{"id":18166,"date":"2013-02-14T17:22:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T22:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=18166"},"modified":"2013-02-25T11:51:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T16:51:43","slug":"black-history-month-profile-david-forbes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2013\/02\/14\/black-history-month-profile-david-forbes\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month Profile: David Forbes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up just five blocks away from Shaw University<\/a> in downtown Raleigh, David Forbes Sr. said he was humbly aware of his place in the world. He was one of eight children of a local minister, living on South Bloodworth Street in a community that he said always came together to share and share alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was a minister; my mother was a God-fearing and godly woman, and we were trained that we were not mistakes, we\u2019re not here by mistake,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cEverybody comes into this world as a creation of God with an obligation to make the world better than what you were born into.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t his only place. Outside of his neighborhood and throughout the South, \u201cseparate but equal\u201d was proving to be anything but. The segregated schools he attended \u2014 the Crosby-Garfield School, Washington Junior High and Ligon High School \u2014 were excellent, he said. But by the time he arrived on Shaw\u2019s campus as a freshman in 1958, he had seen enough of the world to realize things just weren\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore getting out of elementary school, I knew, \u2018We hold these things to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,\u2019\u201d Forbes said, citing the Declaration of Independence. \u201cOn the one hand, you\u2019re made to memorize this, but what you\u2019re seeing is that it\u2019s just the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

A natural leader, Forbes was elected freshman class president. In 1960, Ella Baker, Shaw alumna and Southern Christian Leadership Conference founding member and field secretary, came back to campus to organize the first meeting of her new group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee<\/a>. At 19, Forbes was elected to represent the students in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Practical Lessons in Civil Disobedience<\/strong>
\nThat year, the Greensboro Four, students at North Carolina A&T, had just been arrested for their sit-in at the Woolworth\u2019s lunch counter in that city\u2019s downtown. Now, Forbes and his associates at Shaw went about planning similar sit-ins all over the state capital. They started with the Woolworth\u2019s formerly at Cameron Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat started wildfire, here in North Carolina,\u201d he said. \u201cWithin a week we at Shaw had started demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students from St. Augustine\u2019s College<\/a>, just down the road in Raleigh, as well as some white students from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill<\/a> joined in. The black students were quite used to going to Woolworth\u2019s and getting books, school supplies and other small items. But, in an interesting legal twist, they became trespassers once they sat down at the segregated lunch counter.<\/p>\n

On the initial sit-in at the Cameron Village Woolworth\u2019s, Forbes became the first protester of the movement to be arrested in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheriff and the police chief got together and decided that one way to discourage this picketing and this activity would be to target the leader of the group,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t arrest all of them, just arrest the leader. And maybe that would spook the rest of them. But we had been trained; we knew better. We were not going to fall for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was treated just like any other criminal: he had his mug shot taken, was booked and fingerprinted, and finally left to wait in a cell.<\/p>\n

But SNCC was well organized, and under Forbes\u2019 leadership at Shaw, the students split into committees. The intelligence committee, the logistics committee, the education committee, the finance committee, and the bond and legal committee made the organization run smoothly, experiencing few hiccups. They anticipated jail time and made arrangements for bond money beforehand.<\/p>\n

And when their efforts weren\u2019t quite making it, select adults in the black community stepped in quietly to offer a helping hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Cofield was the only black bail bondsman in Raleigh at that time and he was married to a professor, Elizabeth Cofield, who eventually became a County Commissioner,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cHe agreed to spring all of us from jail, without cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students were wary about employing too much help from the community, because of what retaliation their allies might face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were empowered by the knowledge that economic retribution could not be meted out on us, because we didn\u2019t have any jobs,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cCollege folks are not vulnerable in that sense. And we were careful to be sure that we did not implicate our parents, because our parents were open to retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite what may have seemed like insurmountable barriers \u2014 arrests, jail time, scenes of violence across the country \u2014 Forbes said that his activists knew from the beginning that their efforts would work.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence would be dealt with with brute force, but no one had ever seen peaceful demonstration, outside of, say, union work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were assured that we were going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any demonstration brought the press, and the newspapers soon became a tacit ally. When the protests were covered in the media, word spread and further frazzled the local, segregationist leadership.<\/p>\n

Meeting King<\/strong>
\nIn April of 1960, Forbes and other representatives had the opportunity to meet with Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible to have such a young man be as dynamic and charismatic and vocal as he was,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cHe was bigger than life, to a 19-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only 10 years older than Forbes, King had already traveled the country speaking and advocating for the rights of oppressed blacks in America. But in personal interaction, Forbes said, he was more like a brother, or a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was approachable, easy to talk to, very gentlemanly and gentle, and yet in a moment of oratory, he was a giant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Once monthly, members of SNCC would travel to Atlanta and meet up with other representatives from all over the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat the feet of Dr. King and Ella Baker, Ralph Abernathy, and Wyatt Walker,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cBig names during that time, and they would not so much as instruct us as hear our stories and bring deeper understanding to what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

They shared tales of protests, jail time and, where it occurred, violence. Forbes said that while Raleigh was as racist a place as any other city in the south, they were fortunate that in Raleigh \u201cthey were politely racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>

<\/p>

David Forbes and other members of the SNCC took this photo with Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1960. Forbes is seated directly behind King. This photograph is a picture of the image displayed in Forbes’ home. The original was published in LIFE magazine, now owned by Time, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere would be guys among the hecklers who would have chains and bats, but we discovered that we could use the football team as shields,\u201d he said. \u201cThese 200, 300-pound fellows \u2013 so those little weaselly hecklers did not dare.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his involvement with nonviolent protests and SNCC deepened, word of friends beaten or murdered reached the Shaw students. The assassination of Medgar Evars<\/a> and murder of Michael Schwerner<\/a> and others cut deep, especially in the relatively safe haven of Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in so much colleagueship with those around the Deep South that the killing of our comrades was the same as us being killed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Slowly, but not imperceptibly, the Civil Rights Movement as a whole began to make change. Forbes was a founder of SNCC in 1960. By 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act followed.<\/p>\n

And, Forbes said: \u201cThe Voting Rights Act, if you jump way ahead, is Barack Obama. When I look at the first African-American President, It makes me ever so proud that those efforts over 50 years ago cashed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Lifetime of Activism<\/strong>
\nAfter graduating in 1962, Forbes became a schoolteacher in Wilson while he waited for his future wife Hazel to finish up at Shaw. Forbes and his young family then moved to Queens, New York. He taught public school and, partially out of a need to bring in a little extra income, he started working on a street team to reach out to inner-city youth. He spent his days not in an office, but walking the streets and hanging out in parks, just being there for kids who needed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intent was to try and to be there as an ear and as a shoulder for kids, towards them making good, solid, sound decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to encourage a kid to keep his nose clean than to let him get in trouble and try to yank him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activism never left his side, so he returned to school to get a master\u2019s of Social Work from Adelphi University on Long Island. Then, he completed his Doctor of Ministry Degree in 2001 from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n

He found his way back to Raleigh in the early 1980s. Much had changed, but much had stayed the same. And, he said, the fight for equality still isn\u2019t over yet, not by a long shot. The need to help kids is as great as it ever was in Queens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many, many young people who are not safe,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are victimized by adults, they are victimized by their colleagues, by their friends, they are victimized by gangs, and they are victimized by guns, by violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He helped found the Lost Generation Task Force in 2005, a group that reached out to young men in danger of succumbing to the school-to-prison pipeline. But the financial crisis and recession effectively defunded the group, making his outreach efforts difficult, if not impossible. The organization is on indefinite hiatus for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my view that we\u2019re losing our youth,\u201d Forbes said of the name of his organization. \u201cThere are more African-American and Latino boys in the prison pipeline than in the college pipeline. And public policy for the last 25, 30 years has favored building prisons to schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is now a member of the Board of Trustees at Shaw, after retiring last year from his post as minister at Christian Faith Baptist Church in Raleigh. It fittingly brings his story full circle. But in his seventh decade, Forbes continues to see the need for social action to change the status quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need for civil rights is as real today as it was in my day,\u201d he said, \u201cThere aren\u2019t always as many dramatic steps forward. But there\u2019s still the need for civil rights until there is complete equality within the land. Not just for African-Americans but for Latinos, for women, for gays, for all citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a college student deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, David Forbes Sr. saw that the world he lived in was not going to change on its own. And after a lifetime of activist work, Forbes can be counted as one of those who did change it, for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24056,"featured_media":18167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[1154,1174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}