Project concludes with guest speaker stressing importance of caring about others

Elizabeth Oliver, coordinator of Wallowa County’s Big Read, said she most appreciated this year’s wider dialogue around the important human rights issues. The Big Read “...pulled the community together to talk,� she said.

A dinner featuring barbecued ribs and potluck contributions of Southern foods commemorated this year’s Big Read selection of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in the deep South of the 1930s.

Mathabane, who said Lee’s book spoke of the importance of caring about others — that empathy is the glue that binds humanity — shared the story of his journey out of the poverty and bitterness of the ghetto of Alexandra, South Africa.

Mathabane’s soft-spoken delivery captured the attention of a nearly full house.

Childhood memories of deprivation and pain, made bearable only by the love and hope of his mother and family members, told of an early life of hunger, desperation and hopelessness.

Mathabane was able to escape by earning a tennis scholarship to a school in the U.S. in 1978. He graduated cum laude from Dowling College in New York with a degree in economics and was the first black editor of the college newspaper in 1983. He went on to obtain a degree in journalism from Columbia University. He was a White House fellow during the Clinton administration in 1997.

He moved to Portland with his wife and family in 2004.

“You and I must have the courage to be human and to fight the true terrorists,” he said. “Attacks like 9-11 are not unique in the annals of human history. The enemy is the root cause of the eruptions of evil in ourselves. The real enemies of humanity are poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, environmental degradation … and they cannot be vanquished by guns.”

Mathabane remembered his grandmother as a great storyteller. He said he did not have many books as a child, but he had a whole library of stories in his grandmother’s memory.

“This is what I see you doing with the Big Read … preserving a language and a culture, and I salute you,” he said.

The Big Read, a project began in 2006 by the National Endowment for the Arts, provides citizens across the United States with opportunities to read a single book within their communities. The goal of

the program is to restore

reading to the center of American culture.

The “community read” lasts approximately one month and includes lectures, panel discussions, films, and events using the book as a point of departure.

The project has grown from a pilot in 2006 with 10 communities reading four books to more than 800 grants awarded in 2010 to communities throughout the United States.

Wallowa County was the only community chosen to receive a grant in Oregon this year.

The local community program began Jan. 12 with a kick-off event featuring Charles Shields, author of “Mockingbird,” a biography of Harper Lee.

The impressive presentation launched the program for many members of the county’s towns, schools and outlying areas. Local groups including the Wallowa Peace and Justice Network and the Non-Violent Communication group along with public libraries, schools, and the faith community have participated in a wide variety of events from cooking classes by Lynne Sampson Curry of Joseph, who shared recipes and techniques in preparing Southern desserts and main dishes, to Seattle singer-songwriter Reggie Garrett’s performance of original and American Roots music Jan. 18.

Whitman College history professor David Schmitz examined the political and social structure of race relations during the 20th century and the sequence of events that produced the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in a presentation at the Fishtrap House later in January.

This was followed by a lively account of unpopular legal causes in America with Portland attorney Steven Goldberg. The provocative presentation addressed questions about achieving a balance between national security concerns and preservation of  civil liberties. Goldberg discussed the supposed neutrality of Supreme Court judges and their duty to enforce and interpret the principles of the constitution and said that court decisions only create change when supported by a social justice movement.

Several panel discussions throughout February addressed race relations, non-violent communications, and connecting with areas of conflict around the globe.

Pastor Dave Bruce of the Enterprise Christian Church offered sermons on topics related to the themes in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

A short film shown Feb. 18 called “Not In Our Town” documented the struggle of Billings, Mont., to resist the establishment of an Aryan Nations headquarters in their city in 1993-94. Wayne Inman, chief of police in Billings during that time and now a resident of Halfway, spoke eloquently of his efforts to mobilize the citizens and city government against the rising power of the skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan and the Montana Freemen in Billings.

Discussion points included the role of the police in a community and the importance of a strong early response against acts of violence. The initial acts of resistance in Billings came from the Montana Association of Churches and was supported by the labor unions.

Participating in audience discussion, Inman commented that silence is acceptance, and the burning of a cross on a Joseph citizen’s lawn last year should have elicited a strong public outcry and diligent investigation by the police.

Films offered by The Big Read included “Capote,” the story of Truman Capote’s research for “In Cold Blood.”

Harper Lee, Capote’s childhood friend, has a major role in the film.

“Blood in the Face,” a documentary on the Aryan Confederation, is an expose of the beliefs of neo-Nazis, fascists, Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations members in America. The documentary chronicles “patriotic citizens trying to get our country back from the minorities.”

The 1996 film “Ghosts of Mississippi” reveals the struggle to bring the murderer of civil rights activist Medgar Evers to justice.

Mark Mathabane, author and speaker from Portland, addresses a packed house at The Big Read finale Feb. 28. - DEBBIE LIND photos

Big Read activities in the area schools included an essay contest for middle school students. Prompts were supplied for the writers and addressed topics of discrimination, isolation and bullying.

Winners of the contest were Dawn Mist Kovich-Fields from Enterprise, first place, with a story about the bullying of a new student.

Caitlin Sidoti, second place winner also from Enterprise, wrote a story about a black girl who hopes for a time when people will pay attention to what is in her heart, not the color of her skin.

Natalie Williams from Joseph, who wrote an essay giving advice to new students to avoid becoming the victim of bullying, won third.

Michelle Keffer, middle school teacher at Joseph and Coby Knifong in Enterprise segregated their classrooms into two groups: the Stars and the Stripes. Students experienced the privileges and restrictions of a “separate but equal” society. 

A list of supplemental reading was supplied to teachers and discussion groups. Fishtrap provided a classroom set of books for teachers who chose to explore the central theme with a more age appropriate selection.

Young adult choices included “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” by Mildred Taylor, “Sounder” by William Armstrong, and “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo.

Individuals wishing to enhance the Big Read experience with books on related topics by a wide selection of authors could choose from the supplemental list which included Faulkner’s “Intruder in the Dust,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” by Fannie Flagg and “The Devil’s Highway” by Luis Urrea, and “Kaffir Boy: the Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa” by Mark Mathabane.