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Asbury Park resident and Civil Rights foot soldier Rev Gil Caldwell was born in 1933 at a segregated hospital in Greensboro, N.C.

In an April 3 article published by his alma mater Boston University, Caldwell recalled how his birth would be the first of several segregated experience he would endure.

His neighborhood was segregated, his schools were segregated, and he was denied admission to segregated Duke Divinity School, according to the article.

But because BU’s School of Theology was not segregated, Caldwell found a place among its Class of 1958. As student vice president, he was able to ‘entice’ Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak in 1958, just after King rocketed to fame for leading the desegregation of city buses in Montgomery, Ala.

“Unlike some charismatic persons I have known, [King] left his charisma in the pulpit,” the Ocean Avenue resident said. “He listened as others spoke, with an appreciation for what we were asking or saying. He had a gentle sense of humor. He was not preachy.…You felt he was comfortable in his own skin because he acknowledged his own shortcomings.”

Caldwell enlisted in the civil rights movement and was in attendance during King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

In 1965, he marched with King during the 1965 voting rights protest in Selma and introduced him at a 1965 rally on Boston Common that protested the segregation of Boston’s public schools.

Caldwell said throughout his ministry he found parallels in King’s choice to risk unpopularity in order to challenge bigotry.

“Some of the white clergy…complained about my activism,” he said, citing his choice to leave a post 18 months into his six-year term.

Decades later, in 2000, he was arrested twice for protesting his church’s anti-LGBTQ policies because he supported a priest he admired who ‘came out’ in the 1970s. But, in doing so, he was alienated by some of his civil rights allies.

Caldwell said he was in Chicago at a meeting of African American clergy when he heard the news of King’s death. The Civil Rights leader was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.

“We prayed, and as we prayed, we heard the noise of police cars as they rushed to places where fires were burning,” he said.

The assassination had sparked riots across the country. Amid the grief and chaos, Caldwell held steadfast to what King had done – minister in the cause of nonviolence.

“I flew home to Boston, and the next night, I and other clergy, black and white, sought to restore peace to Blue Hill Avenue and beyond,” he said in the BU article. “Martin Luther King was 39, and I was 34 when he was assassinated 50 years ago. This morning I realize that for 50 years I have been living with a disorder called Post Traumatic Stress. My stress was caused by the killing of our ‘Drum Major for Justice,’ and has surfaced anew since the departure of President Barack Obama from the White House.”

Caldwell remains an active part of the Asbury Park community and beyond, working to ensure justice for all. The octogenarian lives in the North Beach Condominiums with his wife of over 60 years Grace [shown, above right], and is a founding member of the city’s Dialogue Group, formed to address and understand the issues that continue to divide. He participated in the Women’s March Asbury Park event [shown in feature photo], and continues to steward the next generation, evident from his recent appearance on the Steve Harvey show. 

“Injustice today seems to be everywhere,” he said. “And, my hope and prayer is that at last persons are realizing that the assumptions, attitudes and actions that justified the slavery and segregation of black people, are contagious and are alive and well far beyond anti-black racism.”

Just last month, he organized and hosted a tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the popular Danny Clinch Transparent Gallery, located inside The Asbury. The event was held in support of  KYDS – Konscious Youth Development Service, a nonprofit led by Mychal Mills and Rodney Salomon that promotes a holistic lifestyle and choices in youth.

A part of his daily reflection shared with this reporter early Wednesday morning included the following:

“I did not cry 50 years ago when Martin Luther King was assassinated,” he said. “But, this morning as I write and share this, tears have surfaced as I remember him. And, as I live in a nation and world, and belong to a United Methodist Church that seem to major in hate, rather than love, discrimination rather than affirmation. Your posting and  sharing this article in response to our remembering April 4, 1968, is in a small way, “Keeping Hope Alive!”

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