Matt Jones' `Remembering Brother Kirk' Obituary Article From 1986 Revisited

U.S. protest folk singer-songwriter and Movement activist F.D. Kirkpatrick in 1960's

Following U.S. protest folk singer-songwriter and Civil Rights Movement activist Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick's death on August 16, 1986, the also now-deceased 1960's Freedom Singers group member and late 20th and early 21st-century U.S. protest folk singer-songwriter and Movement activist, Matt Jones, wrote the following obituary, titled "Remembering Brother Kirk,"  (which first appeared in issue #176 of the now-defunct Broadside topical folk song magazine). 
"Reverend Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick or `Brother Kirk,' as he was affectionately called, was a major contributor to folk music in the 60s and an outspoken advocate of freedom and justice in America and abroad. Kirk was born in Haynesville, Louisiana on August 12, 1933, the first son of Rev. and Mrs. John L. Kirkpatrick. Before he became a minister, Kirk's father was a tenant farmer for a wicked landowner named Crump. After Kirk's mother died during childbirth, the landowner immediately confiscated the property and ordered them off the farm. `He took everything. We had no place to go,' Kirk said. The pain and anguish in his face made his account so vivid that it seemed as if it had just happened. `I was just a lad of a boy at the time,' Kirk told me. However, that incident was a major contributing force in the development of Kirk's fighting spirit, which we knew so well.

"In 1955, Kirk became an All-American fullback at Grambling College and later played professional football for the Kansas City Chiefs. As a pro-football player, Kirk found that all the positions of power and leadership were held by the whites. `It was our tenant farm all over again,' said Kirk. The burning desire to free himself and his people from injustice was constantly in his mind.

"Kirk was ordained by the Church of Christ in God in Jonesboro, Louisiana in 1964. He formed the Deacons for Defense, which defended the lives and homes of Jonesboro citizens on many occasions. This experience led him to join Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1967, at Dr. King's request, Kirk came to New York to organize the Poor People's March on Washington, which aimed to unite poor whites, blacks, Indians [Native Americans], Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans.

"I first met Kirk in 1968 at the home of Gordon Friesen and Sis Cunningham, where both Kirk and I were living. Gordon and Sis are the founders and creators of this very magazine, BROADSIDE. Hearing Kirk sing freedom songs reminded me of my experiences as the director of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singers. I was overjoyed to know that the work was being continued. When Kirk and I met we became brothers immediately. We sang together and had the opportunity of watching Sis and Gordon, the most important collectors of topical songs in the 1960s and 70s do their work.

"Brother Kirk spread the philosophy of Dr. King throughout the East Coast and, as an outgrowth of his work, the `Hey Brother Coffeehouse' was formed at St. Gregory's Church in Manhattan. Here, hundreds of folksingers sharpened their talents and developed their political consciousness under Kirk's direction.

"He was also a leading force in the fight for justice for the Palestinian people and for the oppressed in Northern Ireland. In recent years, he dedicated his life to working with the homeless in New York City and in Philadelphia. He was also editor-in-chief of the Many Races Cultural Foundation's newsletter, The Freedom Press.

"Brother Kirk died on Saturday morning, August 16, 1986, in New York City, after a brief illness. He had turned 53-years old on August 12. Kirk had five daughters: Camilla, Alfreda, Brunella, Freddy (deceased) of Grambling, Louisiana and Sojourner Christy Damio-Kirkpatrick of New York City.

"On Monday, August 25, 1986, people gathered at St. Gregory's Church from around the country to pay tribute to Brother Kirk: Palestinians, Jews, Irish, Blacks, American Indians, Hispanics, the homeless and the elderly. They were all there. From Pete Seeger to Mother Clark. They were all there. Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and Bernadette Devlin McAlisky could not come, but sent telegrams. Kirk was my right arm. I loved him. We dreamed the same dreams and fought the same fight. I felt obligated to give this tribute to Kirk. It was a great celebration and tribute to his life and work.

"Brother Kirk is dead, but his spirit lives on in each of us. He never compromised his principles, regardless of the consequences. He fought for freedom and justice at every turn. `We are all significant on God's keyboard,' was his statement to the world. He believed in humankind and never allowed anyone to denigrate any one branch. He worked for the rights of the least powerful of his comrades: the Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland and in the U.K.; the Palestinians, who have been persecuted and are now scattered all over the world; the homeless and hungry Americans who live in the alleys and gutters of our country; the freedom fighters of Soweto who now rise from the ashes of apartheid; the Native Americans who are a constant reminder of our government's most heinous crime--the extermination of a race of people for the gain of land." 

Freedm Singer-U.S. protest folk singer-songwriter-Movement organizer Matt Jones