Thread by @CAFinUS

Newfoundlanders are well known for lending a hand in a storm.

When USS Truxtun was sinking off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942, Lanier Phillips’ was told he’d be lynched if he made it ashore through the frigid and oil-covered Atlantic waters.

A thread for #MLKDay. #nlwx

Lanier thought his best chance to survive was ashore. On a small raft, he made it through the howling winds, icy waves, and driving sleet to the foot of a towering cliff.

When the Newfoundlanders found him, he was fading in and out of consciousness.

What would they do to him?

He woke and saw women nursing survivors, scrubbing the oil from their skin.

Violet Pike was exasperated.
She couldn’t remove the black from Lanier’s skin. She kept scrubbing and scrubbing to no avail.

"The oil has gotten into his pores. It just won't come off."

Lanier feared what would happen when they realized he was black.

Finally, the young man from Georgia had to tell her. "It's the colour of the skin. You can't get it off.”

He thought it would be the end.

Violet had never seen a black person.

She continued bathing him.
She fed him.
She cared for him.
She took him into her home.

Lanier Phillips sat at her table with her family and ate.

The experience changed him forever.

When he returned home, Lanier became a force for change.

When he became the U.S. Navy's first black sonar technician, when he marched at Selma with #MLK, he never forgot Violet Pike and the Newfoundlanders.

He remembered them for the rest of his life.

"I was healed in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland. To me, it's a lesson in humanity and love for mankind. I just wish other people would experience the same love."

Lanier died in 2012, but he remains with us.

The Newfoundlanders, shrouded in snow, remain a beacon.

#NLStorm | #MLKDay