The Courage of Her Convictions: Hester Hocking Campbell, Class of 1924 By Betsy Ginsberg
“We have a responsibility, as individuals and as a community, to honor difference, challenge prejudice, and strive for racial and social justice.” This is one of six belief statements that give context to the Shady Hill mission—a statement that is as essential to the School’s DNA as it is a call to action. Shady Hill’s commitment to social justice can be traced back to the School’s early days, when Hester Hocking, daughter of Shady Hill founder Agnes Hocking, was an eager five-year-old. The world view and values that later inspired Hester’s activism were fostered on the Hocking back porch, where Shady Hill School began. Fast forward to August 1963 when 53-year-old Hester (graduate of Shady Hill’s Class of 1924, and now going by her married name, Hester Campbell) was the wife of a dean at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, and an “empty nester.” She traveled alone to the nation’s capital to take part in “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” demanding civil and economic rights for Black people. As Hester later wrote in her 1974 book, Four for Freedom,
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[We] went without much encouragement…but we had reached such a degree of concern over the racial injustices of our country, that we felt compelled to do something about it, if only to be just two more white faces among the throng. The march made a deep impression on us by its dignity… and its crusade-like quality – but mostly by the ringing words of Martin Luther King in his speech, “I Have A Dream.”
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Ten months later, Hester’s acquaintance, Mary Peabody—another “proper Bostonian” bishop’s wife—reached out with a proposition. Sharing Hester’s passion for justice, Mary invited Hester to travel to St. Augustine, Florida, to take part in demonstrations led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (the “SCLC”).
Hester Hocking circa 1911, with her big brother Richard. The two were among Shady Hill’s original students, since it was their parents who founded the school.
The SCLC knew that the city of St. Augustine was preparing to celebrate its 400th birthday and, in the words of a 2014 National Public Radio article, “decided to hijack the tourist message with a civil rights message.” 12
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