Dr. Everett McCorvey is known around the world for his work at the helm of the University of Kentucky Opera program…growing it into one of the best in the country. He’s also the Founder and Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble. We’ve been fortunate enough to share his beautiful tenor voice with our listeners over the years. Today, we are honored to have him share his own story of racism amid protests demanding equality and police brutality against African-Americans like the killing of George Floyd. “My first response was I’m tired and I went through this as a child growing up in Montgomery, Alabama. My parents were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. My father was a Deacon at the church where Ralph Abernathy was the minister.”
Ralph David Abernathy was Martin Luther King’s assistant. McCorvey was about eight years old. “It was a scary time. I was an only child and my parents were very protective about me going out. It wasn’t going out with a hoodie on. It was going out in your black skin. And so it was frightening and so my parents needed to know where I was at every moment. And there was no cell phone. And it was, there were people who would take any excuse to charge you with something or have you put in jail. I remember being in the third grade, no second grade, and we were out at recess and there was a NAACP meeting going on in the church across the street and all of a sudden we’re out there and we start seeing horses coming down the street. Police on horseback and troopers on horseback. And they get to the church and they go up into the church on horseback and beat everybody out of the church. And I saw this as a second grader and so that sort of trauma remained with me my entire life.”
And as he lived part of his youth through segregation, McCorvey said it was his father who helped him understand life as an African American. “I did not understand why black men were being beaten. I did not understand why we could not through the front door of the doctor’s office and had to go through the back door. I did not understand why we couldn’t drink from the same water fountain. I could not understand why we could not go into some stores. But my father, he was a role model to me in the way that he carried himself in his community and the fact that he was a leader in his community. And he took on Martin Luther King’s mantra of non-violent solutions and so that’s how I try to order my life in terms of trying to find…one trying to be a role model to my students and to the community, trying to be a role model to my children.”
And from generation to generation, McCorvey had to pass on those safety lessons to his children and help them through the process of understanding why. He said he still gets nervous every time they go out the door. “We prepare them. We’ve prepared all three of our kids for how to behave if you’re stopped by a police officer or if they’re accosted in public you know or they’re accused or something, I mean we prepare them. And I’ll tell you to have to prepare your kids for something like that is an awful feeling but you know that if you don’t then as they get out there they could be harmed and so my father prepared me and so I thought I had to prepare my kids.”
Dr. McCorvey said over the years he has seen his share of protests but something seems different this time. “The people who have what I would say traditionally be silent are not silent anymore and they are speaking up. And so now the crowds are very diverse. A lot of young people. As they’re saying…enough is enough.” McCorvey believes today’s youth will be the key to long lasting change. “Our future. These are people who are our future. The young people are now saying this is unacceptable. This behavior is unacceptable. This systemic racism is unacceptable. And that’s something I feel like we haven’t had really before.”
And McCorvey echoed the sentiment we’ve heard from church leaders and local activists over the last several weeks. “The time for sitting on the sidelines has passed. I think not only the black community but the white community and everybody involved now recognizes that this can wreck a nation and so we’ve got to find ways to be more equitable on both sides of not only the aisles but in all races. And so I’m very hopeful that as we move forward that we’re going to move forward in a positive way that blacks who are suffering will feel that not only are people in positions of power are listening but people in positions of power are working to find solutions.”
Q: “I feel like we are at the presuppose right now that this could be the greatest moment in history of equality in our country. Do you feel the same way Dr. McCorvey?”
A: “I feel so too. I feel that we are on the presuppose of something that is going to be very powerful and very important and will have repercussions all around the world. I mean look at the number of people protesting not only in the United States but in all parts of the world. And I think it’s because people already look to the United States in terms of the beacon of freedom and equality. When they see that sort of injustice happening in America then it sends shock waves throughout the world and so I think we have a tremendous opportunity to change the world.”
McCorvey went on to say the best we can do that is by working through grass roots organizations like The Urban League, the NAACP and the League of Women Voters just to name a few and by getting young people who are willing to protest to the polls. “Choose the side of love as opposed to the side of hate and so what I’m going to be looking for when I vote in November is I’m going to be looking for people who choose the side of love. Because I think that’s what’s going to help to turn our nation around. We can’t. We can’t deal in hate.”