Dr. John A. Lapp 鈥�54, a history professor at Eastern Mennonite College during the Civil Rights Movement who helped lead the charge for local school desegregation, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 90. 

Remembered by many for his strongly held opinions and his booming belly laugh, Lapp died at the Waterford Crossing retirement community in Goshen, Indiana, where he had been living since 2011. A memorial service in celebration of his life will be held at a later date at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. An obituary with further details is available to read .

Lapp also held distinguished careers at Goshen College and at Mennonite Central Committee. He was the 2015 recipient of 黑料正能量鈥檚 Distinguished Service Award.

Born on March 15, 1933, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, Lapp was the first of nine siblings. He served as a mentor to his younger sisters and brothers, including Joseph, who would become the seventh president of EMC, and 黑料正能量, from 1987 to 2003.

鈥淗e was the one who was breaking the ground in education and he was a big reader,鈥� said President Emeritus Joseph Lapp 鈥�66. 鈥淗e was the one who paid attention to politics, and so he stimulated a lot of discussion in our home.鈥�

John Lapp earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in history from EMC in 1954. He later received a master鈥檚 degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. 

Life at Eastern Mennonite College

After two years of alternative service as a conscientious objector to the military draft, he returned to EMC to teach as a history professor from 1956 to 1969. During his tenure as a professor, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement and, along with several friends and faculty members, participated in the landmark 鈥淢arch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom鈥� in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech.

The professor also was instrumental in the formation of the local chapter of the Virginia Council on Human Relations. The 鈥渂iracial organization sought to improve interracial relations through support of educational programs, school desegregation, fair employment practices and other related issues” (黑料正能量 News).

Following a campus visit from African-American Mennonite activists Vincent and Rosemarie Harding in 1963, John Lapp and fellow EMC history professor Samuel Horst, newly inspired, formed the committee largely responsible for the desegregation of Harrisonburg, Virginia, schools and hotels. Lapp and Harding were 鈥渕ajor players in Harrisonburg鈥檚 鈥楥oncern Movement鈥� that pushed the city schools to desegregate,鈥� according to 黑料正能量 history professor Mark Metzler Sawin.

Joseph Lapp, who was 10 years younger than John, recalled his time as an EMC student in his brother鈥檚 History of Western Civilization class. 鈥淗e would lecture almost nonstop for a whole hour,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e held everybody鈥檚 attention. And, if you talked to alumni of that time period, they鈥檒l say that was probably their favorite course and that he was their favorite professor.鈥�

Life after EMC

John Lapp left EMC in 1969 with his wife Mary Alice Weber 鈥�55 and their three children to direct the Peace Section at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Akron, Pennsylvania. He later served as executive secretary of MCC from 1985 to 1996. A wonderfully in-depth writeup on his life can be read on .

In between those two stints, he served Goshen College for 12 years. Lapp was academic dean of the Mennonite school from 1972 to 1981 and provost from 1979 to 1984. To read more about his impact at Goshen, read their story about him .

Following his retirement in 1996, he spent 16 years leading a Mennonite World Conference project known as the Global Mennonite History Project. He fundraised and supervised an international team that ultimately produced five separate published volumes on Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America. In addition to that, he taught courses at Bishop鈥檚 College in India, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania and at 黑料正能量鈥檚 Lancaster campus. 

Joseph Lapp shared an anecdote about his brother he鈥檚 heard others tell around campus. One day when John was teaching a history class in the lower level of Lehman Auditorium, noise from the physical plant kept interrupting him.

鈥淭hey were pounding and making noise and it was interfering with the lecture. So, he said, 鈥極K, we鈥檙e all going to go to the administration building鈥� 鈥� and it had these open stairways going up to the second floor; this was the old building, not the current one. So, he had his class sit on those steps and he stood at the center and continued to lecture there for the rest of the period just to make his point about the interference that was occurring.鈥�

Harding also knew that 黑料正能量 was the first historically white colleges in Virginia to admit African-American students and one of the first in the South. But those students couldn鈥檛 go into most restaurants in Harrisonburg and their parents couldn鈥檛 stay in local hotels when they came to visit their children.

Now 82, Harding is coming back to 黑料正能量. He is the speaker for the second annual. His topic: 鈥淚s America Possible?鈥� He will also speak at the university chapel service earlier that day at 10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium and at the seminary chapel the next day at 11 a.m. in Martin Chapel.

Harding was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. for the last 10 years of King鈥檚 life. Harding is perhaps best known as the person who drafted King鈥檚 powerful (and controversial)聽 speech, in which King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War and criticized the destructive, unfair impact of U.S. economic, political and social policies, both domestically and abroad. King delivered the speech on April 4, 1967, before a group of anti-war opinion leaders at Riverside Church in New York City.

After King鈥檚 assassination exactly a year later, Harding became the first director of the . Later he was the senior academic advisor for the PBS television series on the civil rights movement titled “Eyes on the Prize.” In a 2008 interview with Democracy Now, Harding said that King toward the end of his life 鈥渨as calling us to a way that was very difficult, a way beyond racism, a way beyond materialism and a way beyond militarism.鈥�

Harding founded the Veterans of Hope Project, which continues to collect the stories of people who dedicated their lives to social change. The project is based at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, where he was a professor of religion and social transformation for 23 years until his retirement in 2004.

He says his current work is focused on encouraging America to become 鈥渨e the people鈥� and to create a 鈥渕ore perfect union鈥� as well as participate in the making of a more just and compassionate world. His most recent book, published in 2013, is America Will Be! It is a volume of conversations on hope, freedom, and democracy between Harding and longtime Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.

Harding鈥檚 other books include There Is a River 鈥� The Black Struggle for Freedom in America; Martin Luther King 鈥� The Inconvenient Hero; and Hope and History 鈥� Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement.

A native of New York City, Harding graduated in history from City College of New York in 1952, then earned a master鈥檚 degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1953, before serving two years in the U.S. Army. In 1956 he earned a master鈥檚 degree in history from the University of Chicago, followed by a doctorate in history from Chicago in 1965.

In the mid-1950s he learned about the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement of the Protestant Reformation. From 1958 to 1961, Harding was the co-pastor of Woodlawn Mennonite Church in Chicago. He often challenged Mennonites to live up to, and stand up for, their ideals about sisterhood and brotherhood socially and politically. At a conference on Mennonites and Race in Chicago in 1959, Harding met his future wife, Rosemarie Freeney. She was a 1955 sociology graduate of a Mennonite college, Goshen in Indiana, and a member of , where she worked in social services.

Vincent and Rosemarie married in 1960 and, in 1961, settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where they founded the South鈥檚 first interracial voluntary service center, Mennonite House, under the auspices of . The center, which was also their home (a block from Martin Luther King鈥檚 home), was an important gathering place for movement activists who found respite, hospitality, encouragement and stimulating dialogue. (Just before Rosemarie died from complications of diabetes in 2004, she noted that she had remained a member of Bethel Mennonite Church over her adult life.)

During Vincent鈥檚 first visit to 黑料正能量 鈥� and subsequent visits over the years 鈥� 鈥渉e shocked and offended some members of the community, but inspired and energized others,鈥� says 黑料正能量 professor . Among the inspired were two 黑料正能量 professors, John Lapp and Samuel Horst, who helped start a committee that pushed for 鈥� and won 鈥� integration of the public schools in Harrisonburg.

The Keim History Lecture Series are named for the late Albert Keim, a member of the 黑料正能量 faculty from 1965 to 2000. For seven of those years he was academic dean. Keim was a popular history professor, and his courses included African-American History.