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The Courage of Her Convictions: Hester Hocking Campbell, Class of 1924
The Courage of Her Convictions:
Hester Hocking Campbell, Class of 1924
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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,
[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.” ”
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 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. “SCLC”). 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.”
Hester Hocking Campbell in the middle, flanked by St. Augustine residents (on left) and the two other “proper Bostonian bishops’ wives,” Mary Peabody and Esther Burgess.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference put out a call for white students in the North to skip the beach on their spring break and come to Florida to protest segregation. Inviting young white people to push for civil rights would bring attention to places where the national media had ignored dramatic racial injustices. To further increase the pressure, King’s deputy, Hosea Williams, visited Boston to see if any elderly Bostonians would volunteer. Williams believed the image of grandmothers being ushered off to jail would be a sure bet in gaining national publicity for places that had been in the shadows. ”
The strategy succeeded, in no small part because Mary Peabody was the mother of the Massachusetts governor, Endicott Peabody. Print and television news from all around the country covered the incident when Mary and Hester, among others, were arrested for sitting down at an integrated party in a “Whites Only” dining room.
TELEGRAM FROM DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. TO SHADY HILL GRADUATE HESTER HOCKING CAMPBELL ’24 AND OTHERS
“MAY I TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK YOU FOR…YOUR WILLINGNESS TO ENGAGE IN A CREATIVE NON-VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION AND TO GO TO JAIL FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE. YOU ARE BRINGING THE WHOLE NATION CLOSER TO THE REALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM. YOU ARE SAYING BY YOUR WORDS AND DEEDS THAT ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS AND THAT AS LONG AS RACIAL SEGREGATION IS ALIVE THE HEALTH OF OUR DEMOCRACY IS IN JEOPARDY.”
L to R: Mary Peabody, Dr. Robert Hayling (the St. Augustine resident who led the protests), Hester Hocking Campbell, and another protester, just before their arrest.
During their two-night stay in jail, Dr. King sent a telegram to express his appreciation. (See previous page). On Day Three, Hester and the others were bailed out and returned home.
A week later, Hester was asked to address her church, reflecting on the experience. The talk, in its entirety, can be read at www.shs. org/hestercampbell. Hester later published a more detailed account of the experience in Four for Freedom. The book is now out of print but Hester’s granddaughters Cynthia Seay and Pam Appleby made a copy available for this article.
Cynthia and Pam recall their grandmother as “a very traditional family matriarch,” who avoided the limelight. Yet in her book’s conclusion, Hester set modesty aside to underscore the importance of her actions:
The racial situation was brought before the whole nation on television at a critical moment. And so forcefully it was impossible for anyone to be unaware of the seriousness of the problem. We...felt that our participation in the St. Augustine demonstration at the time when the Civil Rights Bill was being debated before Congress helped in some small measure to pass the bill. ”
The values that framed Hester’s childhood were those of her family and of her school—one and the same—rooted in Agnes and Ernest Hocking’s teachings. By adding language about racial and social justice to Shady Hill’s mission statement, explicit emphasis is given to an elemental part of Shady Hill’s belief system.
In a future Magazine, we will share further examples of the Hocking family’s passion and actions around social justice.
