<Begin Segment 21>

MN: During the 1960s you became more involved with the African American ministers and you were talking about the Sunday, September 15, 1963, when those four girls in, at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, were killed by a bomb.

LW: Yeah.

MN: Now how did, how did you get involved in that issue?

LW: Well, that was the part of the whole civil rights struggle that began in the late '50s, in the '50s, continued, and to me that was the ultimate atrocity against the, ultimate atrocity at that time for the death of these four children. And course, in the African American community there was a lot of support for the civil rights struggle and that incident triggered a -- if I remember correctly -- the coming together of the African American community in a rally, a march down Market Street from the Ferry Building to the city hall, and they invited any supporters to come and join them in that march and the rally. Course, by that time I had become acquainted with a number of African American pastors. The pastor of the big church in San Francisco, Jones Memorial, and he was a leader in the African American movement, I think he was heading up a NAACP, but he was the head of that calling for a rally, a march down Market Street, so I wanted to join them. That's the only, the least I could do in support of that struggle, and so I decided that, when that call came, that I would participate in that.

MN: Now, did you invite your congregation at Pine to join?

LW: Yes. By that time they knew of some of my involvement with the, with the civil rights struggle, and I felt like after this, at the conclusion of the service I needed to make, make a statement for myself and also invite people, so I announced to the congregation that Marion, my wife, and I will join that march down Market Street and invited any of the members of the congregation to join me. There were two others that did join, join me, join us, and we did, I think we were able to march most of the way down Market Street to the big rally at city hall. So that was my first, well, kind of public statement about where I was.

MN: What are your thoughts that only two people joined from Pine?

LW: I really wasn't disappointed. I was glad that two of them joined. I think this was so new to the congregation that they may have been caught off base on that, unaware that our, kind of unexpected. I could understand this because our efforts in the, through the church were focused on maybe a priority of helping us to get resettled, reestablish our lives in, in the city and on the West Coast, reestablish our lives after that experience in the United States. So I think the priority effort was there, and I could understand that. I could relate, that's what I'd been doing, but I felt like this is a time now that we can't say, close our eyes to what's happening in our country. We need to hear and to open our eyes to what's, what's going on. And this was a first public attempt, invitation for them to join us if they wished to.

MN: So in this public arena, you're very visible, did anybody from your congregation complain of your involvement?

LW: No, I never, I never got a negative feedback on that. I think most, if something like that happens in the Japanese American community there's no vocal expression. There may be some silence, silent questioning, but I think that's typical of our, the generation of that time, no vocal expression, but maybe questions and wondering.

MN: Now on this march and at this rally, did you see other Asian Americans involved?

LW: I don't remember. I guess I wasn't really looking for others. The other, in connection with that, well, connected to that, there was a support or service at the Grace Cathedral in memory of these four children, but also in support of the struggle, so there was a large group of people, congregation. We filled up Grace Cathedral, so those were the two experiences I had in connection. I may have, there may have been other Asians at the Grace Cathedral.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.