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In Memoriam

Grace Henderson McMullen Littlejohn
1918 -  2017

by Diane Sare
May 2017

Diane Sare is the founder of the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, and currently directs the New Jersey and newly established Brooklyn Choruses of the Schiller Institute. She studied music education and trombone performance at New England Conservatory in Boston, before meeting associates of Lyndon LaRouche and the Schiller Institute in the 1980’s. The message of the Schiller Institute—for a true dialogue among civilizations, and a commitment to the right of every human being to progress—resonated with her New England Quaker upbringing, and she has been a collaborator of Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche since that time. Diane is a national leader of the LaRouche Policy Committee, the Manhattan Project, and a former candidate for Federal and State office.

A PDF version of this article appears in the May 5, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review and is re-published here with permission.

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Grace Henderson McMullen Littlejohn

May 2, 2017—On April 4, 2017, I happened to be in Washington, D.C. and fortunately decided to drop in on an old friend. Although she appeared much more frail than when I had last visited 2 years ago, Grace Littlejohn was up on her feet, asking me “What kind of mess are y’all in now?”

She pointedly asked me, “Do you remember that book LaRouche put out on the Conspiracy to Destroy our Schools? ” “Yes,” I replied, “You mean The Libertarian Conspiracy to Destroy America’s Schools.” She nodded and went to a chair and pulled up the report, which was clearly well read and studied. At the ripe old age of 99, she was still completely preoccupied with the question of the education of America’s children.

Also, at the age of 99, she had re-written her 1955 Master’s Thesis and had it published by Crystal Stairs, Inc. in Palm Beach, Florida. It was called, History of the College Library, Livingston College, First Library 1888-1954. She proudly gave me a copy, and pointed to the page about herself which was a chronology of her collaboration with one of America’s greatest thinkers, Lyndon LaRouche.

What Grace represented is a commitment to the future, typified by a number of remarkable individuals of her generation, including mathematician Katherine Johnson (now famous because of the film Hidden Figures), the assassinated President John F Kennedy (b. 1917), and Lyndon LaRouche (b. 1922), among others. Grace graduated from Livingston College in 1938 with BS degrees in both mathematics and natural science. After earning her Masters in Library Science in 1955, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she taught mathematics in a few different middle schools, and then moved on to become the head librarian at the prestigious Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.

One of Frederick Douglass’s grandsons, Haley George Douglass, had taught math and science at Dunbar High School until just 8 years before Grace Littlejohn became its librarian. He was a graduate of Exeter Academy and Harvard University. His half brother had been the famous violinist Joseph Douglass, the first African-American musician to ever be recorded by the Victor Talking Machines Company. Grace often lamented that the desegregation of Washington, D.C.’s all-Black schools had been used to devastate the formerly very high standard that they had kept—Dunbar the highest of all.

After retiring from teaching, Grace got involved in politics, in the Democratic Party and in the neighborhood, where she became an elected representative of the “Advisory Neighborhood Commission.” It was in this capacity that she received a phone call from long-time LaRouche associate Dr. Ernest Schapiro, who was coordinating distribution of the just released Ugly Truth About the ADL” (She used to love calling it “the truth about the ugly ADL.”) While she doesn’t mention the book by name, she wrote the following in her paper:

From History of the College Library—Livingstone College, p. 77:

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EIRNS/Stuart Lewis
Grace Littlejohn on Oct. 15, 1996, at the Washington, D.C. Federal Courthouse, after she joined the LaRouche lawsuit against Democratic National Committee Chairman Donald Fowler.

“Mrs. (McMullen) Littlejohn, a successful educator, is proud to say that she sponsored the first official student voter registration and education campaign which served as a major impetus for the election of a student representative to the D.C. School Board. She became very concerned that after 35 years of positive relationships with students, it became very, very hard to motivate them. She realized then that not the school personnel, nor the parents, nor the strong community organizations are totally to blame. Mrs. Littlejohn believes that outside evil forces are causing the collapse of our educational system, our community and our homes, thus damaging our children’s rightful inheritance to a good education. This belief motivated Mrs. Littlejohn to continue fighting for social justice and civil rights through her participation with the Schiller Institute. In 1994, Mrs. Littlejohn became a candidate for the Board of Education in Ward 4 on the Lyndon LaRouche ticket. The question was asked, ‘Why Lyndon LaRouche?’ The answer, ‘I have read literature published by associates of LaRouche, I have spoken with Mr. LaRouche. I asked him, What can you do for our children, especially our minority children who are being destroyed? He responded that he would do what he could. He is among the few who have openly said to me that the deep-rooted problems in the Afro-American and minority communities can be traced to the funneling of drugs into these communities.’ ”

She then goes on to describe joining the lawsuit filed by LaRouche and several of his voters in 1996, when the Democratic Party refused to allow delegates to be assigned to Mr. LaRouche at the national convention, even though LaRouche had garnered the requisite 15% or more of the vote in certain Congressional Districts in the Democratic Presidential Primary Election. Grace writes:

Mrs. Littlejohn’s civil rights were violated by the National Democratic Party—a party that Mrs. Littlejohn had been a member of for over 52 years—and by the D.C. State Democratic party.

Grace Henderson McMullen Littlejohn peacefully passed away on Monday, April 17, 2017. All those who spoke about Grace Littlejohn at her funeral spoke of her “sassy, but graceful” defiance of popular opinion. Several laughingly told how she would ask their views on various matters and possible courses of action, but then would, “go on and do exactly what she intended to do, as if you’d never said anything.” Her life and story are a vivid reminder of a true American Spirit which can be reignited today by LaRouche’s leadership. She would appreciate that commitment—to be what she called “servant leaders” for mankind.