Post by Bornthrilla on Mar 27, 2019 20:24:01 GMT -5
Carolina Peacemaker, N.C. A&T theater arts founder John Kilimanjaro dies
By Nancy McLaughlin
nancy.mclaughlin@greensboro.com
GREENSBORO — After Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Bennett College in 1958, a 28-year-old N.C. A&T professor challenged the civil rights icon about his notion of nonviolence.
"I said to him, 'You are going to wind up getting a lot of people killed because you are counting on the white man having a conscience,'" John Marshall Kilimanjaro, also the secretary of the local NAACP at the time, told King.
"You are absolutely right," King replied. "We must so appeal to that conscience, no matter how hard it may be ... so we will not only win our victory, but we will win him over in the process."
Kilimanjaro, who despite not having a journalism background was inspired to start The Carolina Peacemaker to give a voice to the voiceless during turbulent times and to force those in power to listen, died at the age of 88 this morning — the day the weekly newspaper is printed. His wife of 62 years, Vickie Kilimanjaro, was at his side.
"After I pulled myself together, I asked her, 'You mean he died on press day?'" said daughter and Peacemaker editor Afrique Kilimanjaro, who moved back home years ago to help run the newspaper. She has to smile.
"We haven't missed an issue in 52 years," Afrique Kilimanjaro said, "and I'm not going to let that happen."
Her father, she knows, would have demanded it.
As colorful as Don Quixote, as militant as Frederick Douglass and admittedly arrogant at times, the man born John Marshall Stevenson chronicled important events in the life of the city and came to be considered one of its best-known voices. He also founded the theater arts program at A&T and the N.C. Black Publisher's Association. His many honors include the Order of Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor for public service.
"I think his legacy will be that he ‘told it like it was,’ and it wasn’t always comfortable for some people," said Bob Davis, a retired N.C. A&T sociology professor and Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother of Kilimanjaro's newspaper work.
Kilimanjaro, born in Little Rock, Ark., had a master of arts, speech and theater arts and a doctorate of education from the University of Arkansas.
Read more:
www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/carolina-peacemaker-n-c-a-t-theater-arts-founder-john/article_79461e5c-8969-5cff-9282-28dbeb4da006.html
By Nancy McLaughlin
nancy.mclaughlin@greensboro.com
GREENSBORO — After Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Bennett College in 1958, a 28-year-old N.C. A&T professor challenged the civil rights icon about his notion of nonviolence.
"I said to him, 'You are going to wind up getting a lot of people killed because you are counting on the white man having a conscience,'" John Marshall Kilimanjaro, also the secretary of the local NAACP at the time, told King.
"You are absolutely right," King replied. "We must so appeal to that conscience, no matter how hard it may be ... so we will not only win our victory, but we will win him over in the process."
Kilimanjaro, who despite not having a journalism background was inspired to start The Carolina Peacemaker to give a voice to the voiceless during turbulent times and to force those in power to listen, died at the age of 88 this morning — the day the weekly newspaper is printed. His wife of 62 years, Vickie Kilimanjaro, was at his side.
"After I pulled myself together, I asked her, 'You mean he died on press day?'" said daughter and Peacemaker editor Afrique Kilimanjaro, who moved back home years ago to help run the newspaper. She has to smile.
"We haven't missed an issue in 52 years," Afrique Kilimanjaro said, "and I'm not going to let that happen."
Her father, she knows, would have demanded it.
As colorful as Don Quixote, as militant as Frederick Douglass and admittedly arrogant at times, the man born John Marshall Stevenson chronicled important events in the life of the city and came to be considered one of its best-known voices. He also founded the theater arts program at A&T and the N.C. Black Publisher's Association. His many honors include the Order of Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor for public service.
"I think his legacy will be that he ‘told it like it was,’ and it wasn’t always comfortable for some people," said Bob Davis, a retired N.C. A&T sociology professor and Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother of Kilimanjaro's newspaper work.
Kilimanjaro, born in Little Rock, Ark., had a master of arts, speech and theater arts and a doctorate of education from the University of Arkansas.
Read more:
www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/carolina-peacemaker-n-c-a-t-theater-arts-founder-john/article_79461e5c-8969-5cff-9282-28dbeb4da006.html