A Greenwood native says he has spent his life fighting for civil rights and honoring those who have helped the cause.
Thurman
William Thurman is a chairman for the National Civil Rights Hall of Fame, an elite class of those who have fought for social justice. The honorees are inducted by the National Civil Rights Library, an independent Chicago-based organization that honors the continuing history of American civil rights causes. Thurman played a key part in establishing that group.
Thurman, 66, grew up in Greenwood and graduated from Greenwood High School in 1973. He said it was in his hometown that he “was introduced to civil rights as well as the struggle for equality and social justice in this country.”
“In Greenwood, I was exposed to the water hoses as well as being bitten by police dogs in the quest for equality and social justice causes,” he said.
In his youth, he got to be in Washington during Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech — a formative moment that he said he would always cherish. “I'm a 9-year-old kid getting the chance to witness this speech and getting to be in the presence of a once-in-a-lifetime individual and see the personality of Dr. King, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and humanitarian ... so it was an honor for me to be there,” he said.
After attending Jackson State University, Thurman moved to Chicago and helped start the National Civil Rights Library in 1987.
In 2013, he returned to the steps of the Lincoln Monument for the 50th anniversary of King’s speech.
“All I know has been through civil rights,” he said. “I came up in that environment with the familiarities and personalities of Fannie Lou Hamer, June Johnson, my late cousin Dr. Charles Austin Thurman, Charles Evers, Medgar Evers, Marion Barry — the former mayor of D.C. — Robert Moore, Andrew McQueen. All those people were very outstanding individuals in the community and in the civil rights community in and around Greenwood. I was able to take in a lot of that stuff firsthand.”
Thurman said that he has traveled more than 150,000 miles for civil rights and social justice causes. Some of his proudest moments were seeing the addition of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at the National Mall, the opening of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and hearing about the passing of the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act.
He said he is filled with hope for the next generation of those fighting for change.
“It’s good that they are stepping up. At some point, we all have to pass the baton on,” he said. “I just think they represent some of the core values of the things that the civil rights community represents. … Perhaps they could be portrayed as an extension or an arm of the civil rights community. They're addressing some of the same kinds of things that we were addressing in 1963, 1965 — and points going forward.”
His advice to them: “Pay attention to what is going on. Try to be an active part of teaching moments.”
Thurman said he and a web designer are working on a website at www.NationalCivilRightsLibrary.online. He expects it to be up and running soon.
•Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. On Twitter at @AdamBakst_GWCW.
