Jack Mendelsohn & The Red Hat

Elizabeth Milligan
Writing Assignment for Nov 20, 2006
A Character and an obstruction in his path


As usual, my friend Jack and I met for coffee at a local coffee house and discussed the news. I liked caffeinated coffee with cream, no sugar. He drank black decaf. Because his hands shook because of Tremulous Nervosa, he sipped his coffee through a straw. That day’s morning edition of the New York Times was opened on the table before us.

Below the fold on the first page, a photo frames a somber, almost biblical, assembly of dignitaries and celebrities at the groundbreaking ceremony for MLK, Jr.’s memorial. The photo has no accompanying story. Except for one white person and one bright red hat, complexions and clothing are shades of brown and black.

The entire ceremony had been televised the night before and Jack had watched it. At the coffee house the next morning, he sighed and exclaimed: “How I wish I could have been there! So many of the old gang!” He pointed to his old friends who were in the photo, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and John Lewis.

Jack remarked that Jesse and Andrew had known MLK, Jr. well, had admired him, and had been with him when he was assassinated in Memphis. Jesse had been standing at the ground level of the hotel where MLK, Jr. was staying when he was shot from across the street. Andrew was in the room. As soon as he heard the shot, Jesse ran upstairs and held the fallen MLK in his arms.

John Lewis, one of MLK, Jr.’s lieutenants, had led in the front lines of the march to Selma. In the photo, he stands below Jesse and Andrew, head in hands. Standing in front of Lewis, the lady-with-the-bright-red-hat looks up at Jesse as he consoles Andrew. Her head is tilted backwards so severely that her hat looks like a red plate with a flattened upside-down red bowl in the center.

Not present for the photo was Louis Farrakhan. Born and educated in Boston, Farrakhan led the national black separatist movement, Nation of Islam. More recently, he organized the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. – a massive rally of black American men,

That morning at the coffee house, Jack recalled a decades-old shopping expedition with Louis in a Syrian souk. Mrs. Farrakhan was very fond of beautiful hats and her husband hoped to buy one. Jack and Louis were killing time until the Syrian government told them how they were to leave the country.

And then, there is the sole white man in the photo. The caption identifies him as Tommy Hilfilger, the well-known clothing designer. Hilfilger had cultivated a fundraising network of celebrities and corporations whose combined efforts have raised two-thirds of the funds needed for the $100 million memorial.

The site of the proposed memorial to MLK, Jr. is on the Mall in Washington, D.C. between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. A view described by Farrakhan when he spoke at the Million Man March.

Tucking his memories away, Jack folded and smoothed the newspaper. Before he departed for his physical therapy appointment, we both wondered aloud: “So, who was the lady with the bright red hat?”