FLAG'S MODEST RESCUER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400010009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 2000
• Sequence Number: 9
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW. YORK TIMES
Appro?ved.,for R 0 C P75-00
Rpm T_'14 Adge
r Emerson Player
0
A CCRA, Ghana, Feb. 10-"I
Cl don't know what all this
fuss is about," Adger Emer-
son. Player said last week
when informed that a member
of Congress had recommended
him for the Freedom Award,
the highest United States
honor for a civilian. The
"fuss" began last Tuesday,
when Mr. Player
Man bulled through a
in the crowd of Ghanaian
demonstrators who
News were about to tear
up the United
States flag outside the Amer-
ican Embassy. He. grabbed
the halyard just as the flag
was about to touch the
ground and ran the flag back
up the pole.
For this action Mr. Player
received two more notices to-
day: a personal letter from
President Johnson praising
him for his bravery and vili-
fication . by The Ghanaian
Times.
When Mr. Player was told
of the medal suggested by
Representative Oliver P. Bol-?
ton, Republican of Ohio, he
remarked with a shrug:
"I just happened to be the
closest. 'Anybody would have
done the same thing."
'It's All Been ExaggeratedP
As for talk?aboutgetting a
medal:
"It's all been exaggerated.
I.just hope it doesn't go any
farther. It would cheapen the
award to equate what I did
as being worthy of such an
honor."
Such modesty is typical of
Mr. Player, a 31-year-old Ne-
gro with the build of a half-
back and the manner of a
scholar.
Born May 6, 1932, in Den-
ver, he attended East Denver
High School, managed a B-
,.minus average and went out
for football, basketball and
baseball "but I never got a
'letter in anything."
When he was admitted to
the University of Colorado at
Boulder there was no quest-
tion but that he would have
Associated Prey
Nonplused by the "fuss"
cott campaign directed at the
Woolworth chain.
Armed with a B.A. and a
scholarship, he went to Ger-
many and studied a year at
Erlangen University near
Nuremberg, then served two
years as an enlisted man in
the Army In Germany and
France. He already spoke'.
Spanish and his years in Eu-
rope gave him fluent German
and French.
After discharge he returned
to Boulder, where he took an
M.A. in political science,
concentrating on Africa. This
time he avoided sports and
managed nearly straight A's.
He also met Barbara Brown
a girl from Okmulgee, Okla,
who was teaching at the Con
.'vent of the Good Shepherd
School for Deliquent Girls in
Denver. Five months after the
first date they were married.
, Takes a 'Dull' Job
Moses Player, his 70-year-old a --auw job in Washington
father, was gassed in France doing research on French-
'in World War I and receives speaking Africa for the
disability pension. His mother Army. But he didn't stay
. worked as. a cook at Color- long. In 1962 he was accepted
'ado Woman's College in into the Foreign Service as a i
Denver. noncareer officer.
Studied in Germany Ghana is Mr. Player's first i
post. He and his wife now
College, he recalls, was have two children, Marzella,
much the same as high school: 3, and Monte, 9 months, who.
"Got the same B-minus ma- was born In Accra.
joring in international rela- Mr. Player works In the
tions and played, the same embassy's political section.
football, basketball and base- "But the staff is so small you
ball Without winning a letter." have a hand in everything,"
While at Boulder be took he said. "Economics. ? Labor.
part In demonstrations in sup- The legal side of things."
port of the sit-ins in the South "And of course," he added,
Approved For Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400010009-4