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Turbulent
This Lent, let us borrow from the wisdom of one of the most turbulent times in American history. You are invited to use this collection as a devotional for Lent 2024 by following the dates listed.
In divinity school, I was taught that the Civil Rights Movement was a religious movement. Not only were the leaders of the movement Sunday School teachers, choir directors, deacons and pastors but the moral crux of the movement could be found in the Gospels.
What follows are critical moments/morals of the Civil Rights Movement, delivered to you through the words of the movement's leaders themselves. These moments/morals are presented in chronological order. In order to help you reflect upon the love and commitment of Jesus as he moved toward the cross, I have curated excerpts from speeches, sermons, songs, and writings describing the struggles and ideals that shaped America in a time of great turbulence.
Please understand that these are actual quotations from people who experienced extreme brutality and traumatic terrorist attacks. These texts are not appropriate for children. These texts should only be shared with youth with proper support. You are responsible for that support.
This collection for Lent features the words of these leaders:
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Bayard Rustin
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Langston Hughes
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Earl Warren
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Mamie Till
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Rosa Parks
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Lorraine Hansberry
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Ella Baker
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Odetta Holmes
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Casey Hayden
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John Lewis
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Rachel Carson
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Martin King
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John Kennedy
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Walter Reuther
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Mahalia Jackson
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Fannie Hamer
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Arelya Mitchell
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Miriam Makeba
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Bob Moses
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Joyce Brown
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Gloria House
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Stokely Carmichael
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Edith Moore
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Eartha Kitt
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Correta King
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Marsha Johnson
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Nina Simone
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Shirley Chisholm
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Pauli Murray
The texts of this collection should not be reproduced. The images are all original and may be reproduced with credit given to bannerblue.org.
Feb 14-16
1942 - Bayard Rustin, the architect of the Civil Rights movement, established its commitment to Nonviolent Direct Action—which he had learned while working alongside Mahatma Gandhi. Reflect upon this recounting that Rustin made recounting an incident in which his commitment to nonviolence is confronted by bigotry’s reliance on violence in the article "Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow:"
"I believe that I have a right to sit here," I said quietly. "If I sit in the back of the bus I am depriving that child–' I pointed to a little white child of five or six–"of the knowledge that there is injustice here, which I believe it is his right to know. It is my sincere conviction that the power of love in the world is the greatest power existing. If you have a greater power, my friend, you may move me."
How much they understood of what I was trying to tell them I do not know. By this time they were impatient and angry. As I would not move, they began to beat me about the head and shoulders, and I shortly found myself knocked to the floor. Then they dragged me out of the bus and continued to kick and beat me.
Knowing that if I tried to get up or protect myself in the first heat of their anger they would construe it as an attempt to resist and beat me down again, I forced myself to be still and wait for their kicks, one after another. Then I stood up, spreading out my arms parallel to the ground, and said, "There is no need to beat me. I am not resisting you."
At this three white men, obviously Southerners by their speech, got out of the bus and remonstrated with the police. Indeed, as one of the policemen raised his club to strike me, one of them, a little fellow, caught hold of it and said, "Don't you do that!" …
I was put into the back seat of the police car, between two policemen. Two others sat in front. During the thirteen-mile ride to town they called me every conceivable name and said anything they could think of to incite me to violence. I found that I was shaking with nervous strain, and to give myself something to do, I took out a piece of paper and a pencil, and began to write from memory a chapter from one of Paul's letters.
When I had written a few sentences, the man on my right said, ‘What're you writing?' and snatched the paper from my hand. He read it, then crumpled it into a ball and pushed it in my face. The man on the other side gave me a kick.
A moment later I happened to catch the eye of the young policeman in the front seat. He looked away quickly, and I took renewed courage from the realization that he could not meet my eyes because he was aware of the injustice being done. …
When we reached Nashville, a number of policemen were lined up on both sides of the hallway down which I had to pass on my way to the captain's office. … I walked directly to him. ‘What can I do for you?" I asked.
"N-----," he said menacingly, "you're supposed to be scared when you come in here!"
"I am fortified by truth, justice, and Christ," I said. "There's no need for me to fear."
He was flabbergasted and, for a time, completely at a loss for words. Finally he said to another officer, "I believe the n-----'s crazy!"
…
The assistant district attorney questioned me about my life, the Christian Century, pacifism, and the war for half an hour. Then he asked the police to tell their side of what had happened. They did, stretching the truth a good deal in spots and including several lies for seasoning. Mr. West then asked me to tell my side.
"Gladly,' I said, "and I want you," turning to the young policeman who had sat in the front seat, "to follow what I say and stop me if I deviate from the truth in the least."
Holding his eyes with mine, I told the story exactly as it had happened, stopping often to say, "Is that right?" or "Isn't that what happened?" to the young policeman. During the whole time he never once interrupted me, and when I was through I said, "Did I tell the truth just as it happened?" and he said, "Well …"
Then Mr. West dismissed me, and I was sent to wait alone in a dark room. After an hour, Mr. West came in and said, very kindly, "You may go, Mister Rustin."
How much they understood of what I was trying to tell them I do not know. By this time they were impatient and angry. As I would not move, they began to beat me about the head and shoulders, and I shortly found myself knocked to the floor. Then they dragged me out of the bus and continued to kick and beat me.
Knowing that if I tried to get up or protect myself in the first heat of their anger they would construe it as an attempt to resist and beat me down again, I forced myself to be still and wait for their kicks, one after another. Then I stood up, spreading out my arms parallel to the ground, and said, "There is no need to beat me. I am not resisting you."
At this three white men, obviously Southerners by their speech, got out of the bus and remonstrated with the police. Indeed, as one of the policemen raised his club to strike me, one of them, a little fellow, caught hold of it and said, "Don't you do that!" …
I was put into the back seat of the police car, between two policemen. Two others sat in front. During the thirteen-mile ride to town they called me every conceivable name and said anything they could think of to incite me to violence. I found that I was shaking with nervous strain, and to give myself something to do, I took out a piece of paper and a pencil, and began to write from memory a chapter from one of Paul's letters.
When I had written a few sentences, the man on my right said, ‘What're you writing?' and snatched the paper from my hand. He read it, then crumpled it into a ball and pushed it in my face. The man on the other side gave me a kick.
A moment later I happened to catch the eye of the young policeman in the front seat. He looked away quickly, and I took renewed courage from the realization that he could not meet my eyes because he was aware of the injustice being done. …
When we reached Nashville, a number of policemen were lined up on both sides of the hallway down which I had to pass on my way to the captain's office. … I walked directly to him. ‘What can I do for you?" I asked.
"N-----," he said menacingly, "you're supposed to be scared when you come in here!"
"I am fortified by truth, justice, and Christ," I said. "There's no need for me to fear."
He was flabbergasted and, for a time, completely at a loss for words. Finally he said to another officer, "I believe the n-----'s crazy!"
…
The assistant district attorney questioned me about my life, the Christian Century, pacifism, and the war for half an hour. Then he asked the police to tell their side of what had happened. They did, stretching the truth a good deal in spots and including several lies for seasoning. Mr. West then asked me to tell my side.
"Gladly,' I said, "and I want you," turning to the young policeman who had sat in the front seat, "to follow what I say and stop me if I deviate from the truth in the least."
Holding his eyes with mine, I told the story exactly as it had happened, stopping often to say, "Is that right?" or "Isn't that what happened?" to the young policeman. During the whole time he never once interrupted me, and when I was through I said, "Did I tell the truth just as it happened?" and he said, "Well …"
Then Mr. West dismissed me, and I was sent to wait alone in a dark room. After an hour, Mr. West came in and said, very kindly, "You may go, Mister Rustin."
1951 - Langston Hughes wrote a book-length poem called "Montage of a Dream Deferred" from which many drew inspiration throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Reflect upon this oft quoted passage from that poem:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
May 17, 1954 – In the case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren rendered the majority opinion in the landmark case. Just over one hundred years earlier, Frederick Douglass published his autobiography, “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Reflect upon these words from Douglass and then read the quotation Brown v. Board of Education decision:
I held my Sabbath school at the house of a free colored man…. I had at one time over forty scholars, and those of the right sort, ardently desiring to learn. They were of all ages, though mostly men and women. I look back to those Sundays with an amount of pleasure not to be expressed. They were great days to my soul. The work of instructing my dear fellow-slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I was ever blessed. We loved each other, and to leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed. When I think that these precious souls are to-day shut up in the prison-house of slavery, my feelings overcome me, and I am almost ready to ask, "Does a righteous God govern the universe? and for what does he hold the thunders in his right hand, if not to smite the oppressor, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the spoiler?" These dear souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school, they were liable to be taken up, and given thirty-nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race. … And I have the happiness to know, that several of those who came to Sabbath school learned how to read; and that one, at least, is now free through my agency.
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does... We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does... We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
September, 1955 – The killers of Emmett Till are put on trial for the teenager’s murder. Mamie Till, his mother insisted that the country witness to the barbaric treatment of her child by having an open casket funeral. Hundreds of thousands view the body in Chicago, while newspapers publish photos of his brutalized body. Reflect upon these excerpts from Mamie Till’s testimony at the trial:
Q Your name is Mamie Bradley?
A Yes, Sir.
Q Where do you live, Mamie?
A Chicago, Illinois.
Q Mamie, did you have a son, who, in his lifetime was known as Emmett Till?
A Yes, Sir.
Q How old was Emmett?
A Fourteen years of age.
…
Q Mamie, in the first part of September, 1955, or the last part of August, were you advised that your son; Emmett Till, had been in some difficulty or trouble down here?
A Yes, Sir.
…
Q Where was your son at that time?
A He was visiting my Uncle, Mose Wright, in Money, Mississippi.
…
Q Now, later, after you got that information, was a body sent to Chicago that was supposed to be the body of your son, Emmett Till?
A Yes, Sir.
Q And where was that body first seen by you?
A At the A. A. Rainer Funeral Home.
Q Did you observe the body there?
…
A I looked at the face very carefully. I looked at the ears, and the forehead, and the hairline, and also the hair; and I looked at the nose and the lips, and the chin.
I just looked at it all over very thoroughly. And I was able to find out that it was my boy. And I know definitely that it was my boy beyond a shadow of a doubt.
…
The first time I saw him, he had a hole in his head up here (indicating with her hand), and that was open. And he had another scar…. And he had a gash in his jaw, and his mouth was open and the tongue was out.
The segregated Mississippi jury (meaning all-white) ultimately found the killers not-guilty, although they later confessed.
A Yes, Sir.
Q Where do you live, Mamie?
A Chicago, Illinois.
Q Mamie, did you have a son, who, in his lifetime was known as Emmett Till?
A Yes, Sir.
Q How old was Emmett?
A Fourteen years of age.
…
Q Mamie, in the first part of September, 1955, or the last part of August, were you advised that your son; Emmett Till, had been in some difficulty or trouble down here?
A Yes, Sir.
…
Q Where was your son at that time?
A He was visiting my Uncle, Mose Wright, in Money, Mississippi.
…
Q Now, later, after you got that information, was a body sent to Chicago that was supposed to be the body of your son, Emmett Till?
A Yes, Sir.
Q And where was that body first seen by you?
A At the A. A. Rainer Funeral Home.
Q Did you observe the body there?
…
A I looked at the face very carefully. I looked at the ears, and the forehead, and the hairline, and also the hair; and I looked at the nose and the lips, and the chin.
I just looked at it all over very thoroughly. And I was able to find out that it was my boy. And I know definitely that it was my boy beyond a shadow of a doubt.
…
The first time I saw him, he had a hole in his head up here (indicating with her hand), and that was open. And he had another scar…. And he had a gash in his jaw, and his mouth was open and the tongue was out.
The segregated Mississippi jury (meaning all-white) ultimately found the killers not-guilty, although they later confessed.
December 5, 1955 - Rosa Parks launches the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat. Four days after her arrest, Martin King delivered a speech at Holt Street Baptist Church. Reflect upon these excerpts from his speech, inspired by Parks:
The Almighty God himself is not the only, not the, not the God just standing out saying through Hosea, "I love you, Israel." He's also the God that stands up before the nations and said: "Be still and know that I'm God, (Yeah) that if you don't obey me I will break the backbone of your power, (Yeah) and slap you out of the orbits of your international and national relationships." (That's right) Standing beside love is always justice (Yeah) and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion but we've come to see that we've got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education but it is also a process of legislation. [Applause]
As we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. [Applause] We are going to work together. [Applause] Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, (Yes) somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people, (Well) a black people, (Yes sir) 'fleecy locks and black complexion,' (Yes) a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. [Applause] And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we're gonna do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late.
The boycott is ultimately successful in achieving the goal of desegregating buses.
As we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. [Applause] We are going to work together. [Applause] Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, (Yes) somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people, (Well) a black people, (Yes sir) 'fleecy locks and black complexion,' (Yes) a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. [Applause] And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we're gonna do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late.
The boycott is ultimately successful in achieving the goal of desegregating buses.
September 9, 1957 - The first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction is passed, creating the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. (I have chosen the Statue of Freedom as a visual representation of this Act. The statue sits on top of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. and represents a mixture of Greek Goddesses as well as elements of Native American cultures.) Reflect upon this excerpt from an 1833 speech by Rev. William Apess, the brilliant orator, Native American activist, and abolitionist. Then reflect upon an excerpt from Section 2 of the 1957 Civil rights Act:
I will ask one question more. Can you charge the Indians with robbing a nation almost of their whole Continent, and murdering their women and children, and then depriving the remainder of their lawful rights, that nature and God require them to have? And to cap the climax, rob another nation to till their grounds, and welter out their days under the lash with hunger and fatigue under the scorching rays of a burning sun? I should look at all the skins, and… if I saw those crimes written upon it, I should enter my protest against it immediately, and cleave to that which is more honorable. And I can tell you that I am satisfied with the manner of my creation, fully—whether others are or not.
But we will strive to penetrate more fully into the conduct of those who profess to have pure principles, and who tell us to follow Jesus Christ and imitate him and have his Spirit. Let us see if they come any where near him and his ancient disciples. … Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different from theirs? Jesus Christ being a Jew, and those of his Apostles certainly were not whites,—and did not he who completed the plan of salvation complete it for the whites as well as for the Jews, and others?
But we find that Jesus Christ and his Apostles never looked at the outward appearances. Jesus in particular looked at the hearts, and his Apostles through him being discerners of the spirit, looked at their fruit without any regard to the skin, color or nation; as St. Paul himself speaks, ‘Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free—but Christ is all and in all.’
What folly it is to try to make the state of human society worse than it is. How astonished some may be at this—but let me ask, is it not so? Let me refer you to the churches only. And my brethren, is there any agreement? Do brethren and sisters love one another?... But you may ask who are the children of God? Perhaps you may say none but white. If so, the word of the Lord is not true.
"The Congress hereby finds that certain provisions of the Constitution of the United States are not being enforced, and that the rights of citizens to vote have been denied or abridged under color of law. Such denial or abridgment of rights under color of law is contrived by violence and by the deprivation of the franchise of citizens on account of race and color."
But we will strive to penetrate more fully into the conduct of those who profess to have pure principles, and who tell us to follow Jesus Christ and imitate him and have his Spirit. Let us see if they come any where near him and his ancient disciples. … Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different from theirs? Jesus Christ being a Jew, and those of his Apostles certainly were not whites,—and did not he who completed the plan of salvation complete it for the whites as well as for the Jews, and others?
But we find that Jesus Christ and his Apostles never looked at the outward appearances. Jesus in particular looked at the hearts, and his Apostles through him being discerners of the spirit, looked at their fruit without any regard to the skin, color or nation; as St. Paul himself speaks, ‘Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free—but Christ is all and in all.’
What folly it is to try to make the state of human society worse than it is. How astonished some may be at this—but let me ask, is it not so? Let me refer you to the churches only. And my brethren, is there any agreement? Do brethren and sisters love one another?... But you may ask who are the children of God? Perhaps you may say none but white. If so, the word of the Lord is not true.
"The Congress hereby finds that certain provisions of the Constitution of the United States are not being enforced, and that the rights of citizens to vote have been denied or abridged under color of law. Such denial or abridgment of rights under color of law is contrived by violence and by the deprivation of the franchise of citizens on account of race and color."
March 11, 1959 - Lorraine Hansberry premiers her play "A Raisin in the Sun," which addressed racial and social issues. Reflect upon these words from the character Mama (Lena Younger) in Act III of the play:
"Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning—because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is."
1960 - Ella Baker, while serving as Executive Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), organized the founding conference of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Reflect upon this excerpt from Ella Baker’s article, "Bigger than a Hamburger," from Southern Patriot 18 (June 1960):
Whatever may be the difference in approach to their goal, the Negro and white students, North and South, are seeking to rid America of the scourge of racial segregation and discrimination—not only at lunch counters, but in every aspect of life.
In reports, casual conversations, discussion groups, and speeches, the sense and the spirit of the following statement that appeared in the initial newsletter of the students at Barber-Scotia College, Concord, N.C., were re-echoed time and again:
We want the world to know that we no longer accept the inferior position of second-class citizenship. We are willing to go to jail, be ridiculed, spat upon and even suffer physical violence to obtain First Class Citizenship.
By and large, this feeling that they have a destined date with freedom, was not limited to a drive for personal freedom, or even freedom for the Negro in the South.
Repeatedly it was emphasized that the movement was concerned with the moral implications of racial discrimination for the "whole world" and the "Human Race."
In reports, casual conversations, discussion groups, and speeches, the sense and the spirit of the following statement that appeared in the initial newsletter of the students at Barber-Scotia College, Concord, N.C., were re-echoed time and again:
We want the world to know that we no longer accept the inferior position of second-class citizenship. We are willing to go to jail, be ridiculed, spat upon and even suffer physical violence to obtain First Class Citizenship.
By and large, this feeling that they have a destined date with freedom, was not limited to a drive for personal freedom, or even freedom for the Negro in the South.
Repeatedly it was emphasized that the movement was concerned with the moral implications of racial discrimination for the "whole world" and the "Human Race."
April 8, 1960 - Odetta Holmes, folk singer and activist, used her music to address social and civil rights issues. Reflect upon her song “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” from the album Odetta at Carnegie Hall:
[Verse 1]
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from home
A long way from home
[Verse 2]
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
A long way from home
A long way from home
[Verse 3]
True believer
True believer
A long, long way from home
A long, long way from home
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from home
A long way from home
[Verse 2]
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost done
A long way from home
A long way from home
[Verse 3]
True believer
True believer
A long, long way from home
A long, long way from home
August 1960 – 23-year-old Casey Hayden delivered a speech to the National Student Association concerning the Greensboro Sit-ins, when black students initiated nonviolent protests against segregated lunch counters. Reflect upon these excerpts from her speech:
I find the sit-in question to be essentially an ethical question, not a question of expediency or emotion. I do not mean this to be abstract, for an ethical question means a personal decision. None of you can make this decision for me, nor would I attempt to make it for any of you.
… When an individual human being is not allowed by the legal system and the social mores of his community to be a human being, does he have the right to peaceably protest? Yes. No "buts," just "Yes." Perhaps in this situation, protest is the only way to maintain his humanity.
… Here I can only say that I do feel some pity for the segregationists and realize it will be difficult to accept the changes that must come. But I am not free as long as he keeps me from going where I please with whom I please, and I do not think that fear of him should keep me and others from trying to right the wrong for which he stands.
… I do not see the law as immutable, but rather as an agreed-upon pattern for relations between people. If the pattern is unjust or a person doesn't agree with the relations, a person must at times choose to do the right rather than the legal. I do not consider this anarchy, but responsibility.
I cannot say to a person who suffers injustice, "Wait." Perhaps you can. I can't. And having decided that I cannot urge caution, I must stand with him.
If I had known that not a single lunch counter would open as a result of my action, I could not have done differently than I did. I am thankful for the sit-ins if for no other reason than that they provided me with the opportunity for making a slogan into a reality by making a decision an action. It seems to me that this is what life is all about.
… When an individual human being is not allowed by the legal system and the social mores of his community to be a human being, does he have the right to peaceably protest? Yes. No "buts," just "Yes." Perhaps in this situation, protest is the only way to maintain his humanity.
… Here I can only say that I do feel some pity for the segregationists and realize it will be difficult to accept the changes that must come. But I am not free as long as he keeps me from going where I please with whom I please, and I do not think that fear of him should keep me and others from trying to right the wrong for which he stands.
… I do not see the law as immutable, but rather as an agreed-upon pattern for relations between people. If the pattern is unjust or a person doesn't agree with the relations, a person must at times choose to do the right rather than the legal. I do not consider this anarchy, but responsibility.
I cannot say to a person who suffers injustice, "Wait." Perhaps you can. I can't. And having decided that I cannot urge caution, I must stand with him.
If I had known that not a single lunch counter would open as a result of my action, I could not have done differently than I did. I am thankful for the sit-ins if for no other reason than that they provided me with the opportunity for making a slogan into a reality by making a decision an action. It seems to me that this is what life is all about.
1961 - Activists from across the country challenge segregation on interstate buses on Freedom Rides. Rev. John Lewis, recounts the violence and intimidation the nonviolent protestors faced throughout the South from this November 20, 1973 oral history. Reflect upon Lewis’ account of the 1961 Freedom Rides:
I was ordained, licensed and ordained. I never pastored a church or anything like that.… I saw the Civil Rights movement as an extension of the Church in a sense, I guess as a real attempt to make organized religion relevant…. A group of us left on May 17th, 1961, and took a Greyhound bus, a regular bus, to Birmingham. Before we arrived in the city of Birmingham the bus was stopped outside the city and a member of the Birmingham Police Department got on the bus and said where are the Freedom Riders. … When we arrived at the Birmingham bus station they took us off, placed us in protective custody and other members of the Birmingham Police Department and took us to the Birmingham City Jail…. We went on a hunger strike…. Other members of the Birmingham Police Department and a reporter from the Birmingham News came up to the cell and said, we are taking you back to the college campuses in Nashville. … We went back to Birmingham and stayed at the bus station from Friday night, all night, and tried to get a bus to go from Birmingham to Montgomery…. It was only about a hundred miles between Birmingham to Montgomery. And when we arrived about five or ten miles out, …you got near the station you had this eerie feeling…. All at once when the bus pulled up and we started out of the bus an angry mob of about a thousand people came toward the bus…. Several of us were beaten and just left lying in the street. And there was one guy, …he kept people from literally being killed. He fired a gun to disperse the mob. … We got into the church. The circuit judge… had issued an order against inter-racial groups traveling in the state of Alabama and they had an order issued for us saying that we had violated the injuction and cited us for contempt of court…. So all of the Freedom Riders went into the choir stand and we were like members of the choir. I had a patch on my head from the injury I received. Several people were left and didn't make it to the church. That night… an angry mob came to the church. This was the First Baptist Church pastored by Rev. Abernathy and in the meantime, Dr. King got on the telephone and called Bobby Kennedy and told him of the atmosphere and the climate. The mob was coming closer to the church and then, I think, President Kennedy federalized the National Guards in Alabama-the only way we got away from the church that night. Hundreds of people, not just Freedom Riders, were literally taken to their homes in different parts of the community by the National Guards in jeeps. … Well, we felt that it was important that the riot be continued and we decided that it was important to travel through Alabama, through Selma, Highway 80, on into Mississippi. The Freedom Ride served not only the purpose of desegregating or dramatizing the fact that segregation still existed in the area of public transportation, but also to arouse the black community in the South. It was like taking the gospel of the Civil Rights movement into different parts of the South and it was important that it go into a state like Mississippi. … We arrived in Jackson at the Trailway Bus Station there and we were arrested for refusing to move on and disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. … We had to walk right in and you had to take off all of your clothes. So all of us-seventy-five guys black and white because during that period you had students, professors, ministers coming in from all parts of the country to continue the Freedom Ride. And we stood there for at least two hours without and clothes and I just felt that it was an attempt to belittle and de-humanize you. Then they would take us in two's, two blacks and two whites- the segregation started all over again after we got inside the jail-to take a shower. While we were taking a shower, there was a guard standing there with a gun pointed on you while you showered. If you had a beard or a mustache, any hair, you had to shave your beard off, you had to shave your mustache off.… During our stay in Mississippi Penitentiary we didn't have any visitors. We were able to write on person a letter. The second day Governor came by with some state officials. We all got out within a forty day period in order to appeal the charges.
Disorderly conduct. We were fined and sentenced.
Disorderly conduct. We were fined and sentenced.
1962 - Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" launches the environmental movement while highlighting intersections with the struggles of marginalized communities. Why are redlined neighborhoods pushed closer to industrial pollution, while new factories are dropped into segregated towns? Reflect upon these excerpts from A Fable for Tomorrow, the first chapter of the book:
There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.
Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. …
Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death…. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.
There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example —where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. … On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. …
The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. …
No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves. This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.
Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. …
Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death…. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.
There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example —where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. … On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. …
The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. …
No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves. This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.
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About the Curator
Dan (he/him) is a Deacon of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dan has served in children, youth, and campus ministries. Dan first heard the call to ministry through Black Liberation Theology as an undergrad at Wittenberg University and discovered his gifts for sharing that theology creatively while in seminary at Yale Divinity School. His greatest passions are serving kids and advocating for justice in fulfilling God's promised kingdom. These days, you're likely to find Dan knee deep in excited kids, building bricks, or pages of new poetry and children's lit. You might also find him outside tending to his small duck farm.
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