Black Disabled Resistance Part 2
Link to audio essay on SoundCloud
(Pictures of Elias Hill, Cecil Ivory, and Al Hibbler)
In 2021 I did part one of Black Disabled Resistance. I tried to define it so you can go back and listen to part one here on SoundCloud now February 2024 part two of Black Disabled Resistance is now here on SoundCloud and for a written form you can go to Krip-Hop’s website,blog page. In the upcoming episode I want to deal with three Black disabled men:
- Elias Hill (1819-1872)
- Cecil Ivory (1921-1961)
- Al Hibbler (1915-2001)
Before we get to the bio of all three men, let’s talk about what they have in common beyond being Black disabled men.
As you will see all three were activists. Two were born with their disabilities aka Elias, Ivory and Al Hibbler. Two were preachers in South Carolina, Elias was Baptist preacher in York County, South Carolina and Ivory was a pastor at Hermon Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
All of them were oppressed by White supremacy in a time of Jim Crow and before Jim Crow like Elias Hill (1819-1872). Like I said, all three led their people in protest like sit-ins at lunch counter and Ivory led a group of Black people from South Carolina to Arthington Liberia, Africa.
Elias Hill after taking the KKK to court he knew that he and his people ‘s lives were never going to be safe even after the successful court case against the KKK.
I had a wonderful chance to interview Rev. Sam McGregor and Patricia to talk about the grave of Rev. Elias Hill in the backyard of the church that led to them to uncover Elias’ history and his leadership etc.. The information below on Rev. Elisa Hill came from my interview with Rev. Sam McGregor and Patricia.
“The most remarkable man in South Carolina,” Rev. Elias Hill (1819-1871) who was disabled & became a Baptist preacher, Union League Leader and educator of freedman. On May 5, 1871, the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Rev. Hill and family. His testimony before Congress helped President Grant declare martial law in 9 counties of the South Carolina Upcountry and effectively drive the KKK from the state.”
On November 1, 1871, Elias Hill led a group of 167 freedmen to Arthington, Liberia, where they began lives as planters and political leaders.
Before leaving for Liberia, he sold 51 acres of land to my family, which held 28 members of Rev. Hill’s family in bondage. Rev. Sam McGregor told me in my interview that he travelled to Arthington, Liberia, along with 4 members from Allison Creek Presbyterian Church, in search of Rev. Elias. In Hill’s testimony before Congress, Elias Hill explained his family’s reason for leaving the United States:
“We do not believe it possible, from the past history and present aspect of affairs, for our people to live in this country peaceably, and educate and elevate their children to that degree which they desire.”
I had a chance to talk to a family member of Cecil Ivory but I never published it compared to Elias Hill who you just read that I had a chance to do a whole radio show on him. Most of my information on Cecil Ivory came from online sources and some from my interview.
Reverend Cecil Augustus Ivory, a name that may be new to many, but in the context of 1960s Rock Hill, South Carolina, played a major role in the early Black civil rights movement from his wheelchair. Now Ivory is recognized as an early leader of a particularly influential local civil rights movement. He was also chair of the NAACP.
Like I said, in Cecil Ivory’s case I talked to a family member of Ivory but never had the opportunity to officially interview anybody from the family for my radio show but from my short discussion with Ivory’ family member and a lot of internet research on him, I learned about his activism in Rock Hill, South Carolina as the President of the Rock Hill NAACP and in June 7th, 1960 held a “wheelchair sit-in.” It was reported in a Black magazine and newspapers like Jet Magazine, Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News. Read more here.
“He rolled up to the lunch counter in his wheelchair at McCrory Five & Dime and asked for service, but was denied. He claimed that he did not break any laws because he never actually sat on a lunch counter seat.”
Ivory went home after the June 7th,1960 sit-in and waited for the KKK with a shotgun in his lap as a wheelchair user and yes they came and burned a cross on his front yard.
Before I go on to explain the activism of these three Black disabled men through my poetry, let’s talk about Al Hibbler. Not like Ivory and Hill, Hibbler was a musician first born blind (1915-2001). He was also a radio DJ. Unfortunately I never had a chance to interview him or anyone who knew him but from my research I found out that he was heavily involved with the Black civil rights movement. According to Billie J. Abbott from his August 19th/2023 article.
“Hibbler played a noteworthy role in the civil rights movement, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and being arrested for civil disobedience in New Jersey in 1959 and in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 10, 1963, where he was picketing in front of the Trailways Bus Station. The police did not put Hibbler in jail but rather took him back to his hotel.”
Popular story was because of Hibbler’s political involvement in the Black civil rights movement of the 1960’s, his record label dropped him; however Frank Sinatra signed Hibbler as one of his first solo artists on Sinatra’s Reprise label. A famous photo of Hibbler protesting appeared on April fourth nineteen sixty-three in Birmingham News described the photo like:
They are holding posters that read “Equal Opportunity and Human Dignity,” “Don’t Buy Segregation,” and “Birmingham Merchants Unfair. (Photographer, Dean, Norman and Isaacson, Lou)
His famous line about the treatment of him and other Black people was:
Although I’m blind, I see the injustice here!
Now onto the poems that I wrote about all three of them, first Elias Hill entitled KKK In Court followed by Rev. Cecil Ivory, entitled, A Shot Gun In His Lap then lastly Al Hibbler, entitled, Jazz Man Turned Civil Rights Activist
KKK In Court (For Rev. Elias Hill)
We can’t even get Donald Trump
Had to go back in history to bring up
A Black disabled man, Rev. Elias Hill
Took his complaint to the Congress
President Grant declare martial law drove out the KKK
But the hate continued
Hill was a threat because he was a journalist Wrote articles and letters
A group of people came together
Hill was a Union League Leader & a Baptist Preacher
Had enough from oppressors
The courts failed to be their protector
Like Moses,Rev. Elias Hill led his people
Got tired of the hate
It wasn’t an escape
Made it in the media
Left South Carolina to arrive in Liberia
We can’t even get Donald Trump
Had to go back in history to bring up
A Black disabled man, Rev. Elias Hill
Took his complaint to the Congress
President Grant declare martial law drove out the KKK
They, the KKK came 12 midnight with their dogs barking
Attack his brother, his wife screaming and moaning
Looking for him then they knocked in his door
Hill took hit after hit on the bedroom floor
The KKK wanted Hill to stop preaching The KKK wanted Hill to stop writing
The KKK wanted Hill to stop advocating
The KKK saw this poor Black cripple as a threat
Rev. Elias Hill stood at
The doors of Justice
Testified about the KKK before a Congressional committee in 1871
Leading to several convictions but who really won
Back then Hill was with the Republican Party
Back then it was a different party
Now that party is worst than the KKK
Now it’s Trump and the Proud Boys
The spirit of Rev. Elias Hill
Up on the Hill
Shaking his head saying this can’t be real
His 1871 testimony today can still be felt.
A Shotgun in His Lap (For Rev Cecil Ivory)
He was ready
Sitting at the window in his wheelchair
They were coming
A man of peace & justice
Rev. Cecil Ivory organized his community
For racial equality
As a little Black poor boy
He played with what was there
Climbing a chestnut tree
Then snap pop
Broke his back
But jumped right back
Was bumped off a pickup
Lost used of his legs
But didn’t give up
Became a Reverend
Then Rock Hill NAACP President
Led boycotts and lunch-counter sit-ins
Organized students of Friendship Junior college
The question, what happens when the school year ends?
Took their place were Rock Hill Black residents
Rev. Cecil Ivory in 1961 tested Jim Crow’s waters
In the sticky southern summer
Told those gathered the night before
He was determined to wheel himself into
McCrory’s Park himself at the lunch counter
His reasoning, nothing wrong didn’t take a stool for white customers
The next day Arthur Hamm wheeled Ivory into McCrory’s
A prolific letter writer, he also bought paper
Wrote down what went on word by word
Soon Assistant Police Chief and another officer arrived they instructed the manager to ask Ivory and Hamm to leave.
Ivory wrote what he said then looked up to ask why.
Ivory explained no need to fight
He didn’t break the law
Wasn’t sitting on a stool reserved for whites
Police officer wheeled Ivory to jail
They had to get over a giant hill
Downstairs was the booking
He was locked up
Until lawyer paid bail Jail No Bail
After NAACP paid thousands
Realized it went directly to police pockets
Jail No Bail put that practice to an end
There were nine at the time
Called the Friendship Nine led by Rev. Ivory
Serve thirty-day sentence “Jail No Bail” policy
Ivory knew they were coming
White sheets blowing in the southern night breeze
He waited with a shotgun in his lap
Daughter looking back
A beat up briefcase in her lap
Full of letters to and from the U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy
Along with Rev. Ivory’s stories & handwritten threats
Remembering thirty years ago
Rev. Cecil Ivory, we all should know
That’s one reason I wrote this poem
Jazz Man Turned Civil Rights Activist (For Al Hibbler)
Al Hibbler with Martin Luther King
On the protest lines, he sang
Police reacted in pity
Refuse to arrest him, that was cops’ story
“Ain’t I a man!”
“Equal opportunity!”
“Human dignity!”
His protest’s signs screamed
Hibbler standing tall in the Alabama sky
It was 1963
King hoped Hibbler’s arrest would generate more publicity
To protest, Al Hibbler, one of the first celebrities
“It’s going to be two blind cats and a wildcat-Ray Charles, Al Hibbler and Sammy Davis Jr.,”
Al reacted after hearing about the shooting of Malcolm X
That’s when he called MLK
Record label didn’t like that
Frank Sinatra brought Al back
Under his own label
Hibbler always wanted to be at the table
When police refuse to arrest him
Al said, “ that’s discrimination at the highest level!”
Jazz Man Turned Civil Rights Activist
Al Hibbler was the ish
I bet his name was in MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”,
Like Ivory coined, Jail No Bail
========================
Black disabled resistance is rich and deep, we need to continue to write about it!
