Remembering James Orange: He Spent His Life Standing Up for Others

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/20/remembering-james-orange-he-spent-his-life-standing-up-for-others/

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff remembers his friend and colleague, the Rev. James Orange, who died Feb. 16. Before joining the national AFL-CIO staff, Acuff headed the Atlanta AFL-CIO and worked closely with Orange for a decade on major efforts to bring justice and dignity to workers across the South.



Last Saturday evening, Feb. 16, America lost one of our greatest warriors for social justice, and I lost one of my best friends. The Rev. James Orange died at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta after being hospitalized for gall bladder-related issues.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Orange was a key field organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. More than that, he was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King’s inner circle. He joined Dr. King during the Birmingham movement where he organized the demonstrations of school children who were fire-hosed and attacked by police dogs. Those images broadcast across the nation helped turn public opinion to support the civil rights movement.

Rev. Orange also played key roles in civil rights actions in Selma, Memphis and Chicago—and in Dr. King’s last campaign, the Poor People’s Movement. In both Memphis and Chicago, Rev. Orange was assigned to deal with the street gangs attracted to the movement but not committed to King’s nonviolent civil disobedience. He never stopped teaching activists and organizers the principles and basic tactics and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience.

In 1977, Rev. Orange became a union organizer. He personified the link between the civil rights movement and the union movement. He understood at his core what Dr. King taught—that civil rights without economic rights or justice was insufficient.

Rev. Orange and I began working together in 1985 when I went to Atlanta as an organizer for SEIU to start the Georgia State Employees Union (GSEU/SEIU Local 1985). He knew activists and political leaders all over Georgia, and he opened doors for me and our staff wherever we went. He marched with us in Milledgeville and Savannah and helped with a 72-hour, round-the-clock vigil and picket line in Augusta. When budget cuts threatened staffing levels at state hospitals and prisons, Rev. Orange helped us take over state department heads’ offices and went to jail with us.

FULL story at link.