hilltopics
Wednesday, February 16, 2000
culture society entertainment health
10A
EN ZIMMERMAN IS NOT AN IMPOSING PRESENCE.
HE DOESN'T THUNDER, POUND THE TABLE OR CONDESCEND. NOW 81, THE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIAL WELFARE WALKS SLOWLY, WEARS THICK GLASSES AND HAS A FRINGE OF WHITE HAIR. HE SPEAKS IN MEASURED BUT DETERMINED — TONES.
"To know Ben is to underestimate him," said Alice Lieberman, associate professor of social welfare and a friend of Zimmerman's.
A partial list of his activities gives a clearer picture.
Zimmerman has been active in the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and the Democratic Party. He co-founded the Freedom Coalition, a local gay and lesbian rights group. Five years ago, he spearheaded a campaign called Simply Equal that fought for the revision of the Lawrence Human Relations Ordinance to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The issue was politically charged enough to become an issue during the 1995 Lawrence City Commission election. In April of that year, Allen Levine, a candidate favorable to Simply Equal, was elected. He joined the re-elected Nalbandian, professor of public administration and government, and mayor Jo Andersen in voting for the changes. The revisions to the ordinance passed 3-2 on April 25. Zimmerman's 77th birthday.
Lawrence is the only city in Kansas to include such protections.
"It made a lot of people feel safer," Zimmerman said. "It's made Lawrence even more famous throughout the state than it once was. And it hasn't hurt Lawrence one bit."
Chris Hampton, Lawrence editor of the Liberty Press, a statewide monthly magazine aimed at the gay and lesbian community, worked with Zimmerman in the campaign.
"Ben knows how to work his connections like nobody I've ever seen," Hampton said. "I never knew what to expect when he'd call me, but it always made me feel like I was in on something really exciting."
A HUMBLE BEGINNING
Benjamin Hyman Zimmerman was born in 1918 in Syracuse, N.Y., to Russian-
immigrant parents.
The family of six was poor. Zimmerman's father worked as a peddler and small businessman selling jewelry and home furnishings, with the rest of the family pitching in — Ben handled the books with one of his sisters.
"It wasn't a easy life for anyone," he said.
Throughout these early years, Zimmerman's interest and passion for social issues was growing. He said he remembered following closely the case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American youths arrested for the rapes of two white women, when he was 9 or 10 years old. The Scottsboro case was a landmark in the early civil rights movement; the convictions of the nine were overturned by the Supreme Court.
Zimmerman attended class the University of Syracuse, majoring in English with minors in drama and history. He served briefly in the army during 1941 and 1942, but poor eyesight meant he never saw combat or a foreign country.
Zimmerman returned to college in the late '40s, studying anthropology at Columbia University, where he was taught by world-renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead. He also traveled to Brazil to do field work.
Anne Zimmerman, Ben's only child, was born in 1954. Zimmerman and his wife, Margery, divorced when Anne was 5 years old. Margery Zimmerman left for Cuba in 1960 and lived there until 1998.
Ben Zimmerman raised Anne by himself, a situation unusual for the 1960s.
"I was very aware I didn't have the classic nuclear family," said Anne, who owns an architecture firm in Los Angeles.
AN EMERGING ACTIVIST
During the 1960s, Zimmerman worked for the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C., on anti-poverty programs. He also was involved in the emerging civil rights and anti-war movements.
Anne Zimmerman said she remembered walking to demonstrations and protests on Constitution Avenue with her father. She carried a bag with rags soaked in water in case the two were tear gassed.
Zimmerman left government work in 1970 and worked briefly as a consultant. While consulting, he met Arthur Katz, then dean of the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. Katz asked Zimmerman if he had considered teaching.
Zimmerman took a job at the University in 1972 and taught until 1984.
While he was teaching, Zimmerman became the faculty adviser for Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas — now called Queers and Allies. After retirement, he began working as an activist for the homosexual community in Lawrence.
Anne Zimmerman said her father didn't come out to her about his own homosexuality until 11 years ago.
"He visited me, and he was so uptight and so nervous," Anne said.
Zimmerman told her he was gay, and she said she had fieuded it out years before.
"He almost fell over backward," Anne
said. "He was so afraid I was going to reject him."
A LIFELONG COMMITMENT
In addition to his work in Simply Equal, last year Zimmerman coordinated the Kansas part of nationwide effort by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force called "Equality Begins at Home." He oversaw the publication of ads in more than 70 state newspapers advocating tolerance and respect for gavs and lesbians.
"He's had a lifelong commitment to civil rights for everyone," Lieberman said. "He wired in such a way that injustice drives him up a wall."
When Lieberman and others wanted to celebrate his 80th birthday, Zimmerman had one request.
He wanted it to be a fund raise as well. The "Ben-E-Fit" raised funds for Women's Transitional Care Services, the Freedom Coalition and the Lawrence-Topeka chapter of the Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
"It was wonderful." Zimmerman said.
"The greatest party ever."
A RETREAT FROM THE SPOTLIGHT
Throughout the last year, Zimmerman has continued his activism in the Lawrence community but has decided to step back a bit.
He stopped granting interviews to students for assignments or newspaper stories shortly after the initial reporting for this article was completed.
"He said he doesn't want people to think he's the only member of an organization he's involved in," said Tim Brownlee, who works with Zimmerman on the Freedom Coalition. "I don't think it's important for him to get recognition all the time."
Zimmerman wants people to understand the Lawrence gay rights movement is larger than the efforts of one man, Brownlee said. The professor emeritus can do without the public attention.
"I think that he's a little embarrassed about it," Brownlee said.
At the same time, Zimmerman has wrapped up participation in a film called "Shades of Gray," profiling the lives of four gay and lesbian Kansans. Tim DePaepe, the KU graduate who directed the documentary, said Zimmerman's work in the Simply Equal campaign inspired him to begin filming.
"Ben is one of those people who imbues life for me," DePapee said. "He doesn't stop working. He doesn't know the real meaning of the word retirement."
"He's had a lifelong commitment to civil rights for everyone," said Alice Lieberman, associate professor of social welfare. "He's wired in such a way that injustice drives him up a wall."