Class brings '60s civil-rights fight to life

The Daily Inter Lake

FVCC instructor David Scott helped organize 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

Flathead Valley Community College instructor David Scott remembers when running out of gas in the South was a life-threatening error.

It was 1965 when Scott was a temporary member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s staff. He was helping to organize the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march that spring.

The instructor draws on this experience for his Religion and Philosophy of Nonviolence class that begins Tuesday at the college.

Unlike naive Northerners, Scott, a native of Alabama, knew he was in grave danger helping black people protest their treatment.

"It was all scary," he recalled.

In spite of his fears, Scott headed down South on reassignment from his job in Chicago where he worked to improve housing, job training and health care for the black community.

He said that he was determined to go whether reassigned or not.

"Part of my drive was guilt," Scott said. "I felt if I did not demonstrate my feelings toward nonviolence and civil rights, I would always regret it."

Hundreds of people flooded into the small town of Selma for the civil-rights protest. Scott and nine other King staff members were assigned to help protesters stay out of trouble.

Northerners were naive about the hostility and violence they might confront, Scott said. To prevent trouble, he and other staff members spent 30 minutes explaining how the visitors could protect themselves.

As an example, Scott said he warned them to fill their gas tanks before taking the drive from Selma to Montgomery. Gas stations served as popular gathering spots for people opposed to civil rights for blacks.

Scott thinks the staff's efforts helped limit the loss of life. The march is remembered for its graphic display of law-enforcement officers attacking marchers with clubs and tear gas.

Later known as Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, spurred Congress to pass and President Lyndon Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law guaranteed all U.S. citizens the right to vote.

The civil-rights march was a watershed event for Scott personally as well.

"I think my experience in Selma was instrumental in the shift of my embracing nonviolence as a tactic to embracing nonviolence as a philosophy," he said.

He called it a turning point in his understanding of social change as well as his re-entry into the culture of the South. But other Southerners came away with a different perspective.

For years afterward, Scott paid the price for his unpopular stand. He endured rejection from his family and a death threat from one of his high-school classmates.

For the next 10 years, he feared venturing out of his parents' house when he came to visit. Scott said it was partly for fear of reprisals and partly not to cause additional grief for his family.

It wasn't until Scott's 40th high-school reunion that he finally experienced no overt hostility.

After the march, the instructor lived a nomadic existence, working in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Samoa.

He continued his immersion in the philosophy of nonviolence during four years in India, working on rural village developments while teaching. Scott said he gained a strong understanding of Gandhi as a result.

In his class, Scott combines practices and religious beliefs of nonviolence of Gandhi and King.

Along with these life experiences, Scott's education includes a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and a master's in philosophy and religion from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

After moving to Missoula in 1990, Scott completed a doctorate in education from the University of Montana. He began teaching at Flathead Valley Community College in 1995.

Prospective students can visit the college Web site at www.fvcc.edu or call 756-3852 for registration information.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.