By Jason Crane –
The Aurora Santori Public Library was host to an event Saturday, to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
Civil rights songs were performed by members of Brother Chi and the Alchemists, Amy Roth and Dan Smolla.
Nearly 90-years-young, civil rights activist Ernest E. Gibson (above) reflected on meeting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and their work which included the March on Selma, Ala. in 1965; the March on Washington D. C. in 1963; the Montgomery and Birmingham campaigns, in Alabama and organized movements and boycots to bring attention to integration efforts by African Americans.
Referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Gibson said, “I’m very honored to speak of such a man.”
Gibson became an instructor at his alma mater, Tuskegee Institute, and later served at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff before accepting the position of special aide to Lt. Gen. Joseph H. Harper, commanding general of the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Ga..
In 1966 Gibson was the first African-American hired at the newly chartered College of DuPage as an executive of business services.
Gibson was born to Bahamian parents in Dania Beach, Fla., and raised during the era preceding America’s Civil Rights Movement, was taught the importance of family, hard work, education and community. It wasn’t until after graduating from Tuskegee Institute that he participated in activism.
Gibson’s reflections included Rosa Parks and the struggles of the Montgomery Bus boycott and when the Klu Klux Klan bombed the hotel he owned and his family helped him manage.
Although hatred, bigotry, and violence shadowed these events, they increased Gibson’s love for mankind which he notes is the true lesson taught by King. A video of the event can be seen at facebook.com/thevoice.us.