Regretably, I have no memories of that tragic day. I was 4 years old. However, my pastor-father was 34 years old. I have no memory of having any conversation with him about that day. I believe he would have fallen into the category of the "white moderates" MLK addressed from the Birmingham jail. His sins and mine continue to be sins of omission in the face of injustice. Lord have mercy. Turn our omissions into commissions.
I REMEMVBER THAT DAY. I WAS A YOUNG PASTOR IN SEASIDE OREGON AND SPENT HE DAY IN DEEP GRIEF. THEN HELPED ORGANIZE A WORSHIP TIME RESPONSE TO MEMORIALIZE HIM IN OUR SMALL CITY. I STILL REVOLT INSIDE TO THAT DAY AND HIS LEAVING US THE WAY HE DID
I was a white 17 year old high school girl, whose heart and soul was in the civil rights movement. I followed everything that was happening and wished that I could join in on marches or ride the freedom buses. it was a lonely time for me. I didn't know any others in my white spaces who shared my passion. I have many memories of those years. I made up my mind that integration should go both ways and my first apartment was in an all black neighborhood in my town. I also helped with petitions for a MLK national holiday. Thank you for all you do, Jemar Tisby.
I have ,a vivid memory of the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination. I was a senior at Duke University in 1968, and although there were only a handful of Black students, many of us White students also took Dr. King's mission and murder seriously and participated in what became known as "the Vigil." Many of us stopped going to classes and sat silently on the main Quad in the shadow of the Duke chapel. It was brought to our attention that the dining hall workers, the maids in the dorms, and the groundskeepers and janitorial staff, all of whom were Black, were working under a system of unfair wages, no benefits, and broken promises. The university claimed to have a retirement plan for them after 20 years of service, but the majority of the time people were "let go" as they neared the 20 year mark and received no pension. There was an effort to form a union, Local 77, that would have protected the workers from that sort of dismissal. In those days, trying to establish a union in the South was dangerous business. Many organizers seemed to have unfortunate accidents, Day by day our numbers on the quad grew and professors and grad students joined and major celebrities came to encourage us, including Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. In an effort to end the Vigil, the administration made an offer to begin talks, which was ultimately accepted. When some of us seniors said we would refuse to march at graduation, the university told us they would withhold our diplomas and transcripts. My parents said I was a communist dupe. Ultimately we graduated wearing the armbands, and a statement was made of their significance. Then, like a lot of White people, the class of '68 left campus, diplomas in hand. We went to grad school or began careers or married and started a family. We did that because a lot of good laws had been passed, but also because we had the luxury of our Whiteness to retreat into and to pretend that the racial issue had now been "settled." Duke has made changes in its employment policies, and can claim the presence of a professor of the quality of William A. Darity Jr, co-author of "From Here to Equality." I have emerged from my cocoon of White comfort. I am thankful to belong to a fellowship of believers here in Richmond, Virginia, both Black and White, where we all know the battle is not over, where we mourn the continued sin of White Supremacy in this nation and devote ourselves to to the gospel as it is written, knowing God is still in this fight for equality. We live in a neighborhood where gunshots are frequently heard and where the lives of so many young people are taken from us. We did a bookclub study of your book, "How to Fight Racism, Dr. Tisby, and I have been also been very affected by Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson's "Reparations, A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair." I value Footnoes as a source of continuing instruction.
I appreciate the researched history & context including the passage of the Fair Housing Act plus current opposition to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We haven't treated our prophets well--many have been unheard, unsupported, & murdered. Now I think of generations living MLK's legacy with courage to speak up & out.
"Rhiannon Giddens Speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speaker Series" The Juilliard School, Feb 10. 2023, speaking about mentor & community musician, Joe Thompson, https://youtu.be/xc4WCI5eYU4?feature=shared&t=1196 (minute 20)
Dr. Soong-Chan Rah wrote that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the “most famous and most significant American Christian leader of the twentieth century.” “Dr. King provided this nation with a spiritual foundation and a prophetic call that would lead to the complete transformation of the laws and values of this nation. However, most evangelicals are slow to embrace Dr. King as spiritual leader.” "The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity"
"Jane Elliott will never forget her sister’s April 4, 1968, phone call telling her the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated.
Elliott, like many people across the US, was shocked. Talking about the news of Dr. King’s death makes her sick to her stomach even today.
“My whole body reacts to the horror that I felt when I realized that we had killed a man whose only aim was to make things better, not just for people that we call Black … but for people of all kinds on this Earth,” Elliott said.
The then 34-year-old third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, knew her students would have questions after Dr. King’s assassination. Elliott decided to use the tragedy as a teaching opportunity: She would show them what discrimination felt like by separating them by their eye color.
“I wanted them to realize that the reason that man (Dr. King) was killed was ignorance and he wasn’t doing something against this country. He was doing something for this country,” she said."
Regretably, I have no memories of that tragic day. I was 4 years old. However, my pastor-father was 34 years old. I have no memory of having any conversation with him about that day. I believe he would have fallen into the category of the "white moderates" MLK addressed from the Birmingham jail. His sins and mine continue to be sins of omission in the face of injustice. Lord have mercy. Turn our omissions into commissions.
I REMEMVBER THAT DAY. I WAS A YOUNG PASTOR IN SEASIDE OREGON AND SPENT HE DAY IN DEEP GRIEF. THEN HELPED ORGANIZE A WORSHIP TIME RESPONSE TO MEMORIALIZE HIM IN OUR SMALL CITY. I STILL REVOLT INSIDE TO THAT DAY AND HIS LEAVING US THE WAY HE DID
I cried…and continue every time I reflect on what we lost in his vision and leadership.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I came here specifically to reflect on Dr. King & was thankful your writing was here waiting for us.
I was a white 17 year old high school girl, whose heart and soul was in the civil rights movement. I followed everything that was happening and wished that I could join in on marches or ride the freedom buses. it was a lonely time for me. I didn't know any others in my white spaces who shared my passion. I have many memories of those years. I made up my mind that integration should go both ways and my first apartment was in an all black neighborhood in my town. I also helped with petitions for a MLK national holiday. Thank you for all you do, Jemar Tisby.
I have ,a vivid memory of the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination. I was a senior at Duke University in 1968, and although there were only a handful of Black students, many of us White students also took Dr. King's mission and murder seriously and participated in what became known as "the Vigil." Many of us stopped going to classes and sat silently on the main Quad in the shadow of the Duke chapel. It was brought to our attention that the dining hall workers, the maids in the dorms, and the groundskeepers and janitorial staff, all of whom were Black, were working under a system of unfair wages, no benefits, and broken promises. The university claimed to have a retirement plan for them after 20 years of service, but the majority of the time people were "let go" as they neared the 20 year mark and received no pension. There was an effort to form a union, Local 77, that would have protected the workers from that sort of dismissal. In those days, trying to establish a union in the South was dangerous business. Many organizers seemed to have unfortunate accidents, Day by day our numbers on the quad grew and professors and grad students joined and major celebrities came to encourage us, including Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. In an effort to end the Vigil, the administration made an offer to begin talks, which was ultimately accepted. When some of us seniors said we would refuse to march at graduation, the university told us they would withhold our diplomas and transcripts. My parents said I was a communist dupe. Ultimately we graduated wearing the armbands, and a statement was made of their significance. Then, like a lot of White people, the class of '68 left campus, diplomas in hand. We went to grad school or began careers or married and started a family. We did that because a lot of good laws had been passed, but also because we had the luxury of our Whiteness to retreat into and to pretend that the racial issue had now been "settled." Duke has made changes in its employment policies, and can claim the presence of a professor of the quality of William A. Darity Jr, co-author of "From Here to Equality." I have emerged from my cocoon of White comfort. I am thankful to belong to a fellowship of believers here in Richmond, Virginia, both Black and White, where we all know the battle is not over, where we mourn the continued sin of White Supremacy in this nation and devote ourselves to to the gospel as it is written, knowing God is still in this fight for equality. We live in a neighborhood where gunshots are frequently heard and where the lives of so many young people are taken from us. We did a bookclub study of your book, "How to Fight Racism, Dr. Tisby, and I have been also been very affected by Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson's "Reparations, A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair." I value Footnoes as a source of continuing instruction.
I appreciate the researched history & context including the passage of the Fair Housing Act plus current opposition to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We haven't treated our prophets well--many have been unheard, unsupported, & murdered. Now I think of generations living MLK's legacy with courage to speak up & out.
"Rhiannon Giddens Speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speaker Series" The Juilliard School, Feb 10. 2023, speaking about mentor & community musician, Joe Thompson, https://youtu.be/xc4WCI5eYU4?feature=shared&t=1196 (minute 20)
Rhiannon Giddens & PA Innocence Project, "Another Wasted Life" https://www.painnocence.info/
Stones of Hope, Arlington's Annual Tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," 2024.
spoken word, https://www.youtube.com/live/EuaTeofkKzg?feature=shared&t=1289;
step, https://www.youtube.com/live/EuaTeofkKzg?feature=shared&t=693 from
Dr. Soong-Chan Rah wrote that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the “most famous and most significant American Christian leader of the twentieth century.” “Dr. King provided this nation with a spiritual foundation and a prophetic call that would lead to the complete transformation of the laws and values of this nation. However, most evangelicals are slow to embrace Dr. King as spiritual leader.” "The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity"
"Jane Elliott will never forget her sister’s April 4, 1968, phone call telling her the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated.
Elliott, like many people across the US, was shocked. Talking about the news of Dr. King’s death makes her sick to her stomach even today.
“My whole body reacts to the horror that I felt when I realized that we had killed a man whose only aim was to make things better, not just for people that we call Black … but for people of all kinds on this Earth,” Elliott said.
The then 34-year-old third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, knew her students would have questions after Dr. King’s assassination. Elliott decided to use the tragedy as a teaching opportunity: She would show them what discrimination felt like by separating them by their eye color.
“I wanted them to realize that the reason that man (Dr. King) was killed was ignorance and he wasn’t doing something against this country. He was doing something for this country,” she said."
Chandelis Duster, "Jane Elliott, Anti-Racism Teacher, Slams Efforts to Limit How Race is taught in Classrooms," CNN, Fri April 5, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/us/jane-elliott-brown-eyes-blue-eyes-antiracism-teaching-reaj