Person:Huber Klemme (1)

Email sent from Uncle Fred (Trost) on Jun 23, 2005:

DEAR JON AND KATHERINE, ERIKA AND DAVID, CHRISTIAN AND GRETCHEN,

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF VIRGINIA ANN, AND THINKING OF EACH OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN, I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO PLACE THE NOTE BELOW SOMEWHERE IN YOUR RECORDS, SINCE IT INVOLVES A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY, JON'S GRANDFATHER, DR. HUBER KLEMME, WITH WHOM YOU ARE ALL RELATED (ALONG WITH YOUR CHILDREN) ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

GABRIEL FACKRE IS A FRIEND OF MINE, NOW RETIRED FROM THE FACULTY OF ANDOVER NEWTON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL NEAR BOSTON WHERE HE TAUGHT THEOLOGY. THE "CONFESSORS" TO WHOM HE WRITES IS A GROUP OF US WHO DISCUSS VARIOUS CHURCH-RELATED ISSUES VIA E-MAIL. GABE WAS AMONG THE ORIGINAL "FREEDOM RIDERS" IN THE SOUTH IN THE EARLY 1960s AND THUS KNOWS THIS STORY VERY WELL, INCLUDING YOUR GRANDFATHER, JON.

THERE ARE SEVERAL NAMES IN THE E-MAIL GABE SENT THAT YOU MAY NOT RECOGNIZE. ANDY YOUNG, OF COURSE, IS THE FORMER MAYOR OF ATLANTA AND FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. HE WAS AMONG DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.s' CLOSEST ASSOCIATES. THE REV. ROBERT SPIKE GRADUATED FROM COLGATE ROCHESTER DIVINITY SCHOOL AND WENT TO WORK FOR THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES. EARLY IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT HE WAS A MAIN FIGURE IN ORGANIZING THE FAMOUS "MARCH ON WASHINGTON." HE WAS LATER MURDERED IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. YOUR GRANDFATHER, JON, KNEW ALL OF THESE PEOPLE QUITE WELL AND THEY WORKED CLOSELY TOGETHER TO BRING ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS FOR BLACKS IN OUR COUNTRY.

I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN READING PROF. FACKRE'S MESSAGE SINCE IT SPEAKS ABOUT DR. KLEMME.

LOVE, UNCLE FRED

From: "gabrielfackre2" <gfackre@@comcast.net> To: <confessingchrist@@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:11 PM Subject: Re: Mississippi 1964 murders

> Confessors, > > The conviction today of Edgar Ray Killen, albeit only for > manslaughter not for the murders he helped to plan, is an important > day for UCC history as well as for the nation. Bob Spike, Andy Young, > Huber Klemme, the UCC Council for Christian Social Action and other > UCC entities brought a number of the Church's pastors and seminary > teachers into that state in the spring of 1964 as well in the summer > 1964 student project in the voter registration drive of which Chaney, > Goodman and Schwerner were a part. Chaney worked out of the Freedom > House in Canton, Mississippi where UCC clergy were centered (with > bullet holes in the pavement outside so marking it). What stories > there are to tell of those days. And now 40 years later justice has > caught up with one of the perpetrators, though others have yet to be > held fully accountable. However, they will face their Maker in the > Great Assize, as we all shall. > > --Gabe

From an email from Fred Trost, dated 10/02/05:

DEAR JON AND KATHERINE,

I KNOW YOU WILL BE VERY, VERY INTERESTED IN THE E-MAIL MESSAGE BELOW BECAUSE IT IS ABOUT YOUR GRANDFATHER, JON, AND THE CHILDREN'S GREAT GRANDFATHER.

THE E-MAIL WAS SENT TO ME TODAY BY PROF. GABRIEL FACKRE, WHO IS THE ABBOT PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY EMERITUS AT ANDOVER NEWTON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL NEAR BOSTON. HE IS A VERY CLOSE FRIEND OF MINE. FORMERLY, HE TAUGHT THEOLOGY AT LANCASTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN LANCASTER, PA. I ASKED HIM AWHILE BACK TO SEND ME SOME REFLECTIONS ON YOUR GRANDFATHER, JON, THINKING YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ THEM AND ADD THEM TO YOUR FAMILY "HISTORY."

THE REFERENCE GABE MAKES TO "DOT" IS TO HIS WIFE, DOROTHY. THE REFERENCE TO "BOB SPIKE" IS TO THE REV. ROBERT W. SPIKE, AN AMERICAN BAPTIST, WHO BECAME A MEMBER OF THE UCC AND WORKED FOR THE UNITED CHURCH BOARD FOR HOMELAND MINISTRIES (UCBHM) IN NEW YORK. IN 1963, BOB SPIKE BECAME DIRECTOR OF THE COMMISSION ON RELIGION AND RACE FOR THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES OF CHRIST (USA). HE WAS THE PRIME MOVER AMONG THE NORTHERN PROTESTANT CHURCHES FOR THE FAMOUS "MARCH ON WASHINGTON" IN 1963 WHERE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MADE ONE OF HIS FAMOUS SPEECHES. MORE THAN 40,000 WHITE PROTESTANTS PARTICIPATED IN THE MARCH WHICH SPIKE HELPED ORGANIZE. (AN ESSAY OF BOB SPIKE IS INCLUDED IN A BOOK I RECENTLY CO-EDITED, "THE LIVING THEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST"). YOUR GRANDFATHER WORKED HARD WITH SPIKE TO BE SURE THE UCC TOOK PART IN THE "MARCH."

AS YOU CAN TELL FROM GABE'S REFLECTIONS ON HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH HUBER, YOUR GRANDFATHER WAS A KEY FIGURE IN UCC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, AND PARTICULARLY IN THE VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES OF THE EARLY 1960s. I WONDER IF YOU HAVE THE "MEMORABILIA BOOK" GABE MENTIONS IN CONNECTION WITH HUBER'S 80th BIRTHDAY?

SO, YOU BOTH AND YOUR CHILDREN HAVE AVERY PROUD AND NOBLE HERITAGE IN SOME OF THE EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE HISTORY OF THE 20th CENTURY IN THE U.S., PARTICULARLY IN TERMS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE. YEARS FROM NOW, WHEN YOUR CHILDREN ARE OLDER, THEY WILL DISCOVER THIS PART OF THE "FAMILY TREE" VERY SIGNIFICANT. THE ISSUES OF THE JOURNAL "SOCIAL ACTION" WHICH YOUR GRANDFATHER EDITED, ARE NOW IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST AT 700 PROSPECT AVENUE IN CLEVELAND, IF YOU SHOULD EVER WISH TO TAKE A LOOK. THE ARCHIVIST CURRENTLY IS BRIGITTE KELLY (kellyb@@ucc.org). I BELIEVE COPIES OF "SOCIAL ACTION" ARE LOCATED PERHAPS ALSO IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE EVANGELICAL AND REFORMED CHURCH IN LANCASTER, PA. I WONDER IF YOU KNOW WHERE HUBER'S CORRESPONDENCE (TO WHICH GABE REFERS) IS LOCATED OR IF HE EVEN SAVED HIS LETTERS? SOME OF THEM MAY BE IN THE UCC OR IN THE E AND R ARCHIVES. BRIGITTE WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL YOU FOR SURE.

IN ANY EVENT, I HOPE YOU ENJOY READING WHAT GABE FACKRE HAS TO SAY (BELOW) AND SOMEDAY SHARING GABE'S REFLECTIONS WITH YOUR CHILDREN.

LOVE,

UNCLE FRED

From: Gabriel Fackre To: Frederick Trost Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 8:00 AM Subject: Re: Huber

Fred,

Here below is my response to your inquiry about Huber. Sorry it was so long coming.

                                       --Gabe

...........................................................................

My recollections of Huber Klemme begin in the late 1950s when he was ?Mr. Social Action? for many of us in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and continue through many contacts in the 60s, and from there to regular correspondence between the two of us right up until his death.

As I remember, we struck up an acquaintance because Dot and I were serving in an industrial mission that he perceived to be an important part of the E&R social witness, especially as the E&R Church was approaching union with the Congregational-Christian Churches that put heavy stress on such and then were looking to see if there were counter-parts in their prospective marriage partner. I think he may have put Bob Spike on to our venture as Spike came to visit us in Homestead and Duquesne and later wrote about that parish.

I?m pretty sure it was Huber who put my name forward for the Council for Christian Social Action in 1962 as an E&R representative even though I had then gone from the parish to the seminary. But we then proceeded to work together in that context. I remember Huber?s overture to me to recruit seminary faculty and students in the early years of the civil rights struggle. One response was some of us as faculty and students going on the Lancaster bus to the 1963 March on Washington and to several other DC events supporting the civil rights legislation. The most memorable of those Huber-invited/induced actions was the trip to Canton, Mississippi in the Spring of 1964 with a Lancaster student and several Pennsylvania pastors to be part of the voter registration drive before the student summer drive with the same purpose. He recruited faculty and students from other seminaries as well for that Spring venture . Bob Spike was also involved in this. I remember it because it was quite dangerous, the Klan monitoring us, shooting near Freedom House, our Canton headquarters, assaulting an Eden student, etc. James Chaney. who was later killed, was connected to the Canton Freedom House. Unforgettable and formative days.

As a result of these various involvements, Huber asked me to write a book sponsored by the Council for Christian Social Action, directed to pastors urging them to relate their congregations to social action, and to themselves get involved in social action. I did, and The Pastor and the World was published in 1964. Then a few years later, in his capacity as editor of Social Action, he asked one to do a whole issue on the present and future of the movement, theologically considered which came out as 3 essays on a 1969 issue. During this period he had me serving on the publications committee of the Council as well as the Council itself.

The friendship we developed continued , mostly be correspondence in the ensuing years. He never failed to write a personal note in his family Christmas greetings, usually commenting on some aspect of the Theology and Culture Newsletter that Dot and I send out each year, or on a book I had just written. He was also interested in, and supportive of the Confessing Christ movement, writing to me about it from time to time.

When Huber was 80, I wrote this tribute to him for a memorabilia book. I feel it as strongly as ever:

?Dear Huber,

In my mind?s eye there you are?back in the 50s calling the E&Rs to the barricades of social action, in the 60s editing Social Action, recruiting UCCers to the same (you got me down to Mississippi in the Spring of ?64 to get shot at by the Klan!), and more and more. And you are still at it, putting together Word and deed better than most.

God bless you, old friend. Dot and I enjoy hearing from you every year, especially your comments on our Newsletter. (We have a Klemme file, as a matter of fact.) And we wish you the very best on this memorable 80th birthday.

                                     Shalom,

                                           Gabe with Dot?