Long-time Civil Rights activist Vanda Trappio Patton received the Civil Rights Icon Award, presented by the Savannah Coastal Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, January 9, 2009, during the organization’s first Drum Major Community Awards program.
Patton was among a group of recipients recognized for their contributions to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The Drum Major Community Awards program did not mark the first time she has been recognized for her labors on behalf of the historic movement. In 1964, she received an “Award for Valor and Courage” for her participation in the Chatham County Crusade for Voters. In December 2008, she participated as a panelist for the “Legends of Savannah’s Civil Rights Movement and the CCCV” program held at the Jepson Center for the Arts. She currently serves on the 2009 Advisory Board for the Savannah Chapter of SCLC.
Born July 13, 1938, Patton initially joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the early 1960s and became acquainted with civil rights activist Rev. Dr. Hosea Williams. “When Hosea Williams started the Crusade for Voters, I joined them because they were so strong on taking action against segregation,” said Patton.
“We would march every afternoon, blocking off the Bay Street viaduct during the heaviest traffic hours. At the time,” she added, “I didn’t realize how dangerous it was to protest the way we were doing––for me or for my two young sons who were with me––but I knew it was wrong for us to have to go to the back of the buses or drink out of different fountains just because we were black and I knew something had to be done about that.”
As a result of her protests, Patton was arrested with a number of others on her 25th birthday, July 13, 1963. Before being taken to jail, she recalled, she and a group of protesters were packed inside a police van and driven around for an extended time in the summer heat. “They rode us around with the heater on until we became hot and sweaty, and it was already summertime, so it really like a form of torture.”
The SCLC was originally founded as the Southern Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 14, 1957, with Martin Luther King, Jr., elected as its president. It was renamed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Montgomery, Alabama, in August 1957. The organization did not have a Savannah chapter during that time but in 1959 formed the SCLC Crusade for Voters, described as an “affiliate,” under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Hosea Williams.
SCLC continues in modern times to address issues of voter education and registration but focuses on youth development, community empowerment, and other issues. For information on the organization, please telephone (404) 522-1420 or email info.sclcnational.org.
By Aberjhani
© March 2009
Congratulations to Ms. Vanda Trappio Patton.
Georg