Hot Food Team Advances to Nationals
Congratulations Hot Food Team, winner of the American Culinary Federation Southeast regional competition. Read about the team's victory in the April issue of Tech Talk.
Rev. Clark Olsen Speaks on Selma Experience
Rev. Clark Olsen discusses his part in the 1965 Voting Rights March in Selma, Ala., during an A-B Tech Diversity Committee program Feb. 23 in Ferguson Auditorium.
One event after another led Rev. Clark Olsen into something extraordinary, historical, and completely unforgettable.
In March 1965, he was a Unitarian-Universalist Minister living in Berkeley, CA. Across the country in Selma, AL, a group of 600 people were protesting the racist practices that kept blacks from being able to vote. There were 15,000 black citizens of legal age to vote, but barely 200 were able to register due to poll taxes and impossible literacy tests, such as reciting the Constitution of the United States.
"In 1963, the Civil Rights Bill passed outlawed segregation in public places," Olsen said during a talk sponsored by A-B Tech's Diversity Committee at Ferguson Auditorium. "But that bill did not deal with the fundamental right to vote. They had no power of citizenship."
Led by John Lewis and Ralph Abernathy, the protestors had planned to march from Brown AME Church in Selma to Montgomery on March 7. They made it as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the edge of town where state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and citizens waited for them. The peaceful marchers stopped to pray, and then they were brutally attacked. "Bloody Sunday" was captured by television cameras.
"They chased them back to the church and to their homes," said Olsen. "I saw it on the TV news and was absolutely repulsed. How could this happen?"
Olsen heard a plea by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for all clergy to come to Selma to take up the Voting Rights March in two days.
"I thought it would be nice to go, but I didn't have the money," said Olsen. When he got home he found a message from a couple in his church who said they would pay for his airfare.
"There were going to be hundreds of nuns, priests, rabbis and members of the clergy there," he said. "I told my wife there would be no problems."
Olsen's plane was delayed and he missed the group's attempt to cross the bridge. He saw King on the steps of Brown AME Church, telling everyone to return after dinner for a meeting.
Olsen went to dinner with two fellow Unitarian-Universalist ministers he knew, Revs. James Reeb and Orloff Miller. They ate in a restaurant in a black neighborhood and started walking back to the church. Someone in their group suggested they take a shortcut, one that led into a white, tough neighborhood.
As they went past a bar, a group of patrons emerged and one shouted a racial slur and struck Reeb on the head with a club. He collapsed while Miller covered his head and fell to the sidewalk. Olsen attempted to run, but was caught. He had his glasses knocked off. After a harrowing experience with an ambulance with a flat tire and an angry group of whites circling the vehicle, they were finally able to get Reeb to a hospital, where he died two days later.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the events in Selma "an American tragedy." Johnson's voting rights proposal reached Congress days after Reeb's death.
The members of the clergy were able to make their march all the way to Montgomery after that. "Rev. Orloff did go through with the march," said Olsen. "I could not bring myself to go back to Selma until 1998 with my daughter. I don't think I ever will be able to talk about it without tears. Despite the trauma, it is worth it to be able to talk about it. The message is to do something, to say something."
Trammel Decorates Butterfly For Migration Festival
Sharon Trammel, Humanities/Fine Arts instructor, painted this butterfly as part of Asheville's Migration Festival, a collaboration among Asheville Parks and Recreation, the Pack Square Conservancy, Asheville City Council and the Asheville Lyric Opera. The primary sponsor of the event is the Asheville Board of Realtors.
Sharon Trammel, Humanities/Fine Arts instructor, has created a butterfly to be displayed in downtown Asheville as part of "The Migration Festival" through March 12.
In fact, Trammel received the very first butterfly out of the more than 200 displayed for the festival. A group of friends sponsored her and presented the butterfly to her at a birthday party in October.
The Migration Festival, a collaboration among Asheville Parks and Recreation, the Pack Square Conservancy, Asheville City Council and the Asheville Lyric Opera, is designed to raise awareness of cultural tourism in Asheville and encourage visitors to come to the mountains.
"This was really special," said Trammel. "It's a great fundraiser and I don't mind giving my time. It's a way of giving back to the community."
Her butterfly features two, large green eyes on its wings. "I once did a whole show rediscovering my muse it was all ladies' faces. I have always been inspired by faces and eyes," she said.
Colorful rip-stop nylon butterflies, measuring four by six feet adorn lampposts throughout the downtown area, according to Brian Bock, Migration Committee chair. Many were hand painted by local and nationally prominent artists and graphics designers, as well as by school children, sponsoring businesses and city officials.
The festival leads up to the Asheville Lyric Opera's production of "Madame Butterfly" March 24 and 25 at Diana Wortham Theatre.
"The Gates" in New York's Central Park, an event created by Christo and Jean-Claude in 2005, inspired Bock. Unlike the saffron-colored banners of "The Gates," "The Migration Festival" will feature more than 200 different multi-colored butterflies.
"For years I have been following Christo and his artistic antics," he said. "In 16 days, four million people went through Central Park. There is so little going on in Asheville at this time of the year. This will be an annual event. People will look at this as a way to commemorate something or someone."
Biotech Center Recognizes College
A-B Tech President K. Ray Bailey (center), Vice President of Continuing Education Max Queen and Vice President of Instructional Services Sharon Morrissey display a plaque of appreciation recently presented to the College for its support of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Project to Strengthen Biotechnology Across North Carolina. The Center cited A-B Tech for its contributions to both the Steering Committee and the Advisory Committee for Biotechnology in Western North Carolina; for serving as a site for key events; for "boldly charting the course of a significant new incubator"; and for providing space and support for the Center's Western Office. Bailey, Queen, and Morrissey were specifically singled out for their efforts "to work innovatively" with the Center.