However, while working at a Mennonite summer camp between school years at Bethel (KS) College, she met Vincent Harding, an African American Mennonite pastor from Chicago, who was serving as camp pastor.
I
Enriching
Lives, Together
n 1961, Vincent had been asked by the Peace Section of Mennonite Central Committee to go to Atlanta. He and his wife Rosemarie were to guide the
creation of “Te Mennonite House” for the purpose of attesting to the “Christian way of love and self-sacrifice” and to share Anabaptist ideals with those involved in this movement.
In the spring of 1962, a call from the Hardings went out via Te Mennonite magazine for young people to “come to Atlanta.” Because she knew the Hardings, and because she was already clear in her desire to do something involved with civil rights, Kay became one of the young adults who lived in the house and worked side-by-side with people in the community.
Tis integrated house, with white young adults serving in black organizations and outreach efforts, was revolutionary in expanding the understandings of the Mennonite young adults who came to call Atlanta home, but it came with potential dangers. Tat school year was the first for integrated schools in the city. It would be more than five years until police officers of different races worked together. Despite there being more than 300,000 African Americans living there, only three parks and less than 1,000 hospital beds were available to them. Many stores and restaurants were still deeply segregated.
One of Kay’s tasks for the summer was teaching Bible School at Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. was the co-pastor. She remembers well having Yolanda, Martin Luther King’s oldest child, in her class and meeting Dr. King for the first time when he was picking up his kids. She laughs, “We were doing a really sticky paste project with the children, and I didn’t want to shake hands because my hands were so messy.”
During the famous “Albany Movement” that summer, Dr. King had been arrested for “parading without a permit.” While he was in jail, Vincent Harding asked Kay to come with him while he visited Coretta Scott King. Kay spent the time helping with household chores and says, “My claim to fame is that I ironed Martin Luther King’s clothing.”
Kay says the experiences that summer in Atlanta have stuck with her throughout her life. “What I experienced there reinforced to me the equality of all God’s children. For the rest of my life, I’ve lived and acted in ways that show my commitment to this concept because of my time there.”
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