Marv Davidov - A Drum Major For Justice
The last time I saw Marv was a little over two years ago. We were at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis for the release of a book by Eric Etheridge entitled, Breach of Peace-Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. Using the 1961 arrest pictures of the freedom riders, Etheridge contrasts each with wonderful present day photographic portraits of these American hero's and heroines. This book captures a pivotal moment in time that was a watershed for our country and the world.
Marv's photos and essay in the book provides a sketch of a man who committed his life to social justice and peace. Marv grew up in Detroit in 1931 and moved to St. Paul in 1949. He was drafted into the army in 1953 and served 19 months.
Upon returning from the army he took part in the antiwar and draft resistance movements in Berkeley and Los Angeles. Returning in 1968 to Minneapolis he spend the next 22 years running and organizing the Honeywell Project; a peaceful protest to force the Honeywell company to stop making cluster bombs, land mines and other weapons.
Marv also organized on behalf of a wide range of social movements including the civil rights movement, the American Indian Movement, famer and hotel workers, and civil rights organizations. He dedicated his life to making a difference for people who are on the margins and largely invisible in our society.
When we met at the reception for the book's release he was still very much the Marv that I had known and come to love. Of course much older, he still had the same receding hairline, the same Greek fisherman's cap on his head, the signature mustache, the same gravelly and resonate voice and intense eyes, the only thing missing was the cigarette dangling from his hand as he talked.
>"Hi Gary! I am so glad you came." He said as we gave each other a big, powerful hug of long parted friends. How are you Marv?, I asked. He talked about his health and about the current state of the movement for peace and justice. We reminisced about our serendipitous first connection when I was 13 years old in Berkeley, California on Telegraph Avenue in the early 1970's. Of course, anyone who knew Marv also knows he was a great storyteller of the movement for social change. They would also know that his stories could be sprinkled with well-placed expletives, which can't be repeated here.
The conversation soon turned to our time together in his class on social justice at the, Meridel Le Sueur Center for Social Justice on the West Bank of Minneapolis. I soon recalled that it was Marv who taught me Mahatma Gandhi's principles of nonviolent protest called Satyagraha, soul force/truthful force. It was Marv who pointed me to a quote from Gandhi, "They say, 'means are, after all, means'. I would say, 'means are, after all, everything'. As the means so the end..." This thought remains a guiding principle of my life. It was Marv who introduced me to the writings Norm Chomsky, Henry David Thoreau, John Rawls, Taylor Branch and Gunnar Myrdal and many others.
