Conn has been an activist for years
By CHIARA CANZI Special to the Daily Press
The police asked again, less politely this time. He didn’t blink. By this time, hundreds of people had gathered on the sidewalks between Wilshire and Westwood boulevards chanting and cheering the protesters. Reverend James Conn stood in the middle of the intersection, hand-in-hand with a dozen people who, like him, refused to clear the road. On Thursday, April 3, Rev. Conn was arrested.
“It’s not the first time,” he said. On that Thursday, hundreds of activists rallied in Westwood to demand better wages and adequate health care benefits for all of UCLA Medical Center’s employees, regardless of race and class.
“How can you pay them $10 an hour?” he said. “How can you live with $10 an hour? How can you raise a family on $10 an hour?”
Directed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the demonstration bore a symbolic resemblance to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1968 Memphis “I’ve been to the mountaintop,” speech — the day before he was assassinated.
“When I see that kind of struggle, I want to be part of it and fight for them,” he said.
The choice of April 3 for a labor rally was not casual; it was, rather, an emblematic expression of Dr. King’s views of justice for all.
“I have been an activist all my life,” said Rev. Conn. “I grew up in the ‘60s and so, the civil rights movement and the women movement were the root of my life experience and became my passion.”
Rev. Conn was born in a very small town in the Central Valley, but grew up in Stockton. His strict conservative upbringing soon clashed with his desire to explore the human condition, its limitations and its progress.
“I naturally gravitated toward what was just,” said Conn. “I opposed the Vietnam War and that went 180 degrees against my parents’ beliefs.”
After he graduated high school in 1963 he moved to Southern California, he enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he majored in history and speech. Soon after, he moved to his beloved Santa Monica.
“I have been living here for a long time,” he said. “I live in a rent-controlled apartment and I am never leaving!”
Rev. Conn is a small man with a big heart. Before becoming the minister of the Methodist Church in Ocean Park, he dedicated himself to fighting injustice and helping those who, alone, don’t have the power to change the status quo.
“I became a follower of Jesus, because of one thing Jesus said and that’s ‘love God and love your neighbor,’” he said. “Loving your neighbor has to do with justice; it has to do with caring for the stranger, and it has to do with paying fair wages.”
Giving his life to God, he said, was the most simple and best decision of his life; without thinking twice, he enrolled at Claremont School of Theology. But his courageous activism is what sets him apart from the average believer. He has been peacefully demonstrating and protesting the government for more than 40 years.
“I can still remember when a picture of me appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times,” he said. It was 1973. With a group of young clergymen, Rev. Conn set out to conquer injustice in the working fields of Northern California.
“It is a Christian tradition of when Jesus asked one thing only, and that’s to love one another,”he said.“And so this tradition is usually signaled by a gesture and so I was in Coachella with the farm workers.”
The clergy rallied farm workers and placed themselves as a buffer between union members and bikers.
“They had been hired by the growers to protect their fields,” he said. “And there were all these guys with tattoos and chains and we were just standing there with our clerical collars on.”Rev. Conn laughs as he recalls the scene. That was the first time he got arrested for helping others. It would not be an isolated incident.
“Oh, now I lost track,” he said. “Once I got to 20 I literally can’t keep track anymore.”
He had always been considered a radical. The decision to appoint him minister of the Methodist Church in Ocean Park was met by resistance from more conservative members of the faith community.
“A meeting was held amongst the clergy of Santa Monica about what to do with me,” he said. “But the liberal voices prevailed.”
For 22 years, Rev. Conn met with the congregation and fulfilled his duties as a minister. While at his post, he dove into more political enterprises. He was a City Council member for eight years and became mayor of Santa Monica in 1986 and served a two-year term. “It was a rewarding experience, an enriching experience,” he said. “I will never try to do it again, though.”
While mayor, his decisions actively affected the lives of his constituents.
“As an elected official, your job is to be responsive,” he said. “And I am a self-starter.”
Yet, while mayor, Rev. Conn had the chance to learn about the political process, and learn how decisions are made. He started the Ocean Park Community Center for the homeless; he also started several neighborhood associations and organizations that would unite residents for a just cause.
“If you wanted to start a non-profit, I was always in,” he said.
Rev. Conn assumed responsibilities as Director of New Ministries for the California-Pacific Conference in 2005. He previously served as director of urban strategy for the conference. In his new appointment, he had the chance to provide resources to develop new congregations, ministries and grassroots organizations.
“I am responsible for starting new churches, revitalizing churches through revitalizing projects,” he said.“And I am the director of Latino Ministerios, ministries among Latinos.”
Rev. Conn tries to live the perfect balance of faith and radicalism, of poise and unapologetic convictions. He believes the youth is responsible for keeping this world afloat.
“Young people will change the world,” he said. “My family has always supported me. My wife Susan, an activist herself and my son Ethan, a true radical, know why I do this.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 14, 2008. Read the original PDF.