‘He taught us how to love and forgive’: Martin Luther King Jr.’s former driver to speak Monday at Missouri Southern

Globe Life

Related Photos

Discussion

January 16, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Jan 16, 2009, 05:13 PM CST

By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

At the time, Clarence Bozeman was a college student trying to make a little money by driving a black minister around Alabama when he wasn’t studying to become a history teacher.

Now, Bozeman, 72, said he realizes that those hours in the van with civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. make him a part of history.

Bozeman served as King’s driver to various speaking engagements for two years in the early 1960s, while King was pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

“I didn’t know what I had,” Bozeman said in a telephone interview with the Globe. “Some of the things we talked about didn’t have an impact on me until years later.”

Bozeman, currently a Cleveland, Ohio, resident, said he and King discussed many things on those long drives, including religion, ethics and, most of all, the civil-rights movement. King also liked history, Bozeman said, even while he was making it.

“Many times, after taking other people home from church, I would go back to the church to pick (King) up,” he said. “I would have to sit and wait for him because there were so many people that came to talk with him, people from Europe and India. They would be lined up.”

Bozeman will share some of those conversations as well as the lessons America can take from King’s life during a Martin Luther King Day address Monday at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

“(King) taught us how to love and forgive,” Bozeman said. “It’s a lesson we absolutely still need today.”

He said he lost touch with King after the minister moved to Atlanta in the 1960s to lead another church, but said he had dinner with King when he came back to visit Montgomery.

When King was killed in 1968, Bozeman said he was devastated. He finished his bachelor’s degree in American history and social studies at Alabama State University and his master’s degree in educational administration from Fordham University. He also has a specialist degree from Cleveland State University.

Bozeman spent 32 years as an educator, most of it at Shaw High School in Cleveland, and said he still tries to convey the message that King instilled in him as a young man.

“Most of the time, in my classroom, my kids would remember (King) as a historical figure, y’know, back in ancient times,” he said. “But I wanted to make people understand that he was a man, to make them realize that he is not some ancient statue standing some place.”

Bozeman had some contact with King’s family since his death, including a visit with King’s widow, the late Coretta Scott King, while he was in graduate school in New York.

Bozeman has retired from public education, and currently works as a consultant with Edwards Educational Systems, speaking to urban schools and offering insight into curriculum restructuring and changes in classroom management.

He also does some speaking around the country on his relationship with King and issues in education. He was actually in Joplin a year ago to speak to a college class on “What Makes A Great Teacher.” Bozeman said his address Monday will focus on a comparison of Barack Obama’s journey to president of the U.S. with King’s struggle for civil-rights equality.

Want to go?

Clarence Bozeman will speak at noon Monday in Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall on the Missouri Southern State University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call 625-9506.

Text Only

Globe Life

Students add vision to collaborative exhibit
In a “secret room” upstairs at Spiva Center for the Arts, an art project began last week that won’t be finished for 18 more days. That’s because it is being created by more than 1,100 artists.

February 6, 2012 1 Photo
Cari Rerat: Pair of graphic novels tell tales of heroism
Witty banter, blood-soaked violence, and old-school sound effects make this one of the most fun graphic novels I’ve read in a long time.

February 6, 2012
Frankie Meyer: Celebrity genealogy hunt makes return to TV
At last, my favorite series is returning for its third season. “Who Do You Think You Are?” is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Fridays.

February 6, 2012
Frankie Meyer: Church minutes can provide details about ancestors
As you compile your family history, you will often learn the name of the church that an ancestor attended. Novice researchers sometimes ignore that type of detail, not realizing that church records can provide details that blast through the brick walls of research.

January 31, 2012
Phyllis Seesengood: Prequel takes Jack Reacher book series back in time
“The Affair,” by Lee Child, is the 16th book in the series of Jack Reacher thrillers and is a prequel to the other books. It takes us back in time to March 1997, where we learn valuable information about Reacher’s background and his reasons for leaving the military.

January 31, 2012
B-easy does it
Chris Watson, a Pittsburg State University graduate and Kansas native, was visiting a local video store when he stumbled across three horror movies he’d either produced, directed, directly written or co-written over the last eight years.

January 31, 2012 3 Photos
Book highlights opposites in animal kingdom
Even in science opposite attract. It’s the opposite ends of a magnet that attract. Don’t try to connect the south poles on two magnets, because it’s not going to work. Opposites attract.

January 23, 2012
Cemetery research can yield details about family
Through cemetery research, family history researchers can learn details such as names of spouses and children, military service, hobbies and religious preference, as well as the date and location of birth, marriages and death.

January 23, 2012
Art class helps kids deal with feelings from tornado
And while this innovative program received national attention -- thanks to the Joplin-based episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Jan. 13 -- Bourne’s mobile arts center, dedicated to the growth and healing of children through art, had been up and running long before the EF-5 tornado suddenly spiraled out of the clouds.

January 23, 2012 1 Photo
Danya Walker: Non-fiction work examines history’s infamous mistresses
Many times, the cover and title of a book promises a much more risque read than is actually delivered. “Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman” by Elizabeth Abbott is one such book.

January 16, 2012
More Globe Life Headlines

Water company cites reconnections

Globe Life

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

‘He taught us how to love and forgive’: Martin Luther King Jr.’s former driver to speak Monday at Missouri Southern

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Site Map

Contact Us