Unsung Civil Rights hero nominated for university's honorary degree
Mark Dubovec, Transcript Reporter
Issue date: 3/18/10 Section: News
When examining the Civil Rights Movements, certain names spring to mind: Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers.
But these leaders could not have achieved as much without the work of others behind the scenes and on the front lines, people with their own accomplishments but not the recognition.
On Feb. 4, Diane Nash spoke at Ohio Wesleyan University. In February 1960, as a 21-year-old college student, she began a student movement challenging the city's segregation by staging sit-ins at downtown lunch counters.
She not only led this movement, she organized "freedom rides" throughout the South, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped develop strategy for the Selma, Al., right-to-vote movement, according to OWU News Media online.
She also worked as a "Field staff person, organizer, strategist, race relations staff person and workshop instructor for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)" during the sixties, according to an email from members of Ohio Wesleyan's President's Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity.
A few weeks later, a petition to nominate Nash for an honorary degree circulated through the email system of Ohio Wesleyan. Ohio Wesleyan President Rock Jones said Nash is a strong candidate for an honorary degree.
"She certainly fits the criteria in an extraordinary way," Jones said.
Terree Stevenson, director of Multicultural Student Affairs, said she's not surprised Nash isn't well known. She said was one of the workers who would go into cities ahead of King and other prominent leaders to lay the groundwork for action.
"I consider her a foot soldier," Stevenson said. "She is an unsung hero. A lot of women in the Civil Rights Movement are." Women such as Jo Ann Robinson, who hand-cranked a copy machine to ensure the distribution of 50,000 leaflets a week; Rosa Parks, whose story is limited to the bus but includes much more; and Fannie Lou Hamer, another voting rights activist.
But these leaders could not have achieved as much without the work of others behind the scenes and on the front lines, people with their own accomplishments but not the recognition.
On Feb. 4, Diane Nash spoke at Ohio Wesleyan University. In February 1960, as a 21-year-old college student, she began a student movement challenging the city's segregation by staging sit-ins at downtown lunch counters.
She not only led this movement, she organized "freedom rides" throughout the South, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped develop strategy for the Selma, Al., right-to-vote movement, according to OWU News Media online.
She also worked as a "Field staff person, organizer, strategist, race relations staff person and workshop instructor for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)" during the sixties, according to an email from members of Ohio Wesleyan's President's Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity.
A few weeks later, a petition to nominate Nash for an honorary degree circulated through the email system of Ohio Wesleyan. Ohio Wesleyan President Rock Jones said Nash is a strong candidate for an honorary degree.
"She certainly fits the criteria in an extraordinary way," Jones said.
Terree Stevenson, director of Multicultural Student Affairs, said she's not surprised Nash isn't well known. She said was one of the workers who would go into cities ahead of King and other prominent leaders to lay the groundwork for action.
"I consider her a foot soldier," Stevenson said. "She is an unsung hero. A lot of women in the Civil Rights Movement are." Women such as Jo Ann Robinson, who hand-cranked a copy machine to ensure the distribution of 50,000 leaflets a week; Rosa Parks, whose story is limited to the bus but includes much more; and Fannie Lou Hamer, another voting rights activist.
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