Uncovering the Identity of Florence Bethell

By Leslie Chang, Trustee, Scarsdale Historical Society

How much do you know about your great-grandmother? What if you found out she was a courageous suffragist, as evidenced by countless newspaper articles and priceless notes she left behind in Scarsdale, N.Y.? This is what happened to several families across the country when they heard from me.

Our project on the suffragists began because filmmaker Lesley Topping wanted to make a film about the Scarsdale women who fought for women’s suffrage rights. She knew there were many records of their activities in the Scarsdale Inquirer archives. There were countless mentions of meetings, rallies, and suffrage dances in the 1910s. What she didn’t expect was the lack of photographs and personal stories about the women in the Village archives. In some cases, because of the tradition of using husbands’ names, she didn’t even know the women’s first names. The women were virtually “faceless” in the Village record. 

Lesley and I agreed that her documentary project would require some creative research strategies. I offered to help with research and started digging. I felt determined to find the faces (and stories) behind the names. I tracked down long-lost ancestors all over the country - from Mississippi, to California, to Martha’s Vineyard. Before I knew it, suffragist relatives were picking their brains and cracking open their dusty photo albums - just so we could preserve the memories of their matriarchs.

This week I’m kicking off a four-part blog series sharing the stories behind my investigations of the suffragists.  I assure you, when I’m done, you’ll remember the names of Florence, Josephine, Bella and Edna. 

Finding Florence   

In the summer of 2024, Lesley mentioned that Florence Bethell (1873-1956) would be the “star” suffragist in her film, yet she hadn’t found enough decent images of her. Florence founded the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale (and Westchester), was a founder of the Scarsdale Woman’s Club, and saved the Scarsdale Inquirer in 1919. However, the Village archives only had photographs of her husband, Frank H. Bethell. This seemed like an injustice.

Portrait of Frank H. Bethell in the Scarsdale Public Library archives, dated c. 1917.

The first photo we came across was a grainy passport photo on Ancestry.com (thank you to Dan Glauber at Scarsdale Library!). It was helpful, but not ideal or adequate to use for an entire documentary. How was it possible we couldn’t find any other photos of this trailblazing woman?

Photo found on Florence’s “emergency” passport application, 1922.

Florence Bethell’s Background

We had pieced together general biographical information about our illusive subject. Florence Hartstuff was born in Sidney Barracks, NE, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Albert Hartsuff. Her father was a Brigadier General and served in the American Civil War and Spanish-American War. 

Florence married Frank Hopkins Bethell in 1901 and they came to Scarsdale around 1912. The couple had a son and a daughter, Franklin and Janet who were both born in 1903 (I’ll return to that below). The Scarsdale school district was in its infancy, so it makes sense that the Bethell children went to elite private high schools: Hackley School in Tarrytown and Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, CT. 

Husband Frank Hopkins Bethell served in leadership (First Vice President) at the New York Telephone Company with his brother, Union Noble Bethell (President). He was also responsible for the “Eastern Group” of Bell Telephone Company. He and his brother were both pioneers in the United States telephone system, at the forefront of Bell and what became AT&T. To give you an idea of Union N. Bethell’s prominence, he was sitting beside Alexander Graham Bell when he made AT&T’s first transcontinental call to California (pictured). 

Third from left: Union Noble Bethell,, Senior Vice-President American Telephone & Telegraph Co. with Alexander Graham Bell (center) on the day of the first transatlantic phone call (January 25, 1915). Source

I even found a letter written in 1914 by Thomas Edison to Union Bethell that stated “I’m fond of a hustler and like to give them credit when I find real ones” (Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University). Needless to say, if the Bethell brothers were rubbing elbows with two of the most famous American inventors in history, then Florence was a woman in a position of power. With her status, she was well-positioned to advocate for women’s suffrage.

Her husband Frank retired in 1920 and continued as a pillar of the Scarsdale community. He served as Scarsdale’s first president (before mayors), and a president of the Scarsdale Golf Club. He was one of the longest standing commissioners of the Bronx River Parkway Commission, the group that oversaw the land acquisition and construction of the Bronx River Parkway.

Frank H. Bethell at the podium during Scarsdale’s first public celebration after being incorporated as a Village, on July 4, 1915. Source: Scarsdale Public Library

Two Houses in Heathcote

House numbers weren’t typically published in the early Scarsdale days, but I believe the Bethells’ first residence in Scarsdale was at 16 Heathcote Road. A photo of the house was published in The Telephone Review, in an article about Frank titled: “A Prophet in His Own Country.”

The only known photo taken of the Bethell’s home in 1915. Source: The Telephone Review, 1915.

It was at this home that Florence hosted suffrage meetings and conferences, where she could fit 125 people in her “sunny garage.” Guests included many prominent suffragist leaders, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, Mrs. T. H. Lawrence. 

A suffrage convention with 125 guests in the Bethell garage at 16 Heathcote Road. Source: Mount Vernon Argus, January 07, 1916

By 1920, they had moved to a new property with around 8 acres. Finding the actual location of the Richbell Road house was a bit of a challenge. House records prior to 1925 are scarce at Village Hall. The newspaper often said they lived at 5 Richbell Road, but that address doesn’t exist now. Thankfully, the 1930 map unlocks the mystery. First, it shows the original boundaries of the estate that became Bethel Road (yes, it is misspelled). Second, it shows the location of the main house on Richbell Road. Today, that same plot is 2 Bethel Road (thanks to property records at Village Hall!).

A 1930 map shows the Bethell name twice: once with their house, and once across the top where the Bethell land had been subdivided. Bethel Road appears via dotted lines. Source: Westchester County Archives

2 Bethel Road in the current day.

Tracking Down Photos of Florence

The Scarsdale Woman’s Club has two artworks of Florence, including the lovely portrait that hangs in the “Bethell Room.”  For our suffrage documentary, we hoped we could find images of her that were more age-appropriate as she would have appeared in the 1910’s (when she was in her 40’s).

The portrait that hangs in the Bethell Room at the Scarsdale Woman’s Club, painted by Harold Wolcott. He was a prominent Scarsdale artist.

President Portrait of Florence Bethell, Scarsdale Woman’s Club. Photograph by Ferris Briggs, 1933. The artist used a special process to give the photograph an artistic effect.

I started scouring newspaper archives outside of our hometown newspaper. I came across a large article on the Scarsdale Woman’s Club in the New York Tribune, one of New York City’s influential newspapers of the time. The headline read “A Woman’s Club Takes Over a Town Paper.” It featured a large photo of Florence, calling her “the prime mover” in saving the Scarsdale Inquirer. The best part about the photograph was that it was “legible” quality, and depicted Florence as a younger woman. It was the best clipping (showing her image) that I could find.

Source: New York Tribune, November 23, 1919.

Next, I tried looking through members’ family trees on Ancestry.com. Sometimes, people upload photos from their personal collections. Finally, in one person’s family tree I saw Florence’s name. I clicked it, and was finally looking at an original photo of Florence for the first time!

Left to right: Janet (Coker) Bethell, Franklin Hartstuff Bethell, Florence Bethell, Frank Harrison Coker. Photo taken around 1921. Source: Pamela Coker

I didn’t know this Ancestry.com account owner’s relation to the Bethell’s, but I was dying to find out. I immediately sent a private message to the owner of that account, and within a few hours I was speaking to the mysterious relative, Pamela, in California! 

Lesley Topping and I sat on a conference call eagerly hearing information that never would have been published in the Scarsdale Inquirer. Pamela was related to the Bethell’s through the taller boy in the photograph, Frank Harrison Coker. She graciously shared the following about the 3 children: 

Brother and sister (technically first cousins by blood), Frank and Janet Bethell.  Both born in 1903. Source: Pamela Coker

• Franklin Hartstuff Bethell: Florence gave birth to one son, Frank. He attended Princeton, Cambridge University and Johns Hopkins University. He became a renowned scholar and doctor, pioneering blood cancer treatments for the University of Michigan.

• Janet (Coker) Bethell (left): The Bethells adopted Frank Sr.’s sister’s child. Janet went to Smith College, and raised her own family at 8 Heathcote Road.

• Frank Harrison Coker: The older boy on the right was Janet’s brother who was visiting from school at Rutgers at the time.

The next piece of the story is personal and was never shared in the local newspaper, but I will share for the sake of preserving history. Sometime around 1930, the Bethells divorced. Frank stopped being mentioned in the Scarsdale Inquirer around this time. I learned that Frank had moved away, and Florence continued as a prolific volunteer in Scarsdale. He remarried, yet Florence continued as “Mrs. F. H. Bethell,” as was the custom.

After reaching Janet’s side of the family, I still hoped to find someone from Frank Jr.’s side. Once again through Ancestry.com, I found someone who had set up a personal Bethell family tree. It turned out to be Frank Jr.’s great granddaughter, Lauren. Within the day, I was on the phone with her mother, Mary in Georgia. 

Sadly, Mary’s mother Elaine Hartstuff Bethell (Frank Jr.’s daughter) passed away in 2024. She wished her mother could shared more details with me! I learned that her part of the family was largely based in Michigan, where Frank Jr. had been a professor at the University of Michigan. Frank Sr. had lived in Michigan with his second wife, whom Mary called “Aunt Ruth” (even though she was actually her step-great grandmother). 

With the divorce and geographic distance, it seemed that this side of the family was much closer to (great) grandfather Frank than they were with (great) grandmother Florence. Mary wasn’t sure what Florence actually looked like (doesn’t this sound familiar?). Mary has fond memories of visiting (Great Aunt) Janet her husband (Uncle) Chauncey Newlin at 8 Heathcote Road in the 1950s and 60s.

I hope that the Women Rising documentary brings them great pride in knowing that their ancestor was an trailblazer and champion for women’s rights and many charitable causes.

A Latebreaking Discovery

As I was working on this article (after the documentary and photo exhibit had been completed), I came upon one of my best photo discoveries. I had googled a new search combination, and ended up in the “Carrie Chapman Catt Papers” in the Bryn Mawr College archives. 

Catt, a nationally-known American women’s suffrage leader (who lived in New Rochelle), had meticulously recorded the names and faces of the world’s prominent suffragists. In a record called “New York Suffragists,” there was an album page with the photos of 4 women. I thought, could it really be….?

New York Suffragist Photos in the Carries Chapman Catt Papers. Per the website’s description: (a) Mrs. F.H. Bethell of Scarsdale, New York. (b) Mrs. A.L. Livermore, Yonkers, N.Y. (c) Miss Adelaide Goan, Katonah. (d) Mrs. M.W. Wynne, Westchester Co. Source: Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

Portrait of Florence Bethell, c. 1910. Source: Source: Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

I zoomed in, and it was HER! Finally, I’d found a glorious, formal, solo photograph of Florence! I gasped so loudly that Florence herself may have heard me “from the other side.” 

It gives me great satisfaction to know that these photos and stories can be added to the Village record. The actions and accomplishments of Scardale’s (white) men in history are meticulously recorded, and it’s exciting to shed new light on those who have been marginalized. Stories like Florence’s may be harder to find, but I’m up to the challenge.

Our new documentary “Women Rising: The Scarsdale Suffragists” can be viewed here. A Scarsdale Suffragists exhibit (including all of the newly-discovered photos) is on display through the month of February in the local history center of Scarsdale Public Library. For other details and resources related to the Scarsdale’s suffrage leaders, click here.

Follow Us for More Stories and Photos 

She Rowed for 5 Hours

I started out thinking I’d share a simple photo of two sisters at the Ferncliff estate in c. 1900. I figured out that Ella Ford of Ferncliff is on the left, and her sister Margaret Swift is on the right. But then, I did a quick google.and we discovered something extraordinary.

Mrs. Harry S. Ford (Ella) and her sister Mrs. Fred J. Swift at ferncliff (1000 post road, scarsdale) c. 1900. Credit: Scarsdale public library

Twelve years after this photo was taken, Mrs. Swift boarded the TITANIC. As a first class passenger, she was fortunate to board a Lifeboat 8 with two friends, and the Captain threw them a loaf of bread as they pulled away.

The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper was on-site when she disembarked from the Carpathia on the dock in New York. They said she “tumbled into the arms of her sisters” (one of which is Mrs. Ford). She recounted how she rowed for 5 hours until they saw the Carpathia in the distance. The newspaper quotes her as saying she was “alright,” “a little tired,” and “the only trouble is I look like a tramp.” She was still in the same dress from the shipwreck.

By this time, Scarsdale’s Mrs. Ford had moved to Manhattan (after subdividng Ferncliff in 1910!). Mrs. Swift was a widow and a Brooklyn resident when the wreck occurred.

We're glad we happened to look up Mrs. Fred J. Swift. They say she seldom spoke of the tragedy in later years, and she lived to be 82.

Read her incredible account of surviving the Titanic here: https://www.newspapers.com/.../brooklyn-eagle.../157013963/

Source: Photo from Scarsdale Public Library and the Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1912

Honoring Lt. Reese Across Continents

By Lesley Topping

Lt. Robert Lawrence Reese (left) and Captain Gomer David Reese III (right)

Lt. Robert Lawrence Reese
January 16, 1921 – July 5, 1944

Captain Gomer David Reese III
July 24, 1942- March 24, 1970

World War II memorial at Boniface Circle in Scarsdale Village. Photo by Lesley Topping.

It is easy to miss the sunken war memorial in Scarsdale Village partially hidden from view in Boniface Circle. It is a quiet place to reflect on the long list of names of Scarsdale residents who served and died during World War II. As time goes on, it is harder to put faces to the names, but the Scarsdale Historical Society recently received an inquiry that shines a light on a young pilot, Lt. Robert Lawrence Reese, and his family. His name is engraved on the memorial along with his brothers, Arthur and Gomer Reese Jr. Another young family member and Scarsdale resident, Captain Gomer David Reese, III served and died in Vietnam.

Robert Reese, Joseph Ianotta, William Mizenberg, Marion Thornton, and Ralph Butzman were among the nine casualties in the crash. From b24.net, a website dedicated to the 392nd Bomb Group.

From across continents, Andy Wells recently contacted the Society because he is gathering information to erect a monument and exhibition in his hometown in memory of Lt. Robert Reese and eight other American pilots who died when two of their planes crashed on his family’s farm in Foxley, England on July 5th, 1944.

Crash photo from the 392nd Bomb Group Air Force Report on b24.net.

The men were part of the 392nd Bomb Group, a B-24 Liberator group that operated out of Wendling, England flying strategic bombing campaigns against enemy targets in occupied Europe and Germany. Lt. Reese had flown combat missions in Europe, including the allied invasion on D-day. He was killed when his plane collided with another Air Force bomber during a practice session in formation flying.

Andy Wells’ mother, Margaret Wells, now in her nineties, was picking strawberries on a nearby farm when she witnessed the crash. “My mum told me it was a lovely sunny morning about 11 o’clock,” recalled Andy, “She said the sun actually shone on the planes because they were silver in color and they looked really pretty. That is why they were looking up in the sky, then suddenly the plane underneath just went upward into the belly of Robert’s plane and they both came down.”

Margaret Wells (left) and her son, Andy Wells (right).

Andy Wells was born after the war, but the events of the crash made a strong impression on him. For years afterwards family members found pieces of the wreckage as well as live machine gun bullets in the fields.“It was always folklore in the family,” said Wells “and interested me as a kid, and I started researching it more and more over the years.” Fascinated by local history and events, Wells has compiled extensive information about the 392nd Group and contacted family members of the men who lost their lives in the crash.

“Foxley is only a small village of less than 500 people, and probably only my mum knows anything about it now,” said Wells. “I think it has got to be remembered and that is why I am trying to do what I am trying to do.”

The 392nd Group had heavy casualties. 747 men from the 392nd Bomb Group lost their lives helping to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany. A memorial was erected in 1945 to honor those men at the Wendling Base. Lt. Robert Reese was only 24 years old when he died. He had attended Ohio University and worked for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company before he enrolled in the military. His mother, Mrs. Alfield Reese, and siblings lived on Nelson Road in Scarsdale. A few articles in the Scarsdale Inquirer reported that Robert and his brother Gomer enjoyed singing and performed in the choirs of local plays in Scarsdale and White Plains.

Lt. Reese was posthumously awarded the Air Medal for his distinguished air missions over Europe in October 1944. During the war he was interred at the Cambridge American Cemetery in England, and in 1948 he was buried with honors by the Scarsdale Post No. 52 American Legion at Mount Hope Cemetery in Hastings.

Robert’s surviving brothers, Arthur and Gomer Jr., both served in the army. Gomer Jr. was wounded when an artillery shell exploded near his back and legs while in combat against German troops in Elmdorf, Germany. He later became an executive with the Scarsdale Bank and president of the Rotary Club.

The World War II Memorial in Scarsdale Village lists the Scarsdale residents who served in the war. The starred names are those who died in the line of duty. Photo by Lesley Topping.

Gomer Jr.’s son, Captain Gomer David Reese III, like his Uncle Robert, became a pilot, joining the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He was a Scarsdale High School graduate who lived in Edgewood. Highly regarded for his flying skills, he was assigned to a classified secret bombing operation in Laos. On April 24, 1970, the plane he was co-piloting with Captain James E. Cross on an orientation tour was shot down by an anti-aircraft gun. His remains could not be returned to the United States and identified until 2009.

The daily war coverage of the Vietnam War was dramatically different than supportive news reporting during World War II. The death notice of Captain Reese shared the front page with an article reporting that Scarsdale High School Students were joining in the nationwide protest against the Vietnam War and a vigil for the students at Kent State University who were shot and killed by National Guards during a peaceful anti-war demonstration.

Captain Reese is buried at National Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC and his name can be found on Panel 11W, Line 47 of the Vietnam War Memorial. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster for heroism and extraordinary achievement while engaged in aerial flight.

The Scarsdale American Legion Post 52 Memorial Garden on Mamaroneck Road next to the Scarsdale Pool will also be covered with flags and flowers on Memorial Day to honor the many residents of Scarsdale who served our country.

Below are the front pages of the issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer announcing the deaths of Lt. Robert Lawrence Reese and Captain Gomer David Reese III.

If any reader has additional information about Lt. Robert Reese that would be helpful for Andy Wells’ research, please contact us.

The article about the death of Lt. Robert Lawrence Reese is in the middle of column 6.

The article about the death of Captain Gomer David Reese III is at the bottom of columns 6 and 7.

Remembering Jack Davis

By Lesley Topping

Scarsdale Inquirer, 1976

Among the remarkable people who have lived in Scarsdale is the renowned cartoonist and illustrator, Jack Davis. His zany cartoons helped shape the satirical humor of Mad Magazine.  His illustrations for hundreds of news magazines, movie posters, books and comics have inspired illustrators for generations and are enjoyed by people around the world. Less known is that as a resident of Scarsdale for many years, he also generously donated his art and illustrations to the community.

Jack and his wife, Dena raised their two children in Scarsdale and were always involved in neighborhood activities. Jack donated his sketches for fund raising auctions for the Scarsdale Historical Society’s Cudner-Hyatt House Museum and he illustrated several covers for the Society’s journal. He developed a cartoon series for the Scarsdale Inquirer about the adventures of a suburban family called the Villagers and he contributed sketches for many Inquirer articles. As an avid sports fan he designed posters and t-shirts for the Scarsdale High School’s football and basketball teams.

Fox Meadow Tennis Club displaying Davis’ tennis caricatures.

Drawing of Rick Reuter

Today, The Fox Meadow Tennis Club on Wayside Lane proudly displays a series of sketches by Davis, which lovingly poke fun at Paddle Tennis players. Friends remember Davis as a gentleman with a rascal sense of humor. Rick Reuter, who lived next door to Davis, said that Jack often drew caricatures of his friends and members of the Scarsdale Golf Club.“ We played tennis on Saturday mornings,” said Reuter, “In the winter we would play platform tennis.” They also both volunteered as Scout Masters at St. James the Less Church. Reuter laughingly recalled that while he was renovating his own home, Jack came over and said, “Oh, you do all this stuff, can you help me?” Rick would often lend him a hand with fixing problems in his house. When Davis made a drawing of Rick he displayed him with all his tools and varied interests. Rick’s wife, Karen, was an artist, and she was the colorist for many of Jack Davis’ drawings.

The Davis Family moved back to Jack’s hometown state of Georgia, in the 1990s where he lived until he passed away in 2016 at the age of 91.

Scroll down to see more samples of Jack Davis’ work and visit these links:

A Jack Davis Sampling by Drew Friedman
Tributes to Jack Davis at The Comics Journal

The Villagers Comic Series, Scarsdale Inquirer, 1963

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Scarsdale, March 31, 1960 and October 29, 1965

By Lesley Topping

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.”

—Martin Luther King, Love Your Enemies sermon, Scarsdale Baptist Community Church, 1960

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Abbott House benefit. From the left is Scarsdale resident John Marqusee, one of the event organizers, Arthur Litt, president of Abbott House Board of Directors and County Executive, Edwin Michealian. Scarsdale Inquirer, November 4, 1965.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is praised around the world for his work fighting for interracial harmony, civil and voting rights, and an end to racial segregation.  As an advocate of non-violence, Dr. King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize just four years before his life was cut short by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968.  

Dr. King spoke throughout the country, and many Scarsdale residents may be unaware that he visited Westchester County several times between 1956 and 1967. Although Dr. King is widely celebrated today, he was very unpopular in many regions of the country, including Westchester, during the heyday of The Civil Rights Movement. He was denounced as a socialist for his anti-poverty campaign and opposition to the Vietnam War. However, some forward thinking people from Scarsdale realized that the struggle for justice was not limited to the Southern United States and were eager to support and spread Dr. King’s message. Two of Dr. King’s visits were arranged by Scarsdale residents active in the fight for civil rights.

On March 31, 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a version of his famous and controversial sermon, Love Your Enemies, to an overflow crowd at the Scarsdale Community Baptist Church at 51 Popham Road in Scarsdale.  According to journalist Andy Bass, who wrote about Dr. King’s visits in The Westchester Historian (Spring 2018), the Reverend M. Forest Ashbrook was instrumental in bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Scarsdale in 1960. Rev. Ashbrook was a resident of Edgemont and a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist organization known for its civil rights work that challenged segregation laws in the South. Ashbrook initially wrote to civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who was also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Rustin was an early advisor to King, and he organized the freedom rides beginning in World War II to integrate busing in segregated states. He was also the lead organizer of the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where Dr. King delivered his powerful I have a Dream speech. Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama.

It would take fourteen months of letter-writing persistence by Rev. Ashbrook before Dr. King’s visit was confirmed. During his visit, Dr. King had dinner with one of his book editors, Eugene Exman, who lived on Old Army Road in Edgemont. Their collaboration led to the publication of King’s 1963 book, Strength to Love which includes his sermon, Love Your Enemies.

In 1965, as the civil rights movement was shaking the nation, two Scarsdale residents played a role in inviting Dr. King to speak at a fundraising dinner for Abbott House, an organization—still operating today—which provides social services to children and adults. The agency had acquired a new location in Irvington in 1963. The fund raising dinner was held at Schrafft’s Restaurant in Eastchester where Dr. King gave a speech titled the Dignity of Family Life —the Fountainhead of a Just Society to an audience of some 600 people.

Scarsdale Inquirer, September 23, 1965

However, Dr. King’s visit did not make the front page of the Scarsdale Inquirer.  The announcement of the dinner in his honor was reported on September 23, 1965 on page 18, and later only a paragraph and photograph was published after the event on November 4th on page 3.  As reported in the Inquirer, the dinner committee included Mrs. Ogden Reid and Mrs. Richard Ottinger (both of them congressmen’s spouses), Robert F. Kennedy, and Jacob Javits. Many Scarsdale residents and village officials attended the dinner. John Marqusee, a Fox Meadow resident who was a board member of Abbott house, and his friend Robert Ostrow, also from Scarsdale, helped initiate the invitation. They also hosted receptions for Dr. King, Bayard Rustin, Julian Bond and other leading activists before the dinner. 

Outraged by the violent reaction to the non-violent Civil Rights Movement, Robert Ostrow and John Marqusee decided to join the protest march from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. King in March, 1965 to promote non-violence and Black voter registration in the South. During the march they were able to present Dr. King with a scroll from the Eastview Junior High School in White Plains. It read “To future voters of Alabama. We, the students of Eastview Junior High School, wish to express our deepest sympathy for your righteous and gallant efforts towards the equality and dignity of man.” It was signed by officers of the school's general organization as well as about 400 other students.

Many people throughout Westchester felt compelled to show their alliance with the ongoing protests. The Scarsdale Inquirer headlined that 500 people had walked for a mile in White Plains in sympathy with the protestors marching in Selma in 1965. They were led by Scarsdale students Hilary Ballon, age 9, her sister, Carla, age 8, and their father Charles Ballon. A Scarsdale resident at the walk was quoted as saying “This march was planned to show our sympathies with those who have worked and died for constitutional rights in the South.”

An article about Robert Ostrow’s participation in the civil rights movement. White Plains Reporter Dispatch, August 1965

Robert Ostrow, who lived with his family on Montrose Road in Greenacres, volunteered in 1964 as an attorney for representatives of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Freedom Summer voter registration drive. He traveled the perilous back roads of rural Mississippi with activist Kwame Ture, (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael), to help bail SNCC-trained Civil Rights Workers out of jail. Some of his harrowing experiences were reported in the New York Times, Reporter Dispatch and Scarsdale Inquirer.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s courage, work and words still resonate strongly in the continued struggle for racial equality, civil rights, economic justice, and world peace.

The 30-foot metal sculpture with words of Dr. King that stands near Lincoln Center in Manhattan was created by William Tarr while he was living in Scarsdale in 1973.

 NOTES

• For a recording and text of Dr. King’s sermon Love Your Enemies click here.

• For a recording of Dr. King’s invocation at the Abbott House Dinner in 1965 click here.

• Archives of the Scarsdale Inquirer can be searched here.

SOURCES

• Andy Bass, MLK Visits to Westchester, 1956-1967, The Westchester Historian, Spring 2018.

• For information on King’s visit to the Scarsdale Baptist Church in 1960 see Andy Bass’ blog here.

• 500 March to Demonstrate Sympathy with Selma Walk. Scarsdale Inquirer, March 25, 1965.

• Selma Scarsdale Marchers Greeted by Defiant Confederate Flag. Scarsdale Inquirer, April 1, 1965.

• Selma, Alabama… More Than Headline To a Volunteer Lawyer from Scarsdale Lawyer. White Plains Reporter Dispatch, August, 1965.

• Dr. King to Speak Here at Dinner in His Honor. Scarsdale Inquirer, September 23, 1965.

• Civil Rights Leaders Speaks. Scarsdale Inquirer, November 4, 1965.

• Negro-Jewish Relations. (Rustin Speaks at Westchester Reform Temple). Scarsdale Inquirer, November 16, 1967.

• Reliving Volunteer Work in the South. New York Times, June 16, 1995.