“Alice’s Ordinary People” Film and Discussion

Craig Dudnick, Filmmaker, will lead a discussion after showing of the documentary “Alice’s Ordinary People” on  Saturday, February 15th at 1 p.m. at the Washington Twp. Public Library, 37 E. Springtown Rd, Long Valley, NJ 07853. Call the Library at 908-876-3596 or go to www.wtpl.org to register for this program.

Alice Tregay, a Chicago area woman, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1966 and refused to stand still in the face of injustice. Alice’s is a story of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement, Operation Breadbasket and Operation PUSH. Alice, refusing to stand still in the face of injustice, worked tirelessly for decades across the U.S. to register African Americans to vote. History “has validated her work, her commitment, and her faith in the future”, says Robert Creamer, author. Her lifelong commitment to social change is a model for future generations.

Alice’s life story reads like a history of the movement. Early on she fought the “Willis Wagons,” second class structures-- built to relieve overcrowding in those Chicago schools which served the African American community--whose very existence perpetuated segregation.

In 1966, when Dr. King came to Chicago she and her husband James Tregay, marched along side him, often at great personal risk. It was at this time that Dr. King joined the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and the Reverend James Bevel to form Operation Breadbasket. Breadbasket fought racism on many fronts, but its main task was jobs for African Americans, particularly from those businesses drawing profits from the African American community.

Under the leadership of Reverend Jackson, the months that Alice and her group of ordinary people spent picketing led to real change. But it was through her Political Education class, as a part of Operation Breadbasket that Alice’s had her most significant impact. Over a four year period, thousands were trained to work in independent political campaigns. This new force eventually evolved into a movement strong enough to re-elect Ralph Metcalf to congress (this time as an independent democrat), to elect Harold Washington, mayor, and to make Barack Obama, the first African American President.