Gathering brings fond memories of Rev. James W. Webb II, longtime civil-rights activist

February 25, 2017 at 8:33p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Diane Gonda fondly recalled how much humor she found during a meal while planning an event at Youngstown State University.

“We laughed the whole time; he was so funny,” said Gonda, a former YSU adjunct professor who was referring to the Rev. James W. Webb II, a longtime civil-rights activist who died Feb. 20 in Washington state from kidney failure at age 68.

The occasion also marked the first time he had heard of and tried homemade wedding soup, which is popular in this area, Gonda remembered.

Gonda was among those who shared fond memories of the Rev. Mr. Webb, affectionately known as “Jimmy,” during a gathering Saturday afternoon at Flambeau’s Caribbean Restaurant, 2308 Market St., on the South Side.

Hosting the informal event was Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past.

Attendees saw a video of Mr. Webb as a 16-year-old who in early 1965 led a group of young people to the Dallas County Courthouse during a peaceful march in Selma, Ala., amid racial unrest, and was confronted by an angry white sheriff’s deputy named L.C. Crocker. As a child, Mr. Webb had received training in the practice of nonviolence, and he participated in the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march in March 1965.

At one point, he calmly says to the sheriff, “Sir, are you saying that if I have a quarter and I’m black and you have a quarter and you’re white, then my quarter isn’t worth as much as your quarter?”

In recent years, Mr. Webb made several visits to Youngstown during Nonviolence Week, which is the first week of October, and preached on a few occasions at Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church as well as for a Martin Luther King Jr. service at Union Baptist Church.