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2009 Living Legends Award Honorees
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2009 Honorees
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Constance Curry |
Samuel DeShay |
Carlotta LaNier |
ABOUT THE 2009 HONOREES . . . .
CONSTANCE CURRY - Lawyer, Ph.D., Fulbright Scholar, author and civil rights activist. Connie Curry has used her voice to give voice to the voiceless. She refused to be silent when it came to speaking out against the injustice perpetrated against black people. She considered it injustice against all people.
She was one of two girls born to her father Ernest Curry. Her parents, Ernest and Hazel, both born in Belfast Northern Ireland came to the US in 1925. Settling in Greensboro North Carolina. They were met by a country divided by race, a country in full rejection of its backbone. Her parents met these attributes with disbelief and resistance. Connie’s mother was very outspoken for her time. Many times she found herself in direct opposition to her fellow white mothers. They did not approve of her kind treatment of the “colored people”. Taking after her mother, Connie remembers speaking out as early as elementary school. After a class bully insulted one of the black cafeteria workers, Connie expressed her disapproval by responding to the student saying “she is just as good as your mother.” Speaking out would later become her life’s work and passion.
Although she experienced early in her childhood the realness of racism it was as a freshman in high school that she felt its full weight. A group of students from her church in North Carolina went to a church conference in Raleigh. The bus stopped for a bathroom break. The presence of one black student caused the police to be called and the bus was asked to leave. It was at this point the she began to understand the depth of this blight on our country, racism. She knew she could not be silent.
Four years later, as a scholarship student she entered Agnes Scott College outside of Atlanta, Georgia. She became active in student government and began attending integrated meetings at Morehouse and Spellman. Students were required to get written permission to attend these integrated meetings. In 1953 at a National Student Association meeting attended by representatives from both black and white colleges she noticed during the lunch hour the white students had to go to restaurants for whites and the black students had to go to restaurants for blacks. As they parted ways at the bottom of the stairs, she realized that segregation not only punished the black students, it punished all students. The History major graduated Suma cum laude and became a Fulbright scholar.
In June of 1960, another fight for equality took center stage. Students in North Carolina held a sit-in. The sit-in snowballed across the south and soon after SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was formed. Connie Curry and Ella Baker were the first adult advisors. The grassroots organization further propelled her into a position where she could use her voice and be heard. Working with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond and John Lewis, she helped with the implementation of policies and with her actions worked to bring about change.
In 1975 she decided to go to law school where she matriculated with ease as a result of her close association to most of the case studies. She has dedicated her law skills exclusively to helping the many wrongly convicted black prisoners.
Dr. Curry is the author and co-author of several books most notably Silver Rights and The Wrong Side of Murder Creek.
Connie was asked, “Have we turned the page”? Her response, “In 1960, we knew who the enemy was, today it’s hidden” This is the essence of what she is lauded for today. In recent years she has turned her attention to the problem of school resegregation. She is currently the subject of a documentary and she lives in Atlanta Georgia and continues in what she considers unfinished work.
SAMUEL DeSHAY - Humanitarian, musician, medical doctor, missionary, Ph.D. in Divinity, and author, Samuel Deshay, has touched lives. Graced with an array of abilities and a spirit that tenderly turns to humanity, he speaks in so many ways. Samuel DeShay was among five children born to his parents, Williams and Aleatha DeShay. Although not well educated themselves, his parents knew the value of education and was a driving force for their children in getting one. His mother was a spiritual compass in his early life. A strong Christian and member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church she modeled the attributes that would become the hallmark of his life work.
An exceptional student, Samuel DeShay excelled in academics and in the arts. Although he attended a segregated high school, he took a Latin class at the all white high school. One day after getting the highest grade on a test, the Latin teacher entered the classroom and expressed her anger to the class for allowing such a thing to happen.
At the age of 12 he began to study piano. He took very quickly to this discipline earning the praise and admiration of those considered music elite. Winning competitions and appearing on national television. He was privileged to study with some of the finest teachers and performers in this country and throughout the world. His talent eventually paid his way through college and medical school.
In 1954 he entered Loma Linda University Medical School in Loma Linda California. A year later his studies would be interrupted when he found a lump on his thigh. It was a malignant muscle tumor. The doctors were not very optimistic about his future so he left medical school and entered the school of divinity at Howard University. After being miraculously cured of cancer, he would eventually return to medical school where married and graduated.
Upon graduation, Dr. DeShay embarked on his long career as a medical missionary. Eventually the General Conference of Seventh Day Adventist asked he and his wife if they would accept an appointment to Africa. They did, and there he worked in government hospitals, organized a culture club and built a first class maternity hospital that has since become the standard for all maternity hospitals. Gaining the trust of African leaders from Nigeria to Uganda, Dr. Deshay has become one of the best known and most loved missionaries to Africa. He and his wife were the last missionaries evacuated from Biafra during Nigeria’s civil war. He is credited with eradicating leprosy in Nigeria.
In 1987 the Ugandan government asked him to write a proposal for use of the Sessee islands. His proposal was well received by the president. Ten thousand acres were allotted and this would become the foundation of the vision DeShay calls “The City of Light” The governments vision of this city was that it would not only be a beacon of light for the country of Uganda but for the entire continent of Africa and the world respectively. The Sessee islands are a total of ten islands promoting the best of music, art, literature, health, religion and peace. Guns are outlawed. It is described as a model city for the future and a “Jewel and Heartland” of Uganda.
He is the recipient of many awards including Honored Alumnus from Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Alpha Omega Alpha for physician excellence. Medicines highest honor. Today he makes his home in Columbia, Maryland where he continues his work as a physician and humanitarian. He is a husband and father of two daughters, who followed his footsteps into music and health care.
CARLOTTA LaNIER - High were the walls built of racism and segregation, and high were the dreams dreamt for a young Carlotta. Carlotta was graced to have a very strong family life. She was the oldest of three girls born to Cartelyou and Juanita Walls. The Walls raised their girls to believe that they were just as good as the next person; they could be anything their mind could dream. They also knew the value of education as the key to their success. Perhaps one of the most valuable things her parents said to her was “always be prepared”. This idea of being prepared would one day be put to test. Carlotta would find herself in the center of history. Writing it with every step she took.
Carlotta was very young when she became conscious of color. She was acutely aware of barriers and she saw the tension surrounding the black and white color line. Thanks to her parents she had great self-esteem and she knew that people, who had a problem with her, and her color, were themselves the one with the problem.
The atmosphere was pregnant with the hint of change. Brown vs. the Board of Education was in the news and everyone was talking about what was going to happen. Carlotta had always heard about change but it was her impatience for it that guided her actions in the spring of 1957. As she sat in her separate and unequal homeroom, her teacher walked in and asked the class to sign their name on a piece of paper if they intended to go to Little Rock Central High in the fall. Little Rock Central High was the apple of the community. An attractive school built in 1925 with a price tag of 1.5 million dollars. The nations leading Architects deemed it the most beautiful high school in America and it was ranked among the highest in the country. Without so much of a second thought Carlotta signed her name.
In September of 1957 nine young black students were scheduled to attend Little Rock Central High. They would become known as the Little Rock Nine playing leading roles in the integration showdown that was to follow. The day before school was to start the governor came on the news and proclaimed that he was calling the National Guard to protect the citizens, he feared blood would run in the streets. Being a citizen, Carlotta and the others assumed the governor included them in this protection order, but he did not. After prayer with several of the black ministers they walked the last block to school.
They were met by a very large mob that expressed their very large opinion that they were not welcome. The students and ministers kept walking focused on their destination. They were eventually met by the National Guard who stopped them “you can’t go in” We are here to keep you out”. With that, they were turned away with the approval of the mob. However, history was not yet through with this chapter. The eyes of all the nation was watching this drama play out.
It was at this point the President of the United States made his entrance. He summoned the 1300 men of the 101 Air Born from Kentucky and he federalized the National Guard and gave them new orders. Those that were once ordered to keep them out were now ordered to escort them in. The nine students eventually entered the school and had nine different experiences. There were many who hated the idea of black students in their school and there were those who hoped the problem would just go away they simply did not want to get involved. There was however, a third group. This group knew that it was time for the page to turn and they offered their new black classmates and students, something different than the mob.
In one more act of defiance, the governor of Arkansas ordered all public schools to be closed. He wanted to prevent black and white students from learning together. They were eventually reopened and Carlotta graduated from Little Rock Central High in 1960. On November 9, 1999 the Little Rock Nine received the countries highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal. Today Carlotta LaNier is the president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation. She is a wife, mother and realtor and lives in Denver, Colorado.