A positive difference

Jim and I recently enjoyed a heart-warming program at the Unitarian Universalist Church about our dear friends, Albert Porter and Allan Ward, who created, as Porter’s daughter Portia Porter Lyle described them, an “unlikely family” and a family we would all do well to emulate. One Black, the other white, they and their wives and children were closer than many biological families. They exemplified community service, daily showing that there is unity and strength in diversity and that empathy is not weakness. Both spent their entire lives making a positive difference.

Many of us serve on a few philanthropic boards. These two served on well over a dozen each, not sequentially but simultaneously. That was on top of their professional “day” jobs as accountant and as communications professor, respectively.

Late in life, Ward penned “The Civil Rights Brothers: Albert Porter and Allan Ward” which reveals some of their remarkable and inclusive efforts, often at great risk, especially in the Jim Crow days. It was a joy to re-hear their stories and to revive my own precious memories of these two cherished friends.

In 2023, when far too many efforts are being made by individuals and by some state governments to remove hard-fought civil rights, when voting rights are being slashed because of unproven accusations of voter fraud, when democracy and the will of “We the People” are no longer deemed to be of value by many, when sometimes uncomfortable stories of these two chosen brothers are likely considered worth banning, and when some people are chanting racist and xenophobic rants at increasingly confrontational rallies, I yearn for more Albert Porters and Allan Wards in Arkansas and beyond to lead us further into social justice and compassion.

MARY REMMEL WOHLLEB

Little Rock