Had Curtis Conway Bryant lived another year, he would have seen the realization of something he and countless other civil rights pioneers likely never dreamed they would see — the election of the first black president of the United States.
Bryant died in December 2007, just short of his 91st birthday. On Friday his son, C.C. Bryant Jr., accepted the Pike County Chamber of Commerce’s Oliver Emmerich Award, given posthumously to his father.
During the chamber’s annual banquet held at Southwest Mississippi Community College, Charles Dunagin presented the award and took notice of the significance of its timing.
The award was given the same week Barack Obama took the oath of office as president and the nation honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his 80th birthday. Bryant shared the same birthday — Jan. 15.
This year marks another milestone, the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, an organization Bryant dedicated himself to on local, state and national levels.
Bryant’s nonviolent activism for civil rights reached a zenith in 1964, “the long hot summer,” when activists became a target of those who fought to maintain the segregated South.
Bryant’s barbershop was bombed that year, but the NAACP leader carried on his fight for equal rights of blacks in America.
“I know that was a tough time in Pike County,” said Dunagin, who moved to McComb and was reporting for the Enterprise-Journal during that period.
Dunagin said Bryant, who also worked for Illinois Central Railroad, carried on his civil rights work ably and successfully, despite being a target of terror.
“He put his life on the line. … He was always out front as president of the NAACP, expressing his opinions very vociferously and very effectively.
“What stands out to me and is remarkable is that he was never a hater.”
Dunagin said it would have been easy for Bryant to harbor animosity, but he always exhibited his Christian faith.
In accepting the award for his late father, C.C. Bryant Jr. invoked Obama’s words of national encouragement.
“Indeed, this is a day. We have come a long distance and have distance to go. Yes we can,” Bryant said.
The chamber’s Oliver Emmerich Award is granted to those whose lives have a great impact on Pike County. This year isn’t the first posthumous award. Carl O. Haskins was honored in 1994 after his death.
