Dr. John Salter is Alive and Well in Idaho! (So Kiss Off, Mississippi!)

Well, for starters, I'd say this is a most eye-catching little headline -- worthy as a positive example in any journalism course.
Susan Klopfer is a most gifted observer and writer on many worthy things and especially those involving civil rights.  She has written and published very extensively on Mississippi matters and her nicely done and very embracive blog is named in honor of Emmitt Till -- the very young Black kid who was hideously beaten and then killed in Mississippi in 1955.  His murder has not yet seen its measure of justice.

Susan was quick to pick up on my Mississippi post of yesterday.  I'm glad to send this around.  Unless something of significance occurs in this vein, this will be my last public post on this situation.
Dr. John Salter is Alive and Well in Idaho! (So Kiss Off, Mississippi!) 



Dr. John Salter, Jr., Tougaloo College sociologist and civil rights leader, is harassed at a lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi during an organized sit-in.




SINCE STARTING WORK on my new historical fiction novel on the Mississippi Delta and the modern civil rights movement (The Plan" A Novel), I have been sorting through old notes and papers I collected while living on the grounds of Parchman Penitentiary, and remembering at the same time so many of the brave people who championed civil rights. One of the people I have always admired is Dr. John Salter, Jr., also known as Hunter Gray or Hunter Bear.


Dr. Salter was a sociologist at Tougaloo College where he helped lead the Jackson Movement, working with the late Medgar Evers to try and bring sanity and hope to the students and others who were often beaten, brutalized and even killed for their participation in the movement. 


Hunter and I keep in touch; our lives have had some intriguing parallels, since he once lived near Gallup, New Mexico (teaching on the Navajo reservation and helping Navajo Community College). We recently moved from Gallup to Cuenca, Ecuador; we just did not live there in the same years -- Hunter was in New Mexico in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as I recall. We also both lived in Iowa, again in different years -- but he tells me that he often drove or took the train through the small town of Mount Pleasant where we lived before moving to Gallup. Life is so interesting, isn't it? We have never met in person, but have enjoyed conversing by telephone and email, and I find interesting that somehow our paths have crossed, perhaps in another plane.


Anyway, I heard from this fascinating civil rights leader today that some people in Mississippi (civil wrongs leftovers) are spreading rumors that he is dying of Lupus, or that he at least is very ill and expected not to live. This is not so, he writes:
_____________

Susan then very kindly reprints my post of yesterday -- John III's fine letter and my paragraph of introduction.  We've placed that Pak on my much visited Personal Narrative webpage.  Since that draws visitors not necessarily even vaguely "in the know" about Magnolialand and related kinds of intrigue and such, I have added this explanatory paragraph:


"The 50th Anniversary of the great Jackson Movement is now in progress.  A number of events in Mississippi commemorating it and especially the martyrdom of our good friend and colleague, Medgar W. Evers, have been in the planning stages for months.  Some State funds are involved.  No one has contacted me."  http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm

Finally, I add this:  My entire life from very young adulthood onward has been spent in social justice organizing and teaching and writing and it's been a very long trail indeed -- campaign after campaign -- that I expect will continue for some time to come.  My fine spouse, Eldri, has been with me at every step since our marriage of almost 52 years ago -- and our good offspring have directly experienced the richness of much of it.  Money has never been an object -- and, frankly, there's been very little of that in our lives.  "Plushy" speaking engagements, again never sought, have been virtually nil.  The very few awards -- and those have been most welcome -- have come from those friends and others directly and empathetically aware of where we are coming from, what we stand for, what we've done and do. 

Our grandson/son, Thomas, a physician at the University of Iowa (psychiatry and internal medicine), visited us briefly a few days ago.  In the course of it, we discussed an emerging and very worthy health project of his focused on young Natives -- about which he planned to discuss with the Meskwaki (Fox) people who reside in central Iowa.  I gave him the name of a former student of mine from my University of Iowa days.  I met John B. when I spoke at a local and mostly white high school where he, a senior, was one of the Native kids.  Soon thereafter, he came to the University and was one of the many Indian students with whom I worked -- in addition to my regular classroom teaching in Urban and Regional Planning.  He was an academic advisee of mine, always right there at my office door at the onset of registration. And we had many great talks about Native concerns, traditional cultures, and much more.

Back at Iowa after his too-short Idaho visit, Thomas called John B.  As I had suggested, he immediately indicated he was my grandson.  Soon thereafter, Thomas sent me this note:

I spoke to John B. today. I found his number online and he works at the museum/preservation society. I told him who I was (your grandson) and he was very helpful. He gave me a contact for the Meskwaki Settlement school. . .

Well, John said he thought very highly of you (he repeated this twice).  He said he remembered sitting in your office and that you'd smoke your pipe. He laughed when I told him things hadn't really changed. I wished him best regards from you.   (Thomas, M.D.)

I continue to hear from many of those with whom I've worked as an organizer and/or teacher. They span many decades. Those consistently good words are priceless to myself and my family.

Hunter [Hunter Bear}


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement 
scrapbook.  Three consecutive and full pages beginning with
this Link:  http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm
See my personal reflections on Medgar Evers:
http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native
background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: 
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) 

For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at 
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement
of 1962-63:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm