Hal Sieber, a pictorial remembrance

At the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, 1960s

















With poet Ezra Pound and US Rep. Usher Burdick, 1950s

















At the opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, Greensboro, 2010

















At the civil rights museum on the 47th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, August 2010
















With Carolina Peacemaker owner Vickie Kilimanjaro (left) and Alexis Anderson

Previous posting on this topic. (link here)

Hal Sieber, rest in peace

Sieber at home in Greensboro last year.

Hal Sieber, a noted civil rights advocate, publicist, poet and editor, died yesterday evening at a nursing home in High Point. The cause was cardiac arrest, his daughter, Paula Sieber, said.

Hal Sieber was 80.

This is a very sad time for me personally, for Hal’s daughter, Paula, and other family; for his companion, Pat Staley; and for his many friends.

Some background here (click on link)

UPDATE: Sieber's funeral will take place at Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home, located at 515 N. Elm St. in Greensboro, on Monday at 10 a.m. A visitation will take place afterwords. The funeral home has a tribute page (link here set up on its website.

Flashes of the old Hal at Golden Living Center

Hal Sieber was seated in a wheelchair in his room at Golden Living Center this afternoon positively beaming. It's the first time I've seen him out of bed since he went into the hospital in late September. His face has thinned somewhat and his arms are soft and pale. Otherwise, he's the same ebullient bear I first met in the Border's cafe on High Point Road holding forth and orchestrating the salon.

The reason for his high spirits was seated in the corner. Pat Staley has known Hal for 60 years. She grew up in Greensboro. He came from Hendersonville. They met at UNC Chapel Hill around 1950.

"We dated in college, and then went our separate ways," Staley said. "He's been married a couple times, and I've been married a couple times."

Before he went into the hospital, Hal liked to show visitors to his apartment a framed black and white photograph of Pat as a young woman in a one-piece bathing suit with thick, dark hair spilling down her back and head turned with a sidelong glance over her shoulder. It stays in his bedroom.

"I think she's the most beautiful person in the world," Hal said. "She's a good person."

"He may be a little biased," Pat replied modestly.

A nurse named Marissa walked in the room to check Hal's blood pressure and attend to his roommate, Jerome.

Hal made introductions, and grasped Marissa by the arm.

"The only person who stood up for me when the whole damn hospital was trying to run me into the ground is Marissa," he said. "I appreciate it."

Searching for Hal Sieber

I've been searching in vain for my friend, Hal Sieber, today. We set out to complete 12 installments in a series of articles about his life. We made it to nine before his health problems put the project on hold.

Forward: Explaining an experiment with serialized biography
Chapter 1: A poet’s question: Is God done with man? Part I
Chapter 2: Hal Sieber’s report for the Library of Congress helped free poet Ezra Pound
Chapter 3: A poet’s question: Is God done with man? Part II
Chapter 4: A friendship prompted more than four decades of work on sit-in commemorations
Chapter 5: Hal Sieber’s public relations battle for school integration
Chapter 6: Hal Sieber: Peacemaker, man of letters and political mover
Chapter 7: A decade as consultant for a low-income homebuilder with a controversial legacy
Chapter 8: A lifetime commitment to peace and justice is confirmed
Chapter 9: A Greensboro civil rights veteran displays feisty take on notable anniversary
Epilogue: Hal Sieber came back from the dead on Saturday

I miss him terribly. If anyone has any information about his whereabouts and condition, I would be grateful to receive it.

UPDATE: I'm happy to report that Hal's caregiver has contacted me. She called this morning and put him on the phone. Hal is in a rehabilitation center in Greensboro. When I talked to him he was in good spirits and very engaged, although he said his heart rate is too high. I've contacted some close friends who were also wondering where he was and how he was doing.

Reactions to Glenn Beck at civil rights museum panel discussion

At a panel discussion today at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro entitled “From the 1963 March on Washington to the 1965 Voting Rights Act” it was probably inevitable that sooner or the subject of conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s mass rally at the Lincoln Memorial would be broached.

Hal Sieber, former public relations director for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and former editor of the Carolina Peacemaker, was the first to go there.

“We have no business protecting this country – this beautiful country – from rascals, crooks, scum like Mr. Beck – just to mention someone casually – and even some of these great political leaders of our Congress who are playing acting because they don’t want the issue raised," he said. "You’re going to see bills passed very shortly that are being raised to shut people like me up. I’m not going to be shut up.”

The comment was elicited by a question about how the election of the first African-American president has affected race relations in the United States. Panelist Linda Brown, professor of English at Bennett College, also answered the question by remarking on Beck’s popularity.

“Obviously, we were all looking for that reaction,” she said. “If we didn’t know that would happen, we’re pretty naïve and innocent. I think this about it: I think that the election of Obama has revealed what was already there. The wound that started with the Middle Passage – and I don’t mean this lightly – the wound that started with slavery and the Middle Passage that culminated in the Civil War, that resulted in Jim Crow and segregation has never been healed. And folks who are going to Mr. Beck’s rally are still fighting the Civil War and want to open up the Civil War again. And what it has done for us – although it is extremely painful to live through – is to say, ‘Wake up and stop being in denial about how deep this ugliness runs in your country.’

“Poor President Obama, I think about him every day, that he is the catalyst for the healing of America, which is the most positive way that you can look at this ugliness that we have to live with. So yes, his election has not made it worse; his election has made it true.”