Human Rights Resource

Something I Said
Matthew Little Twin Cities Civil Rights Icon
Dwight Hobbes
MN Law & Politics Magazine Minnesota civil rights icon Matthew “Matt” Little doesn’t travel much these days. But, at age 87, he went to Washington D.C. to witness what he never thought would happen in his lifetime: the inauguration of an African-American president. “It’s impossible for me to put words to the feeling I got when I looked up and saw [Barack Obama] taking that oath,” he says. “It was a feeling deep inside I never had before. Having been standing in line almost 3 hours, the temperature in the teens, I almost froze to death. But, at that moment, I warmed up.” Corny as it sounds to pit sentiment against freezing Potomac weather, stand in Little’s shoes. He fought all his life to see that precedent set. “It is”, he states, “a culmination of everything I’ve worked for.” Matt Little graduated North Carolina A&T State University 1948 and moved to the Twin Cites, a Bachelor of Biological Science. He tried getting jobs in his field, which, back then, were rarely available to blacks (one denied opportunity, to work as a firefighter, would prove ironic). He waited tables, worked at the post office and, eventually, became a landscaper. In 1954, he grew sick and tired of seeing his and his people’s dreams deferred. A longtime member of the NAACP, he ascended to the board of the Minneapolis chapter. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Little became Minneapolis chapter president, and, later, was president of Minnesota chapter. In that position he was no longer interested in fighting fires. He remembers as one of this greatest accomplishments, though, filing federal suit to integrate the Minneapolis Fired Department. He also took HUD and the city to state court to make Northeast Minneapolis inhabitable instead of a deliberately sustained ghetto. Then came Little’s first trip to Washington D.C. In 1963, he marshalled a Minnesota contingent to join the March On Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his address, “I Have A Dream”. “It was so mesmerizing”, Matt recalls. “In every respect. Not only the message but his oratory. He spoke beautifully.” Little barely returned to the Twin Cities before organizing activists for the landmark Freedom Rides, which, like the Washington event, heralded a turning of the tide against racism. Tough times for moderates. They were battered on the radical left by Black Panthers rhetoric, on the entrenched right by Goldwaterites. How was Little able to move forward with his mission? “I considered myself a pragmatist. It was important to get things done, not to rebel for the sake of rebelling. And, certainly, not to cave-in to conservatives.” He helped create the Minneapolis’ Civil Rights Commission, became a charter member and, for good measure, was instrumental in persuading the Minnesota Vikings to hire Dennis Green, the franchise’s only black head coach to date. How’d he pull that off? “Being a sports fan and head of the NAACP at the time”, he recalls, “[I saw that] there were more and more black players. But nobody black was in charge of anything. I was able to get hold of [General Manager] Mike Lynn.” Little got a meeting with Lynn office button-holed him. He convinced Lynn to recruit nationwide for a qualified black coach and, on top of that, there were tryouts for black cheerleaders. A river has passed under the bridge in his lifetime. Not all of it for the worse. He attests that, since his stay as a young man in the segregated U.S. Army, “The world has changed a lot…in regard to what African Americans can do that they could not do during that time. A lot of mechanical things have evolved, but the measurement I utilize is the accessibility of African Americans to things that were completely unavailable to them at that time. Things like well-paying jobs, quality education, not having to worry about a lynch-rope.” The living legend, actually, is an unassuming soul, quite down-to-earth with no need to blow his horn. And he’d probably have been happier sitting on a back porch watching the grass grow instead of confronting institutionalized racism. When it’s time to step up, though, it’s time to step up, he says. So, he did. And he’s not through. Going on 35 years, he writes on political, social and educational issues in his column Little By Little for weekly newspaper Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder , the state’s oldest black-owned business. For Matt Little, it’s all been about a sense of community, which includes not just black populations. “It’s up to us to keep alive our own family, to resolve [what] threatens our being part of the wider community.” His daughter Kinshasha Kambui, along with her sister Titilayo Bediako, has done her share of grassroot activism, both of them spearheading the We Win Institute, highly respected for its success in educating and mentoring youth. She also was community liaison on Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak’s staff. “The legacy my father [leaves] me and my children is one of hard work and community service,” she says. “[He] taught me that there is nothing that I cannot accomplish if I keep my eye on the prize and I am willing to work for it. At 87 years old, [he] is still active in the community through his board work and [shows] me how to be an elder with grace, kindness and vigor.” Little takes his prominence with a grain of salt, calling himself “another guy in the crowd. It was [circumstance] that led me to be involved. [When that happens] a person automatically rises to that point, to solve problems.” Not automatically. Little has put in a lifetime of work to raise the status of his people. Renowned Twin Cities historian and scholar Mahmoud El-Kati dubs him “the dean of [Minnesota's] civil rights community, a man of great integrity. He expresses the values of civil rights — empowerment, respect and inclusion — that’s the essence of that struggle. Matt is the quintessential figure.” Little was 5 times elected to Minnesota’s State Executive Committee, 4 times elected delegate to the National Democratic Convention and 4 times elected President Elector to cast one of the states’ 10 electoral votes for U.S. President. Among a long list of his awards are the Human Rights Award and MLK Human Rights Award, both from the Minneapolis League of Human Rights Commission, as well as the State Democratic Party’s Hubert Humphrey Award and the Minneapolis Urban League Outstanding Civic and Service Award. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Minnesota. After such a distinguished career, why doesn’t he, indeed, go sit on that porch and watch the grass grow? “I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. There is still too much to be done.” As long as there is a fight to be won, says Matt Little, “I have to get into it.”

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