Post by nwgamom on Jul 14, 2007 9:36:28 GMT -5
This article was originally reported in Times Free Press 7/14/07
www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/local.aspx?articleid=18127&zoneid=77
Weaver doesn't want Parker case to get cold
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Lamar Weaver talking
about Eleanor Roosevelt. - Download MP3-
By ChloƩ Morrison
Staff Writer
Lamar Weaver said he has lived three lives -- one as a civil rights advocate, one as a businessman, father and free speech promoter and one as an investigator.
The 79-year-old Marietta resident's latest venture is campaigning to keep missing Walker County 911 dispatcher Theresa Parker's case from going cold. Mrs. Parker disappeared on March 21. Her estranged husband, Sam Parker, has been named a person of interest by the GBI.
Mr. Weaver said he wants for Mrs. Parker what he has fought for his entire life -- justice.
He said his first life began when he was in college in the 1950s at Birmingham's Southeastern Bible College and demonstrated for civil rights.
Ebony magazine called Mr. Weaver the "white man who can't go home," because members of the Ku Klux Klan wanted him dead, he said. In 1957, after Mr. Weaver socialized with a black minister, KKK members nearly killed him.
"The mob got me out front and beat me, kicked me, stoned me," Mr. Weaver said. He made it to his car and escaped the mob. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt mentioned the incident in a newspaper column, he said, and met with Mr. Weaver when he was in Washington, D.C., to testify before a Senate subcommittee studying the first civil rights bill.
"We sat down and we had tea," he said. "She took me for a tour of the Roosevelt estate. We stood by (Franklin Delano Roosevelt's) grave."
Laura Anderson, an archivist at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, said Mr. Weaver is one of her heroes.
"He went against the grain and accepted people as individuals," Mrs. Anderson said.
In his second life, Mr. Weaver moved to Ohio, became a father and worked for a funeral home and in the insurance business.
When his son told him that children were allowed to smoke in school. Mr. Weaver sued the school board and won after the case reached the Ohio Supreme Court, he said.
His crusade against smoking attracted an unlikely friend -- Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. He said Mr. Flynt helped with his court costs and asked him to head a group, Americans for a Free Press, that campaigned in newspaper advertisements against restrictions on the freedom of expression. Notable artists such as director Woody Allen and beat writer Allen Ginsberg signed the ad, he said.
His third life began when he moved back to the South and Weaver Legal Service, where he began working in investigation. Now he is dedicated to helping bring Mrs. Parker home, he said.
He said he has met eight American presidents and the Beatles. Mrs. Anderson said she's not surprised that Mr. Weaver has encountered such people.
"It is impressive to me that they have encountered him in a shared quest for justice," she said.
E-mail ChloƩ Morrison at cmorrison@timesfreepress.com
www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/local.aspx?articleid=18127&zoneid=77
Weaver doesn't want Parker case to get cold
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Lamar Weaver talking
about Eleanor Roosevelt. - Download MP3-
By ChloƩ Morrison
Staff Writer
Lamar Weaver said he has lived three lives -- one as a civil rights advocate, one as a businessman, father and free speech promoter and one as an investigator.
The 79-year-old Marietta resident's latest venture is campaigning to keep missing Walker County 911 dispatcher Theresa Parker's case from going cold. Mrs. Parker disappeared on March 21. Her estranged husband, Sam Parker, has been named a person of interest by the GBI.
Mr. Weaver said he wants for Mrs. Parker what he has fought for his entire life -- justice.
He said his first life began when he was in college in the 1950s at Birmingham's Southeastern Bible College and demonstrated for civil rights.
Ebony magazine called Mr. Weaver the "white man who can't go home," because members of the Ku Klux Klan wanted him dead, he said. In 1957, after Mr. Weaver socialized with a black minister, KKK members nearly killed him.
"The mob got me out front and beat me, kicked me, stoned me," Mr. Weaver said. He made it to his car and escaped the mob. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt mentioned the incident in a newspaper column, he said, and met with Mr. Weaver when he was in Washington, D.C., to testify before a Senate subcommittee studying the first civil rights bill.
"We sat down and we had tea," he said. "She took me for a tour of the Roosevelt estate. We stood by (Franklin Delano Roosevelt's) grave."
Laura Anderson, an archivist at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, said Mr. Weaver is one of her heroes.
"He went against the grain and accepted people as individuals," Mrs. Anderson said.
In his second life, Mr. Weaver moved to Ohio, became a father and worked for a funeral home and in the insurance business.
When his son told him that children were allowed to smoke in school. Mr. Weaver sued the school board and won after the case reached the Ohio Supreme Court, he said.
His crusade against smoking attracted an unlikely friend -- Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. He said Mr. Flynt helped with his court costs and asked him to head a group, Americans for a Free Press, that campaigned in newspaper advertisements against restrictions on the freedom of expression. Notable artists such as director Woody Allen and beat writer Allen Ginsberg signed the ad, he said.
His third life began when he moved back to the South and Weaver Legal Service, where he began working in investigation. Now he is dedicated to helping bring Mrs. Parker home, he said.
He said he has met eight American presidents and the Beatles. Mrs. Anderson said she's not surprised that Mr. Weaver has encountered such people.
"It is impressive to me that they have encountered him in a shared quest for justice," she said.
E-mail ChloƩ Morrison at cmorrison@timesfreepress.com