[Dialogue] Former ICA Board Member-Victoria Gray Adams

[Lynda Cock]

(My sister Diane Galbreath sent me the message about Vickie's death.  I
started to send it to the dialogue but then asked her to do it since she had
worked more closely with Vickie.  Our attached correspondence on the
previous e-mail was an "opps.")

In looking for further info about our colleague Vickie Adams, I found an
astounding number of entries mentioning her name. What a legacy!!! The
entry below is from her archived journal at the Civil Rights Library at the
University of  Southern Mississippi. 
www.fannielouhamer.info/victoria_adams.html.  On the left bottom side of the
webpage you see "Transcript of Mrs. Adam's Journal 10-63-10-64."     An
updated address for her son Cecil  Gray is also on the page.  
 
The journal of 1963-64 chronicles the work of a young mother and her
pioneering efforts in the civil rights movement, the frustration of trying
to get people involved and properly prepared, encounters with the law, the
death of her president, struggles with marriage, raising children, death of
grandchild, all night travel to get to various speaking engagements,
meetings with Dr. King, Jackie Kennedy, Hubert Humprey, etc.   Indeed a
moving history of the Ordinary Saints who organized the Civil Rights
Movement.  Reading through the many tributes and history of this amazing
woman has been an awesome experience this afternoon.  John and I worked with
her on a planning workshop with a group of Petersburg churches sometime in
the 90's.  We celebrate her life and contributions to history and indeed to
our history.

I thought this section from the journal particularly appropriate in light of
the upcoming anniversary of Gandhi's Non-violence movement.   Lynda Cock

[Editor's note: The following was written in the back of the journal. It
appears as if Mrs. Adams started on the right side then moved to the left.
At the top of the right page the names of two books are written: The Art of
Loving and The Choice to Love.]

4. Non-violence requires discipline.
a. physical discipline
b. intellectual
c. moral and spiritual discipline
d. develop and work for an order of life e. discipline of experimentation of
the proposed projections.

1. Non-violence is crucial [Non-violence] must be the only approach because:
a. it is the only right approach
b. of what we are trying to do - create a beloved community c. of what must
come after the upheaval - reconciliation

2. Non-violence - A fundamental attitude about life, agape, aggressive good
will; seeking, to do the truth in a climate of untruth, through: a.
Faith-Love
b. Ends and means must be the same
c. Recognition of the imperishable human personality d. A trust - A
confidence in the invisible forces in our life and the universe.

3. Non-violence cannot be a tactic because a. love cannot be a technic b.
the weapons of non-violence cannot meet the forces of evil unless it is
surrounded by the emotional and spiritual fibers of moral c. Openness to the
spirit of love and nonviolence d. necessity of creativity amid adversity.

11/8/63