Post by blackcrowheart on May 16, 2006 14:09:36 GMT -5
Rice buried in Arlington -- A Rosa Parks for American Indians
By Bret Hayworth <mailto:brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com> Journal
staff writer
www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/05/13/news/local/0e88e5c0e\
190e6ad8625716d0011b36f.txt
The dual nature of Evelyn Rice's life was laid out for about 100
attendees Friday morning, as her ashes were placed in Arlington National
Cemetery, perhaps the most hallowed cemetery in the U.S.
There was the mother and grandmother portion of Rice's existence,
recalled by a grandson eulogizing her. And there was the activist who
wouldn't submit to the 1951 status quo, wouldn't accept that her
American Indian husband, a World War II hero who would be featured on
Siouxland billboards in the 21st century, couldn't be buried in Sioux
City's Memorial Park Cemetery unless he was white.
Refusing to falsify a paper saying her husband, Sgt. John Rice, was a
white man, she kicked off a storm that drew national attention, with
President Harry S. Truman finally stepping in and arranging for him to
be buried in Arlington with full military honors on Sept. 5, 1951.
Evelyn Rice sued the cemetery for $180,000, claiming its discriminatory
policies violated the constitutions of the United States and the state
of Iowa and the United Nations charter. The case went all the way to the
Supreme Court. In November 1954, the court ruled against her 4-4
(Justice John Harlan had not been confirmed).
A half century later, the woman who never remarried was buried near her
beloved husband.
"They are finally together again," said Karen Mackey, the Sioux City
Human Rights Commission director.
Mackey was one of several Siouxlanders at the event, including Winnebago
tribe members, as well as relatives from the West Coast and staffers of
federal lawmakers from Nebraska (Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson) and
Iowa (Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin and Rep. Steve King).
"We felt that it was appropriate to honor this very brave woman," Mackey
said.
She said Evelyn Rice showed "the power of one person to affect change.
She was just an ordinary person, she took a strong stand when she didn't
have to. You know, she was just in her 20s and she just wanted to bury
her husband and get on with her life, but that wasn't allowed. All she
had to do was lie, was sign the paper saying he was a Caucasian, and she
wouldn't do that ... Back then (Memorial Park) had a 'whites only'
policy."
Mackey said Rice's "act was in many ways the start of the American
Indian civil rights era ... This was our Rosa Parks."
John Rice died at age 36, killed in action on Sept. 6, 1950, near Tabu
Dong, Korea. Evelyn Rice, 83, died Jan. 26, 2006, at a Sioux City
hospital.
Evelyn Rice had set arrangements to be buried in Walthill, Neb., but
family members found a government letter specifying that as a soldier's
widow who never remarried, she had the right to be buried alongside her
husband. One of the four persons who spoke at Friday's ceremony,
Winnebago Tribal vice chairman Jimmy Snow, referenced how John Rice "had
called her across time and space to be near him."
Both were born on the Indian reservation near Walthill, and Evelyn's
dancing caught the eye of John Rice one day. "He was the love of her
life, bar none. She never remarried," said grandson Scott Goodwin.
One of John and Evelyn Rice's three children, Pam (Rice) Goodwin of
Westminster, Colo., said Friday's ceremony "was bittersweet -- we had
said goodbye to our mother when she actually passed away (in January)
and now we did it again." She said "my brother and sister and I were
very young when my father was killed," too young to understand and
mourn. Now, Goodwin continued, "coming back with our mother to join our
father was like a double mourning for us."
The eldest Rice grandson, Scott Goodwin, 40, of Westminster, Colo.,
lived in Sioux City until age 12, but even in recent years saw his
grandmother a few times per year in spite of the distance. "She was just
a loving grandmother, a great cook, a great baker, all the things a
great grandma is," Goodwin said.
He had heard of the 1951 burial controversy and queried his grandmother
on it, "but she didn't talk about it very much," Goodwin explained. "She
was a very private person, very reserved about her public life. I think
it was difficult for her, she just didn't enjoy being in the public
spotlight."
In his remarks at the cemetery, Goodwin said, "I was just trying to put
together for myself what her life meant, in both the private and the
public life she held, on how she disrupted the status quo and how
unwilling people are to change, and how that had to be difficult ... and
what a fair sense of moral values she had."
Mackey reported "all the speakers (Friday) talked about the heroism both
of John Rice and of Evelyn Rice." And Scott Goodwin said "the Winnebago
Tribe people still talk about how revered John Rice was. It is humbling,
but it makes you very proud to know he was all that."
Mackey said Arlington "is just an amazing cemetery to be in, to see so
many men and women who have given their lives for their country."
Scott Goodwin was proud his grandparents are resting in the same place
as the Unknown Soldier and John F. Kennedy, and summarized the scene in
Arlington.
"Today is a beautiful day, the sun is shining and this is a beautiful,
revered place," he said. "There is no greater honor than to have your
people interred in Arlington National Cemetery. My thought was that it
is kind of too bad that we are here, because of the way we got here. ...
We probably should have been doing this in Memorial Park."
By Bret Hayworth <mailto:brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com> Journal
staff writer
www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/05/13/news/local/0e88e5c0e\
190e6ad8625716d0011b36f.txt
The dual nature of Evelyn Rice's life was laid out for about 100
attendees Friday morning, as her ashes were placed in Arlington National
Cemetery, perhaps the most hallowed cemetery in the U.S.
There was the mother and grandmother portion of Rice's existence,
recalled by a grandson eulogizing her. And there was the activist who
wouldn't submit to the 1951 status quo, wouldn't accept that her
American Indian husband, a World War II hero who would be featured on
Siouxland billboards in the 21st century, couldn't be buried in Sioux
City's Memorial Park Cemetery unless he was white.
Refusing to falsify a paper saying her husband, Sgt. John Rice, was a
white man, she kicked off a storm that drew national attention, with
President Harry S. Truman finally stepping in and arranging for him to
be buried in Arlington with full military honors on Sept. 5, 1951.
Evelyn Rice sued the cemetery for $180,000, claiming its discriminatory
policies violated the constitutions of the United States and the state
of Iowa and the United Nations charter. The case went all the way to the
Supreme Court. In November 1954, the court ruled against her 4-4
(Justice John Harlan had not been confirmed).
A half century later, the woman who never remarried was buried near her
beloved husband.
"They are finally together again," said Karen Mackey, the Sioux City
Human Rights Commission director.
Mackey was one of several Siouxlanders at the event, including Winnebago
tribe members, as well as relatives from the West Coast and staffers of
federal lawmakers from Nebraska (Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson) and
Iowa (Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin and Rep. Steve King).
"We felt that it was appropriate to honor this very brave woman," Mackey
said.
She said Evelyn Rice showed "the power of one person to affect change.
She was just an ordinary person, she took a strong stand when she didn't
have to. You know, she was just in her 20s and she just wanted to bury
her husband and get on with her life, but that wasn't allowed. All she
had to do was lie, was sign the paper saying he was a Caucasian, and she
wouldn't do that ... Back then (Memorial Park) had a 'whites only'
policy."
Mackey said Rice's "act was in many ways the start of the American
Indian civil rights era ... This was our Rosa Parks."
John Rice died at age 36, killed in action on Sept. 6, 1950, near Tabu
Dong, Korea. Evelyn Rice, 83, died Jan. 26, 2006, at a Sioux City
hospital.
Evelyn Rice had set arrangements to be buried in Walthill, Neb., but
family members found a government letter specifying that as a soldier's
widow who never remarried, she had the right to be buried alongside her
husband. One of the four persons who spoke at Friday's ceremony,
Winnebago Tribal vice chairman Jimmy Snow, referenced how John Rice "had
called her across time and space to be near him."
Both were born on the Indian reservation near Walthill, and Evelyn's
dancing caught the eye of John Rice one day. "He was the love of her
life, bar none. She never remarried," said grandson Scott Goodwin.
One of John and Evelyn Rice's three children, Pam (Rice) Goodwin of
Westminster, Colo., said Friday's ceremony "was bittersweet -- we had
said goodbye to our mother when she actually passed away (in January)
and now we did it again." She said "my brother and sister and I were
very young when my father was killed," too young to understand and
mourn. Now, Goodwin continued, "coming back with our mother to join our
father was like a double mourning for us."
The eldest Rice grandson, Scott Goodwin, 40, of Westminster, Colo.,
lived in Sioux City until age 12, but even in recent years saw his
grandmother a few times per year in spite of the distance. "She was just
a loving grandmother, a great cook, a great baker, all the things a
great grandma is," Goodwin said.
He had heard of the 1951 burial controversy and queried his grandmother
on it, "but she didn't talk about it very much," Goodwin explained. "She
was a very private person, very reserved about her public life. I think
it was difficult for her, she just didn't enjoy being in the public
spotlight."
In his remarks at the cemetery, Goodwin said, "I was just trying to put
together for myself what her life meant, in both the private and the
public life she held, on how she disrupted the status quo and how
unwilling people are to change, and how that had to be difficult ... and
what a fair sense of moral values she had."
Mackey reported "all the speakers (Friday) talked about the heroism both
of John Rice and of Evelyn Rice." And Scott Goodwin said "the Winnebago
Tribe people still talk about how revered John Rice was. It is humbling,
but it makes you very proud to know he was all that."
Mackey said Arlington "is just an amazing cemetery to be in, to see so
many men and women who have given their lives for their country."
Scott Goodwin was proud his grandparents are resting in the same place
as the Unknown Soldier and John F. Kennedy, and summarized the scene in
Arlington.
"Today is a beautiful day, the sun is shining and this is a beautiful,
revered place," he said. "There is no greater honor than to have your
people interred in Arlington National Cemetery. My thought was that it
is kind of too bad that we are here, because of the way we got here. ...
We probably should have been doing this in Memorial Park."