COLUMBUS, Ind. — Retired Cummins Inc. Vice President Donald Trapp has been awarded the local African American Pastors Alliance’s annual Beloved Community Award.
Pastor David C. Bosley presented the honor during the Zoom virtual morning session of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration “The Dream Lives On.” The award recognizes people for years of service to Columbus and Bartholomew County and their efforts in making the area “a beloved community,” according to Bosley.
And though Trapp retired from Cummins in 2008 as vice president of business development, he currently serves on the Columbus Regional Health’s board of trustees.
“I was completely surprised by this,” Trapp said.
He added that when a recent phoned congratulations came about the award, he was ready to pass the phone to wife Shirley, who also has earned accolades for her community work.
Trapp said he witnessed racism amid restaurants he couldn’t eat in and hotels he couldn’t stay in while growing up in segregated Hampton, Virginia, where he said it was stated that Blacks “were separate but equal.”
“That separation was 100 percent,” he said. “The equality was zero.”
But he recalled being inspired by King, and also hearing civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael speak at Virginia State University.
He said that his community work “is part of my responsibility of citizenship.” And he mentioned that the first organization he joined after coming to Columbus in 1973 was the William R. Laws Foundation. Laws was a Presbyterian pastor who championed civil rights locally and nationally.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
