The Lincolnian

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News

Jesse Epps, who served as an advisor to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at the Mary Dod Memorial Chapel on Feb. 21, 2008.

Jesse Epps, a Civil Rights leader who served as a close advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at Lincoln University on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008.

The Department of English and Mass Communications and the School of Humanities invited Epps to speak as part of its celebration of Black History Month.

Epps entered Adjunct Professor Eric Watson's literature class located in University Hall dressed in a pinstripe suit, a blue shirt, striped tie and black shoes. He wore prescription glasses that were barely hanging on his nose.

Epps treated the classroom like a church. He used one of the computer chairs in the classroom as a makeshift pulpit. Epps, like a preacher delivering the Sunday sermon, paced side to side as the fluorescent light reflected on his gray hair. With his hands resting on top of the chair, Epps delved into his early days.

Epps was born in what he called a "foreign country" in 1936 during depression and Jim Crow. In fact, Epps was referring to the farming community of Dublin, Mississippi.

"Mississippi though it's part of the United States," Epps said, ". . . the government on paper was obligated and responsible for responding to and carrying out those principles, [principles of the Declaration of Independence] and yet they did not."

Epps added: "[Mississippi] was able to couch it in such a way that they were still able to claim statehood in our country. They were in complete violation of the principles of The Declaration of Independence," he said.

Epps is the second youngest of 15 children. His father was a graduate of Alcorn University and the deacon at Hebrew Baptist Church. Epps' father owned a small farm, and was the first African American registered to vote in Dublin.

At a tender age, Epps' father instilled in all of his children the importance of respect.

"Respect was the fundamental guiding principle," Epps said.

The Epps children were taught to respect all of their elders. This included using terms of respect such as "sir" when addressing an elder, either black or white.

The notion of respect manifested itself later in Epps' life. As it turned out, respect was a key in Jim Crow infested Mississippi. Thus, an African American failing to give respect to a white man resulted in him or her losing his or her life. Epps witnessed an incident where a black man was brutally killed for failing to give adequate respect to a white man.

Continued...

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