 1910s.

I was a graduate student in sociology then, at Arizona State University on the outskirts of Phoenix.  Spending far more time in the field than in classes, I was organizing miners' relief in the metropolitan area.  We were using the excellent Mine-Mill film, SALT OF THE EARTH, depicting an earlier strike in southwest New Mexico and matters were getting rough.  As soon as we lined up places at which to show the film -- often with the help of Roman Catholic parish priests -- church authorities, "anti-Communist leagues" and the FBI worked in concert to bar us from schools, parish halls, and other facilities.  Newspapers refused to run our ads, and cars and houses were mysteriously broken into.

We plugged along and eventually found places where we could show SALT, distribute literature, and collect strike relief.  At the first showing, hostile police were parked outside, and we studied each incoming person with an eye toward spotting foes.  A large man in his mid-50s walked resolutely into our hall and took a seat.  He had, for the times, a massive beard.

"Who's he?" asked a friend.

"Damned if I know," I remember saying, "but he sure isn't from Kennecott or the FBI."

He certainly wasn't.

He came up afterwards and that's when I met John Beecher, poet and temporary faculty member at Arizona State.  We had little chance to talk then, for the strike relief campaign was off and running successfully, but he reminded me more of an old-time New England sea captain than a Santa Claus.  His gentleness did not quite mask an obvious stubbornness as firm as the rocks of Mount Katahdin.

FOR THE FULL PIECE:   http://hunterbear.org/next_great_step_of_the_way.htm


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm

For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial Introduction by me:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm