James Orange

James Orange stands behind Martin Luther King, Jr.

James Orange was a lifelong activist and aide to Martin Luther King, Jr..

Obituary

Verbatim from the New York Times dated Feb. 22, 2008 titled "Rev. James E. Orange, 65, Aide to Dr. King, Dies":

"The Rev. James E. Orange, an aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose arrest in Alabama in 1965 is considered one of the catalysts for the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march, died on Saturday in Atlanta, his hometown. He was 65.

"The cause has not yet been determined, his daughter Deirdre Orange said.

"Mr. Orange had joined the civil rights marches led by Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy in Atlanta in 1963. Soon after, he became a project coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, bringing young people into the movement.

Mr. Orange was organizing a voter registration drive in southwest Alabama in early 1965 when he was arrested in Perry County on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors.

“Rumors had gotten out that I was supposed to be lynched in jail,” Mr. Orange told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., in an interview last year, describing events on the night of Feb. 18, 1965. Protesters, he said, had hardly left a church “right in front of the courthouse and city hall, and they were brutally beaten.”

One young protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was trying to protect his mother and grandfather from being beaten, was shot by a state trooper and died eight days later.

In an interview on Thursday, Charles Steele Jr., the current president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said: “That sparked the movement in terms of Dr. King and others saying that they would take the body of Jimmie Lee Jackson and put it on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery and let Gov. George Wallace see what type of racists we have. That became the march from Selma to Montgomery, which ultimately brought about the 1965 voter rights bill.”

Mr. Orange’s arrest in Perry County was just one of dozens that he had faced while organizing protests in Alabama. “The children’s demonstrations in Birmingham had transformed James Orange from hulking high school drifter to precocious minister of nonviolence,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch wrote in his 2006 book, “At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68.” (Mr. Orange weighed 300 pounds and stood six feet tall.)

James Edward Orange was born in Birmingham on Oct. 29, 1942, the fourth of seven children of Calvin and Ida Robinson Orange. His father worked in an iron mill.

Besides his daughter Deirdre, Mr. Orange is survived by his wife, the former Cleophus Brown; two other daughters, Jamida and Tamara; a son, Cleon; two brothers, Calvin Jr. and Wade; three sisters, Joyce Nelson, Marion Easley and Louise Orange; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Orange, who was ordained a Baptist minister in 1967, worked with the S.C.L.C. until 1977, when he became an organizer for the AFL-CIO He worked with Cesar Chavez in organizing the United Farm Workers. In 2003, he helped organize the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a caravan of 18 buses that crossed the country in support of legal status for illegal immigrants.

Five years earlier, Mr. Orange had gone to New Orleans to work on a campaign to unionize thousands of housekeepers, banquet waiters and laundry-room employees working in the city’s hotels. It reminded him of his days in Memphis, in 1968, when he marched with Dr. King in support of sanitation workers.

'The workers I saw in Memphis in 1968 were better off than the workers I see here in 1998,' Mr. Orange told The New York Times during the New Orleans campaign.

On April 4, 1968, Mr. Orange was standing below the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated.

National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam

National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam Flyer

The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam held a mass meeting on May 16, 1967 to "Report on the Delegation to the President Johnson". According to a flyer, Donna Allen was chairman, Rev. James Orange was "Peace and Freedom Singing" and Rev. Dale Ostrander delivered the invocation. The speakers were listed as Oscar Harvey, Cherry Grant, Rev. James Bevel, Dagmar Wilson, Rev. William Wendt, Stokely Carmichael, Stan Melton (entertainment), Julius Hobson and Howard Zinn.

WTO protests

Todd Tollefson describes his role as a peacekeeper/marshal with Jobs with Justice during the protests against the WTO. Tollefson explains that Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers’ rights that works through coalitions of labor, community, religious and other organizations. Tollefson describes pre-WTO peacekeeping training sessions led by the Reverend James Orange, and the attempts of peacekeepers to keep people on downtown Seattle streets safe and organized on November 30th.

Chicago Freedom Movement

In 1966 Father William Hogan, a Communist Party USA supporter, served as recording secretary of the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, the group that, together with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed the Chicago Freedom Movement, which led the massive civil disobedience direct action campaign of the summer of 1966 in Chicago.

Hogan said that while King was "first among equals," the composition of the CFM staff was exceptional and reflected the scope of the movement: James Bevel, C. T. Vivian, Al Sampson, James Orange, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, who went on to become mayor of Atlanta and later U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

According to Hogan..."All were veterans of major battles in the South," he said, adding that key players from Chicago included Edwin Berry of the Urban League, Bob Lucas of CORE and Carl Fuqua of the NAACP.

"In addition to traditional civil rights organizations, CFM included representatives from the religious and liberal communities. Some of the unions affiliated with AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department provided staff assistance.

Southern Organizing Committee for Racial and Economic Justice

Heather Gray served on the board of the Southern Organizing Committee for Racial and Economic Justice that Anne Braden co-chaired along with Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. The organization " was one of the few that provided the opportunity for us to think and act regionally and to make the essential connections of the myriad of issues we faced. From the 1980’s and on the meetings were always filled with a diversity of black, white and eventually Latino activists in the region".

We would sit for hours in New Orleans, Montgomery or Birmingham to strategize on various issues, activities and mistakes we’ve made then and in the past. We would also listen, learn and occasionally join in while the legendary leaders in our midst discussed and analyzed the dynamics of white supremacy, racial politics generally and labor challenges in the South. Anne was never without offering a lengthy epistle about anything until the wee hours of the night along with her ever-present cigarettes! These sessions were often both grueling and enlightening. They were not only a history lesson but also a socialization process into the tactics of southern civil rights activism and Anne understood the importance of this. She wanted to pass this information on to all of us and to keep the momentum going at every conceivable juncture. The meetings were a roll call of southern leaders and activists the likes of Reverend C. T. Vivian, Jack O'Dell, Gwen Patton, Virginia Durr, Reverend Fred Taylor, Reverend James Orange, Connie Tucker, John Zippert, Jackie Ward, Reverend Benjamin Chavis, Charlie Orrock, Ann Romaine, Damu Smith, Jim Dunn, Judy Hand, Scott Douglas, Ron Chisholm, Spiver Gordon, Pat Bryant, Tirso Moreno and countless others.

Kopkind Colony

The Kopkind Colony Program Advisory Committee, as of 2015; The Kopkind Colony Honorary Board, as of 2015; Angela Ards, Fred Azcarate, Jennifer Berkshire, Pamela Bridgewater, Francis Calpotura, Margaret Cerullo, Tim Costello, Kim Diehl, Heidi Dorow, Scott Douglas, Theo Emery, Laura Flanders, Ku‘umeaaloha Gomes, Joe Grabarz, Jennifer Gordon, Pronita Gupta, Muna Hamzeh, Amber Hollibaugh, Mary Howell, Janine Jackson, Si Kahn, Robin D. G. Kelley, KipuKai Kuali‘i, Brad Lander, Eric Mann, Nikki Morse, Scot Nakagawa, Debbie Nathan, Amy Newell, Rev. James Orange, Robert Pollin, Verandah Porche, Luis Rodriguez, Deb Schwartz, Barbara Smith, Makani Themba-Nixon, Jerry Tucker