TORRANCE TRIBUNE February 16, 2017 Page 5 AutoZone BRING A USED OIL FILTER AND GET A NEW ONE FOR FREE!* 17490 Hawthorne Blvd. Torrance, CA 90504 SATURDAY February 18, 2017 9:00am - 1:00pm *Open to City of Torrance residents only. Residents may receive up to 2 new filters in exchange for 2 used filters. While supplies last. RESIDENTS WHO BRING IN USED OIL OR USED FILTERS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A FREE MOTOR OIL CHANGE KIT! RESIDENTS MUST BRING A USED OIL FILTER TO THE STORE TO RECEIVE A NEW FREE OIL FILTER. USED OIL MUST BE PROPERLY STORED IN A CLEAN, UNCONTAMINATED CONTAINER. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL (562) 944-4766 TerriAnn in Torrance A Visit with Councilman Milton Herring Story and Photos by TerriAnn Ferren February is Black History Month, so I decided with that in mind to visit with Torrance City Councilman Milton S. Herring I. One of six children, Milton was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating high school and spending a year-and-a-half working for the Ford Motor Company, Milton went into the Air Force during the Vietnam Era. It was at his first duty station at Mather Air Force Base, in Sacramento, California, where Milton met his future wife Cinda Finch. They married in Sacramento and then headed off to Milton’s next assignment at Yokota Air Force Base in Japan. While in Japan, the couple were involved in the chapel services at Yokota and that year the chaplain announced that he was going to have a memorial service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. “The significant thing about that is that he was a white chaplain and coming out of Detroit at that time, I was pretty much a militant…and to hear that a white chaplain was going to talk about my hero--our hero--Martin Luther King, Jr.--I just didn’t see how he was going to know anything or have anything relevant to say about Dr. King,” said Milton. He told me he showed up at that service and sat in the front row with his arms folded, but that meeting ended up having a profound effect on his life. Milton continued, “His message was so dynamic. It was so moving, that by the end of the service my arms were no longer folded. I was sitting on the edge of my seat and I was captivated by the way he honored Martin Luther King’s life. He really talked about his life of service and giving. It was during that service that something began to happen. At the end, I told him I wanted to meet and talk with him.” Milton explained that the chaplain basically discipled him and it was a turning point in his life. “He helped me decide what I wanted to do with my life--and come to grips with my going into the ministry.” They started having weekly meetings and he told him, “I want to do for others what you did for me,” added Milton. At that point, Milton knew ministry is where his path was leading. Honorably discharged from the Air Force, Milton headed to college full-time. He completed his undergraduate degree at the college Martin Luther King, Jr. attended—Morehouse College--and later attained a Masters of Divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He later would obtain his Doctorate of Ministry from the Southern California School of Ministry. All this was going on while life was happening, as Milton and Cinda welcomed sons Milton, Jr., Maurice and Marcus into their family. The Herrings made their way to California when Milton began working with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. He decided to pursue a career as a chaplain when asked, “How would you like to become an Army Chaplain in the Reserves?” Milton accepted the position, spending 24 years as an Army chaplain. That position required short deployments for six months to a year in various places including Washington State, North Carolina and Ohio. But it wasn’t until the Iraq War that he was deployed with his unit to the Middle East in 2004/2005 for a year, and back again in 2008/2009. Milton explained, “It was the best thing working with and ministering to young men 18, 19, 20-year-old soldiers who are doing the ‘war-fighting,’ as we called it, ministering to them, praying with them before they went out on convoys, and being there to counsel them, provide spiritual guidance to them, as well as give an overall spiritual religious support to several thousand men and women who were deployed. I worked long hours and days, but it was so rewarding. Hot desert, living in tents some of the time, but there were some baptisms in makeshift baptism pools in the sand. One young man worked in woodshop and he built this wooden box--really is what it was--and he put a lining in it and we asked the fire department to come out and put water in it and we were baptizing one Easter morning.” The Herrings settled in Torrance in 1990 with Milton, Jr. in high school, Maurice in middle school, and Marcus in grammar school. So while Milton was traveling around, he called Torrance his home base and told me, “What’s not to like about Torrance?” I asked Milton when his community service began and he told me an amazing story: “Being involved with the community is something I was always raised with,” he said. “In the South, in Birmingham, my grandparents were very much community-minded and involved with civil rights. They did [meet Martin Luther King] and I got to meet him when I was a little boy.” Milton went on to explain, “When we moved to Detroit, our extended family still lived in Birmingham so we would go back during the summers. One summer, maybe 1959/1960, I was young…my grandfather James Revis was very much involved with civil rights--their house was bombed three different times--and they were part of the movement that would later become the Southern Christian Leadership Movement. They became connected with Dr. King’s movement, so when he was having his annual meeting at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia and I went along. We chartered a bus and they allowed me to go along with them. I thought we were going on some sort of field trip to have fun. I was nine or 10… and as I am on the bus with all these adults and I am looking for children and I remember getting off the bus and I read the sign, Martin Luther King, Jr. and I had the thought, ‘Hey, children are going to be here,’ I sat in what was a very boring meeting. Dr. King was leading some kind of business meeting and then at the end of this very long meeting, my mother said we are going to go around and shake hands and my dad said, ‘Yes you are coming.’ I remember putting my hand in his [Martin Luther King’s] massive hand and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is a soft, big hand!’ That was my encounter with Dr. King. So he always made an impression on me, making a difference in the community and the world.” It was when Milton lived in Atlanta attending seminary that he met “Daddy King” (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s father) and his wife Alberta, and did some volunteer work with Coretta Scott King, helping stuff envelopes, among other tasks. “So somewhere along the line, my parents always worked to make the community better than when they arrived,” said Milton. “Some years ago I remember going into [Torrance] City Hall talking with Sue Herbers [former City Clerk] about what would be required to get involved in Torrance, and she told me to get involved with community groups and later apply to be on a commission. My wife had been appointed to one of the civil service commissions first because she was at a meeting with former Mayor Dee Hardison who said, ‘We need more people to get involved to be on commissions.’ She came home, applied and was appointed to the Civil Service Commission in 2002. Then I was deployed and she had to resign to spend more time with the family.” Milton retired from the United States Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2009. Milton was appointed to the Traffic Commission in 2012, followed by an unsuccessful bid for City Council in 2014. He was then appointed to the Planning Commission in 2014. Milton told me, “I was so well-received by the citizens of Torrance. Torrance has a reputation, among some people, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, as not being very accepting to other races, especially people of color. I wondered in the back of my mind if I would be accepted, but I can tell you there was never an issue. Walking the neighborhoods again while running for Council the second time, people opening their doors, receiving me in their homes…it was very refreshing. I worked hard and it wasn’t easy. I am grateful for my wife, being away from home the long hours, and the financial commitment that it took. I couldn’t have done it without her and her support.” Milton Herring won his Council bid on June 7, 2016 with 13,789 votes and he told me not one person has ever told him they voted for him because he was black. Not one. “I think that is the beauty of it--that we have gotten beyond that,” said Milton. Councilman Herring told me, “My goal is to be the best Councilmember as I can possibly be. What I am learning, is there are so many people willing to teach you, guide you, instruct and share with you. All you have to do is ask. It has been fabulous. The staff of Torrance is simply amazing. These people are well-qualified, well-educated, and they love working for the City of Torrance and it shows. The other Councilmembers have been very open, welcoming and receptive. We do have our disagreements, but we have not been disagreeable with each other. I don’t believe my race, being black, has been a factor at all and I haven’t made it one--and no one else has made it one. We are just people, citizens that happen to be in the wonderful city of Torrance.” Milton Herring is a minister and he and Cinda serve at a non-denominational church, Living Word Christian Church in Torrance. “I am able to separate that [ministry] with my duties to serve and do the very best to serve with excellence,” he said. “It is an honor for me to be the first elected black American [on Torrance City Council] and hope I won’t be the last. I hope I am opening the door for others to come.” • Councilman Milton Herring, his wife Cinda and family.
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