In the summer of 1963 the Rev. Ken Mochel and his wife Audrey joined a group of black students picketing for equal racial rights outside a Daytona Beach, Fla., drug store.
The drug store, which had a lunch counter, refused to let African-Americans eat inside its premises – a segregation policy followed by Florida restaurants at the time.
The protest was peaceful but what happened next mirrored the tumultuousness of the emerging civil rights movement of the 1960s. An off-duty police officer tried to strike Ken Mochel with his car. Mochel, who was standing on the sidewalk, was brushed on his side much to the horror of his wife, who was sitting in the couple’s nearby car with their infant son.
“The message was clear. They didn’t want us staying in Florida,’’ Audrey Mochel, a former teacher, recalled last week. “They thought threatening would be enough.’’
The threat didn’t work. The Mochels stayed in Daytona Beach and helped usher in equal rights for all races to eat inside restaurants by 1965. The threat also galvanized the couple’s lifelong resolve to follow the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and fight for racial equality and social justice for all.
This month, the Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP will honor the Mochels – who now live in Auburn – and three other Central New York residents as the recipients of the organization’s 12th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Millennium Award.
“These people are exemplary role models in their community for the work they do. Dr. King was a role model and also a leader, and these people lead so there is equality and justice for all people,’’ said Eli Hernandez, president of the local NAACP branch.
At a Jan.11 lunch, the organization will also honor the Rev. Paul Carter, who has managed the historic Harriet Tubman Home since 1990, Norman Lee, student activities director at Cayuga Community College, and Gertrude Richardson, who worked for more than 25 years at the Booker T. Washington Community Center. The late John Humphrey, a minister and past president of the local NAACP, will be inducted posthumously into the organization’s hall of fame.
Lee, who has served on many community organizations aimed at improving racial relationships, said he is inspired by the award to continue helping others.
“I really try not to see color. I just enjoy people and I try to make the world better,’’ said Lee, 44, who lives in Syracuse.
Ken Mochel, who served as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Auburn from 1999 to 2009, said he drew inspiration from King’s teachings “to stand up for what you believe in even if it means going to jail.’’
For the past two years, he and his wife – both now in their mid-70s – continue to sow seeds for social justice. They started a community garden that provides thousands of dollars worth of vegetables for local food pantries.
“Ken and I do what we do because we were given so much in life,’’ Audrey Mochel said. “I never thought of us as heroes.’’
Scott Rapp can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org or 289-4839