How to become an accidental hero
Because America needs more of them
(Note to readers: This postcard comes from a chapter in my life before Draco Hill but relevant to today’s struggles. It’s the last time I’ll write about these amazing men. I hope it’s only the first I write about you. We’ll return to our regularly scheduled program next week!)
How to become an accidental hero Part I
First, go about your day as if nothing new will happen. Shit, shower, shave, get dressed, grab a bite.
Maybe you’re headed to a tedious job, or you’re off to help with your sister’s kids for the day. You have a lot on your mind. Could be how your clothes are getting tighter but you can’t afford new ones or the crappy boss you’re trying to outlive.
Or maybe you love your job. You’re making money hand over fist. You love your new car. You look forward to every day’s new challenges. You know you worked hard to get here, and you’re feeling blessed because not everyone gets rewarded for that.
That’s where Ken Riley was one fateful day in January of 2000. He was the new president of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1422. He represented more than 600 Black longshoremen in Charleston, South Carolina. The master contract negotiated for the entire East Coast meant Charleston guys lived well. With Ken and his new officers, the local was led for the first time by God-fearing, college-educated sons of longshoremen who’d gone beyond the city limits enough times to appreciate the global threats they faced.
Ken’s president job was mostly putting out local fires, watching the waterfront for trouble, and in his case, navigating construction of a new union hall. The state was putting a highway through the old one.
He still worked on the docks, usually lashing shipping containers in place, his favorite job and the workout he didn’t always have time to get in. That day, like most, he was planning to work at the hall during the day, then catch a shift on a ship until 2 am or so.
His plans disintegrated that night when nearly every single cop in South Carolina amassed at the port. The reasons for 600 police in riot gear with Humvees and snipers would become clear only much later. The proud longshoremen of Charleston responded to this military occupation of their waterfront with passion and anger.
The police response was overwhelming. One longshoreman would get beaten with billy clubs as he lay on the ground surrounded by cops in helmets and shields. Another longshoreman would lay on top of him to protect him and get beaten even worse, screaming for the cops to stop. Another would get shot in the back of the leg with a rubber bullet that would flip him upside down in the air with its force. Ken would end up with a line of stitches in his head trying to broker a peace.
For the next two years, a small band of friends and allies would run what would become a worldwide campaign. They would stop five longshoremen held under house arrest from being convicted of felonies, ending their careers. They would bring an opportunist politician seeking higher office to his knees. Their threat to shut down ports from Long Beach to Barcelona would make the White establishment and the global shipping industry bend toward justice. Their union would step out of the shadows of defense and stand once again in the bright light of strength.
With the union’s blessing, Paul and I wrote the book of this story. It was published in 2008. We recently attended the 25th anniversary of those events and the parallel founding of the International Dockworkers Council, the group that leveled that worldwide threat.
Sitting, eating or standing around with these big, jovial men and women from around the world, I felt home in a way I seldom do.
In the large convention hall, Kenny emceed the gathering of hundreds of workers. On large screens, everyone watched the video of the police riot that night. The entire room cringed, stopped breathing, let tears come to their eyes as they heard the batons hitting muscle and bone and the cries to stop, as they saw snipers behind the ambulance lights, guns go off on retreating men.
Ken and his fellow leaders were heroes, but they were accidental heroes.
That’s what I would tell the crowd in my few minutes on that stage. Because no one wakes up in the morning and says, “I think I’ll go get my head bashed in,” or “I think I’ll go get put under house arrest for 2 years and miss all my kids’ basketball games.”
But sometimes these things happen to people who stand up.
Union people get it. Ken wanted young longshore workers (now men and women) from Australia, South America, Europe and North America to know their history. He wanted men his age to know he remembered who came to their aid and who kept their distance when his men needed them 25 years ago.
In the union movement, on a good day with a good man like Ken Riley, we forgive. But we never, ever forget. In that room, we knew which side each person was on.
Ken and his crew never aspired to become heroes. Yet, when circumstances required it, they rose to the challenge. They stood up.
They paid high personal and professional prices for it. They were lonely and disheartened at times, castigated, maligned, alienated and marginalized by people who should’ve been on their side from the git go.
That is the worst form of betrayal, when our supposed allies weaken us from within while we’re steeling ourselves against forces that mean all of us harm.
But this small gang – Ken, Donna, Bill, Armand, Jack and a handful of others – knew who they were. They knew what they needed to accomplish. They stayed the course. And they prevailed.
How to become an accidental hero Part II
As for the rest of us, our time is coming. We never know when a child will trip in front a bus or a shooter will show up at the local school. We can’t predict a driver crushed behind a wheel or a fellow protestor crouched under the blows of a cop.
We will have a choice.
Will we rise to the challenge cast before us or walk away?
Will we speak out for the people who can’t or stay silent?
Will we let our daily travails get in the way, distract us and dilute our resistance to the evil around us?
Will we use our energy to fight for our friends and our allies, knowing that in the end, we’re fighting for our own survival?
We have one now.
The great thing about accidental heroes is that we can all be one.
On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston 5, from Monthly Review Press. Buy the paperback here.
Recent news coverage of a local accidental hero - Father Guillermo Trevino
Reminders from Draco Hill
Evening Farm Stroll THIS Friday, 6 pm. Sign up and details here. County Naturalist Sarah Subbert will lead a walk through the prairie. You can also sit by the river or walk in the woods. More than 4 miles of trails. Free samples.
Early Bird Special ends July 31st! Pre-order your Asian pears before the price goes up. 5 pears for $10 or 10 for $25. Venmo @suzan-erem