The Island lost two of its leading and longtime civil rights advocates Saturday, Vera Shorter and Herb Foster.
Shorter was born in 1923 in Huntington, Long Island.
Vera’s life was devoted to family, career, and civil rights advocacy in New York. She attended business school and became the first African American equal opportunity officer in the New York district of the IRS.
Her activism led her to the Brooklyn chapter of the NAACP.
Shorter came to the Island in the 1960s and 1970s with her family.
“We stayed with friends, who usually had other guests in the house: black lawyers, writers, artists … and other high achievers. The conversations were about social issues and change. It was very energizing,” she told The Times in 2018. In 1976, when her husband Rufus Shorter was named the first Black superintendent of Martha’s Vineyard schools, he and Vera became year-round Islanders.
For the next 40 years, Vera would be a pillar of social activism on the Island. “At the time, the NAACP was calling for nationwide action to ensure equal opportunity in labor contracts,” she said. “The local branch obtained guarantees from every Island town that we would be involved in all hiring efforts.”
When aspiring Black educators were being denied teaching certificates, Vera helped her husband develop a program to change the system. Colleges signed on, and 16 young Island teachers received certification that first year.
Foster was born in Brooklyn in 1928. After graduating from high school during World War II, Herb went to NYU for a week, then signed up for the Army. He put his college plans on hold, and went on to become a Morse code radio operator in occupied Japan. Herb played football in the military with guys from all over the United States. “I was as good as they were,” he said in 2018. “I imagine most of them are gone.”
Foster, a World War II veteran, wrote about his experiences for The Times and honored others by sharing words and phrases from the army.
Herb and his late wife Anita moved to the Island full-time in the late 1990s. “We first came in 1974; we sailed here,” Herb told The Times in 2018 during his 90th birthday. “My wife has a cousin who had a 42-foot boat so we sailed to Nantucket and came here. I took pictures of mechanical sharks in crates; it was the year they made ‘Jaws,’ and I had no idea what they were for. Somewhere I have Kodak slides.”
Foster was also known for his commitment to civil rights.
During school desegregation in the 1960s and 70s, he and a friend, George Singfield, who is Black, traveled across the country giving lectures and presentations on breaking communication barriers between urban Black youth and the white adults in the school systems.
He was a member of the NAACP of Martha’s Vineyard, a past president of the Hebrew Center, a trustee at the Edgartown library, and a member of the board of directors of the Martha’s Vineyard Social Justice Leadership Foundation. He was part of the SUNY Buffalo task force on institutionalized racism, and participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963.
The loss of both Shorter and Foster was felt across the Island.
“It is with great sadness that I inform you that our long-time Island civil rights advocates and members, Vera Shorter and Herb Foster have passed,” Martha’s Vineyard NAACP president Arthur Doubleday wrote in a statement. “Both Mrs. Shorter and Mr. Foster were beacons of wisdom to us all. I am heartbroken by this news. The chapter will be updating everyone shortly on details of further celebrations of life.”
The Link LonkFebruary 27, 2021 at 10:34PM
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Martha's Vineyard mourns loss of Vera Short, Herb Foster - Martha's Vineyard Times
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