4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2006
Photo courtesy of University Relations
Kevin Willmott, KU assistant professor of theater and film, left, poses with renowned filmmaker Spike Lee after Lee gave a lecture at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2004. Lee agreed to be executive producer for Willmott's film "CSA: The Confederate States of America,"
Willmott
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Willmott's passion for social activism can be linked to his mother's role in the African-American community. He described his mother, Ruth, as a "mother to the streets." Ruth ran a pool hall on Ninth Street and helped raise the children of prostitutes, a line of work some African-American women in Junction City were forced into because of sparse employment opportunities.
Willmott grew up near Junction City High School, which he attended until his Molotov cocktail plan, a protest of the school's decision to expel only the African-American students involved in an interracial fight.
Willmott said he could still remember the grin on the principal's face as he told him how happy he was to finally bust him. Then the vice principal asked Willmott if he played sports. When Willmott answered no, he was arrested and expelled from school.
"Had I played sports, I would have been considered a Negro of some worth." Willmott said.
That summer Willmott got a job mowing the lawn of a cemetery affiliated with the city's Catholic high school, St. Xavier. At a time when Willmott thought all might be lost, Father Frank Coady entered the picture like a hero in a movie scene.
Coady, a newly ordained priest, sympathized with Willmott's situation and got him enrolled at St. Xavier, where he was the only African American in his graduating class. Initially, Willmott rejected Coady's pleas to go to college, but he did share Coady's enthusiasm for film. For most people in his neighborhood, "going to college was like going to the moon," Willmott said.
But it wouldn't be long before he bought into what Coady was selling. After spending two years saving up money, Willmott enrolled in Marymount College of Salina, a decision he would never regret.
Willmott's experience at Marymount was a mixture of incredible joy and sorrow. His freshman year he fell in love with his future wife, Becky, a white farm girl from rural Hanover.
Becky's parents would grow to love their future-in-law, but not before an initial period of disapproval. Becky said her parents "threatened
Although Becky may have stopped talking about her love for Kevin, she never stopped expressing it.
to take away my car and basically let me know they didn't want to hear about it, so I stopped talking about it."
During Willmott's junior year his father died and his mother became severely ill. Becky, who was working long hours as a nurse, drove Willmott 45 miles back to Junction City four times a week to visit his ailing mother. Willmott said during
this difficult time in his life, Becky "was the crutch" he leaned on.
During those trips, Willmott began to work on his play "Ninth Street," which he based on his experiences growing up. He produced the play for his senior project and it was a huge success. After the final production, Willmott held a discussion with audience members. Someone asked Willmott if he wanted to become a Hollywood filmmaker or a New York playwright. Without a moment's hesitation he replied, "I
want to be an activist."
Coady recalls being in the audience that night. He said Willmott's answer did not surprise the few who really knew the talented young writer.
After receiving a bachelor's degree in drama from Marymount, Willmott went back home to Junction City to begin the activism that in his mind was long overdue. His first goal was to integrate the city's fire department, which had never hired a minority fireman in its 144-year existence.
"That shocked everyone, but that's just Kevin. He isn't interested in producing movies or plays to become famous or to make money. His real passion is justice." Coady said.
Willmott was motivated by an experience he had as a teenager working as a janitor at the city's municipal building. A fireman had brought him up to their living quarters, where African Americans were not allowed, but Willmott was granted access, he was told, "because he was one of the good ones," he said.
Teaming up with Coady in the early 1980s, the two men created a campaign that led not only to the integration of the city's fire department in 1984, but a total overhaul of the city's hiring practices for all government jobs.
Willmott's campaign to integrate the city's fire department had earned him a reputation as an activist leader. When desperate minority contractors had a dire need for a leader in their campaign against the powerful Junction City Chamber of Commerce, Willmott was the man they turned to.
Several key members of the Chamber were also contractors. It was a clear conflict of interest for minority contractors who were forced to sit and watch the all-white chamber award themselves one low-income housing project contract after another, he said.
The day after Christmas 1984, Willmott, inspired by the non-violent protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., took a peaceful army of protesters to the city's Chamber of Commerce building for a lie-in demonstration.
Armed with nothing more than chants, songs and protest signs, they took over the small building by simply lying down in front of the door. Angered, chamber members responded by uttering racial slurs and scuffling with protestors. The lie-in proved to be a key victory in the war for fair contracting.
"It drove them nuts. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before. The city didn't know how to respond to us," Willmott said.
Willmott took his passion for activism to filmmaking. After receiving a master's degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he decided to turn his "Ninth Street" play into the film he always dreamed it would become.
Nineteenth Annual
James E. Seaver Lecture ON CONTINUING ISSUES IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Colonialism's Legacies of Links and Desertions in Africa
GARTH A.MYERS
Associate Professor, Geography and African & African-American Studies The University of Kansas
February 21,2006,8:00 p.m.
Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Reception following, Malott Room
Sponsored by the KU Humanities and Western Civilization Prgram