Gretchen Eure

"That last speech," says Eure, his voice returning to its soft, natural tone, "was given April 3, 1968.
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For more than 30 years, Eure, 53, has traveled the Midlands performing the speeches and works of civil-rights leaders for schoolchildren and civic groups.

"I don't want people to forget," he says.

Sometimes he's King.Other times he's Malcolm X or Frederick Douglass.He recites the poetry of Langston Hughes.

Eure seldom dresses the part.He wears a nondescript suit with a simple tie.He uses words to ignite people's imaginations.He lets his voice stir their souls.The messages, he says, don't need accessories.

"Dr. King and the other people of the civil-rights movement never propped themselves up," he says."Dr.King was just a man who gave himself in the struggle."

As a child, Eure idolized King.
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Eure remembers thinking.
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Eure said his mom grew up in an extremely poor, large family.She told her sons how one winter, her brothers stoked the stove fire with doors in their house just to keep warm.

"She decided when she got old enough that nobody ought to live that way," Eure said.
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"Once a neighbor caught me," Eure recalled."She grabbed me and said: 'Are you Doxie's boy?What are you doing here?' She gave me a whuppin' and sent me home.And I got another whuppin' when I got home."

Eure still calls north Omaha home.For nearly 20 years, he worked at the Urban League on north 24th Street.He now works with youths for Region VI Behavioral Healthcare.His church, Freestone Baptist Church, is on the corner of 40th Street and Ames Avenue.
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Eure tells his children about the people and places of his north Omaha childhood.He wants them to be proud of their community's past.He wants the community to have a future.

"Sometimes as I look at north Omaha, I feel sad," Eure said."I used to say, 'When I die, give my casket one last ride down 24th Street."

The area has seen some revitalization but needs more, he said.

A few years ago, he was performing at Westside High School when several students said they had never visited north Omaha.Their parents, they said, were afraid to drive in that area.

Eure arranged a bus trip for the students.He walked them down 24th Street and spoke of the area's history and its promise.

"I told them: 'See, people in north Omaha do the same things you do.The parents go to work.The kids go to school.The people may be poorer, but we're all the same."

Gretchen Eure said her husband has a gift for uniting people, for helping them understand one another.

She remembers watching her husband portray King at a Metropolitan Community College event a few years ago.