DC Neighbors Celebrate 100th Birthday of WWII Veteran, Civil Rights Pioneer
WTOP, Jan. 7, 2024. Ed. 👑
The lobby of a D.C. apartment building was decorated with balloons and streamers, tables were laden with party food and Champagne corks popped, as guests toasted Thompkins Hallman who was born on Jan. 2, 1924.
As his Lanier neighbors inside the seven-story apartment building near Adams Morgan sang happy birthday, the guest of honor bounded down the steps and took his place in the center of the lobby, sporting a cardboard, gold-colored crown atop his head to mark the occasion.
“I take it one day at a time and [do] whatever I decide I want to do. I get up in the morning. I have a bath. I read my Upper Room (a daily devotional) and then I kneel and say a prayer, ‘thank God for a restful night and waking up this morning,'” Hallman said with a plastic flute of Champagne in his hand. “I have breakfast, I have my black cup of coffee, I read the Washington Post and I’m ready for the day.”
Asked to what he attributes his longevity Hallman answered without hesitation: “Psalm 139,” which is a psalm about an ever-present God. He is there when I go out, when I come in, when I stand, when I sit. He knows my thoughts before I speak … God is in control. He knows how long we all live. Some he takes early some he takes late,” Hallman said.. He was also an early civil rights, pioneer protesting segregation in public places in D.C., more than a decade before Rosa Parks sparked a Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in 1955...
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https://wtop.com/dc/2024/01/dc-neighbors-celebrate-100th-birthday-of-world-war-ii-vet-civil-rights-pioneer/