Black History Breakfast 2026 Emcee
On February 4, our own Brenda Beadenkopf was honored to be emcee for the Cass County Black History Breakfast from 7:30-9:30am, hosted and sponsored by the Council on Aging, the Social Justice Alliance of Cass County, and 
the Minority Coalition of Cass County in Cassopolis, Michigan.
She started the morning off by telling some Black History stories from her own Philadelphia Quaker upbringing. How her Quaker parents raised her and her five siblings in two communities that intentionally raised their children with Black, White, Jewish and Asian neighbors during the 1950’s and 60’s, when defacto racial segregation was the norm.
Brenda also talked of her mother Marian Walker helping to de-segregate traditionally Black Cheyney University when it was Cheyney College, by being the first hiring for a racial quota in its Administration after Civil Rights legislation was enacted.
Beadenkopf conclud
ed her talk with the amazing story of her Philadelphia Quaker father, Charlie Walker, who worked with Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights Movement as an expert in nonviolence, who assisted with training the leaders in nonviolence and writing training materials. She put in a plug for her books written about her parents, A Quaker Behind the Dream:Charlie Walker and the Civil Rights Movement, sold on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and read two selections from letters from King to Walker, one of them with King writing: “Let me express my personal appreciation to you for the interest you have taken in our struggle. Your moral support and Christian generosity give us renewed courage and vigor to carry on.”
Yearly Meeting 2025
The past summer of 2025, mid-July, found Brenda Beadenkopf and her husband Will at the Quaker (Friends) Yearly Meeting in Ohio enjoying brisk sales of her books, A Quaker Behind the Dream: Charlie Walker and the Civil Rights Movement, Volumes 1 and 2, and the handbook Organizing for Nonviolent Direct Action written by her father, which she has reprinted. Along with her two-part TRI-FOLD displays –- one for each Volume --- was an eye-catching, poster of with a huge portrait of Charlie. Many people in the halls stopped to talk with Will and Brenda about THE QUAKER INFULENCE ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. An addition this year at the booth was Dr. Thomas Devol, PhD, who is retired and now supplementing his income by selling Brenda’s books in upper New York state with knowledge and enthusiasm. Thank you, Dr. Devol!
Middle School Underground Railroad Docents
Will and Brenda, as members of the Board of the Underground Railroad Society of Cass County, Michigan, were tour guides
twice in April to give area elementary students a visit to the past at the Bonine House Carriage House on M-60, Cassopolis. First was a group of about 100 Second Graders from Elkhart, and then a few days later, 66 Fifth Graders from Sam Adams Elementary visited.
The Sam Adams fifth graders also participated in a bus trip to the sites of the Kentucky Raid of 1847 which took place in this very area. Students learned how Quakers and others in the communities of Cassopolis and Vandalia sent away empty-handed Kantucky slave catchers who had attempted to recapture at least nine Freedom Seekers staying on local farms.
July 25 and 27 2024
QUAKERS IN TWO CENTURIES IN CELEBRATION OF SADSBURY FRIENDS (QUAKER) MEETING'S 300TH ANNIVERSARY
BRENDA WALKER BEADENKOPF PRESENTED: QUAKERS IN TWO CENTURIES
PART 1 --- Her Quaker Ancestors in the 1850s and '60s: Sadsbury Meeting and the Underground Railroad, Thursday July 25, Christiana Historical Society (6PM) *Note
PART 2 --- Her Philadelphia Quaker fa
ther in the 1950s and '60s: Charles Coates Walker worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, July 27, Sadsbury Friends Meeting (10AM)
Along with celebrating George Fox's 400th Birthday in July of 1624
