Sat 4/29 @ 1PM
Almost everyone in Cleveland knows of the work or felt the impact of George Hrbek, who passed away in February at the age of 91 and whose life will be celebrated at a community event at Gordon Square’s Capitol Theatre this Saturday.
A Lutheran minister who was a lifelong tireless advocate and activist for social justice, he was primarily associated here in Cleveland with the social services organization, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, where he worked starting in the early ’70s. LMM is known for such outreach ministries as the 2100 Lakeside Men’s Shelter and its Central Kitchen where it prepares food for shelters and community meals and teaches culinary skills to formerly homeless and incarcerated people. Hrbek continued to advocate for those at the bottom of the social food chain until the very end.
Clevelanders are likely to be less aware of Hrbek’s pre-Cleveland civil rights work. In a lengthy story (almost 17,000 words!) by Lynn Burnett, based on an interview with Hrbek last year, he talks about sitting on FDR’s lap when he was 4, his early upbringing in New Jersey and how it steered him in his life’s direction, especially after his father took him on a trip through the south as a teenager and he saw how Black people lives and were treated — and how poor white people were exploited.
In the late 50s through the early 60s, he led a church in Selma, Alabama where he had confrontations with the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council and helped to start a branch of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He moved on to New Orleans where his anti-segregation advocacy created issues and Oklahoma where he advocated for migrant farm workers.
In 1967, he headed north to Chicago to help address the systemic racism there including poverty, de facto school segregation and police brutality. There he had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Dr. King & became friends with the young Black Panther Fred Hampton who was murdered by the police in 1969. He ran into trouble with the church hierarchy for his activism, was stripped of his church in Chicago and Chicago’s loss soon became Cleveland’s gain: he moved here in 1971 to work with the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and became known as a policy advocate standing up for the homeless, the disabled, former felons & those impacted by racism.
A grant for a summer theater program led to one of Cleveland’s most enduring arts institutions: Near West Theatre, founded and led until just recently by the woman who became Hrbek’s wife Stephanie Morrison Hrbek. Its aim then and now was to use theater to give a voice to the unheard, with casts and crews that crossed all racial, ethnic, social-economic, age and experience boundaries so people could experience each other’s diversity while putting on quality theater.
This synopsis barely scratches the surface of Hrbek’s amazing life; the story, though long, is gripping and well worth reading. Find it here. Or listen to the interview here.
The Celebration of Life (which will also be available on Vimeo) will be followed by a reception at Near West Theatre less than two blocks away. Seating is limited but all are welcome.
Join the service on Vimeo here.
Cleveland, OH 44102