Sustained Protests Are A Key To Beating City Hall

By Rev. J.J. Purcell, MPS (Ret.)

I suppose it was the mid-2000s or so when the Greater Long Branch NAACP, then under the direction of President William L. Danger, was confronting the Middletown Township Committee, then led by Mayor Rosemarie Peters. The issues were plain. There was a situation with a township employee of color who was facing bias in her work situation. Meanwhile, Bill was also trying to secure additional opportunities for people of color in township employment, where there had been none so far.

Talks were at a virtual standstill. Bill and I were friends, and I had helped out his chapter with doing press before. Since my office, The Courier, was right across the road from the Town Hall where talks were going on, he came over. He told me about the arrogant posture of the committee and their want to do absolutely nothing for the employee, despite the outright bias she had faced. And, where it concerned any concessions about hiring on the then-nearly all white town departments -- nothing: absolutely nothing.

I made a suggestion to Bill, which he wound up using. I knew the thing the committee feared more than anything were Black protests along their major thoroughfares, so their mostly all-White citizenry (nearly 97 percent then) would see. You see, White suburbanites like to consider themselves 'good people' about race and such, even when they mostly aren't 'good people' about race.

I said, 'Tell them you'll put 500 or more people at the intersection of King's Highway and Route 35 (the town's main hub) and that your people will stay there until there is change.' Bill asked what should we do if they do not give in. I responded, 'Then let's do it; let's put 500 or more people out there until there is change.' He laughed. "Now that would get their attention. But, it's the middle of the winter."

My then employer, as well as owning the newspaper I published, also owned a number of Foodtowns in three counties. I said to Bill, 'We get a warming tent, all the cup of soup and coffee we can put into it, and request assistance from Second Baptist Church in Long Branch, the other area NAACPs, the state NAACP -- even the Nation if we have to in order to pull this off. The best defense is a good offense. There is no way the committee wants that to happen in their town: Newspapers, TV News, and Online News will be all over the place and asking questions.'

After a long minute, Bill, a wise man and tough negotiator, smiled and said, "OK, well, you made some work for yourself. I'm going to go in with that right now."

Well, he did. While he went back into negotiations I proceeded to get a large warming tent laid on from a company in Howell. Then, I called my boss to find out about getting soup and coffee for the tent. I waited for Bill to give me the heads up before I began any other work. But, none would be required.

"You were right. They heard about Black protesters on their main roadway and they backed-up. They resolved the personnel issue I went with in there and they gave us hiring concessions as well."

Of course none of it should have worked. Bill presented a perfectly logical argument, in a business fashion, at first to try and reasonably solve small problems in town. However, it was the arrogance and bigotry, in my opinion, of the all-White Middletown Committee that would not give an inch to not only Bill, but any person of color. There had to be an '...or else.' And, what Bill promised if talk broke down was a nightmare of theirs.

The secret to Bill's threat was the fact it would have been made real. But, he used a method that did not have violence or arrogance built into it, only American citizens exercising their God-given rights of acceptable protestation.

I cancelled the tent, soup and coffee. To tell you the truth, I was kind of sorry about it. Because if any town in New Jersey needed to get shook up it was and is Middletown Township. Still, a deal is a deal.

I absolutely believe that regular and heavy protestation of examples of bad government will work in the end. Free of violence, a crowd of dedicated, law-abiding protesters (not unlike feminists in the early part of the 20th century) who can sustain their operations for long periods of time can change the game, so to speak, where it involves issues of race and prejudice in this country. Certainly it will work in the town near you.

It is a matter of sustainability. Can protesters keep protesting, remain calm and law abiding, and never give up their cause? Law enforcement will be present at a certain point, and menacing. Consequently, strong leadership is required of protesters. If protesters can keep the fight up, though, they will win, because no elected government in this nation wants the heat that comes along with a wrong they did being covered and reminded daily.

Politicians hate it when their prejudices, sins, greed and bigotry are shed light upon. After a journalism career that was nearly two decades long, I can assure the reader of that much.