In order to truly love our neighbors, we have to get to know them. As we live and work and commute in the course of our busy everyday lives, we often miss opportunities to truly connect with the people who live around us. We can become so comfortable and protected in our own comfort zones that we fail to reach out to neighbors who are different from us. Genuine love sees beyond the external differences and finds the similarities of another’s heart.
I once heard a beautiful illustration of loving one’s neighbor. A woman in a large neighborhood was sick, had surgery, and came home to recover. Someone placed a huge ice chest on her front steps and filled it with fresh ice every morning. Each day, different people from all over the neighborhood came by and placed casseroles, cakes, soups, and other prepared food in the ice chest for the woman and her family to eat that night. These were anonymous acts of kindness that helped the woman toward physical healing and allowed her to take care of her family. True love gives without needing applause or credit.
The Birmingham Pledge
The city of Birmingham has made its mistakes over the years. People have suffered here because of human cruelties and violence toward one another. As I have pondered the struggle for Civil Rights, I have often asked myself the question Can anything good come out of Birmingham? I confess that at times I’ve doubted that anything good could ever come out of my city.
But still I cling to hope. And I know there is something good that has come from the pain and suffering of Birmingham’s segregated, violent, dark days: the Birmingham Pledge.
Inspired by the historic events that took place in this city during the Civil Rights movement, Birmingham attorney James E. Rotch composed a statement—a personal commitment to recognize the importance of every individual, regardless of race or color. This commitment became a grassroots movement committed to eliminating prejudice in Birmingham and throughout the world. In the last five years, the Birmingham Pledge has received worldwide recognition, with signatures from tens of thousands of people. In January 2000, a joint resolution of Congress was passed recognizing the Birmingham Pledge. In 2001, President George W. Bush proclaimed September 14–21 as National Birmingham Pledge Week, and he encouraged all citizens to join him in renewing their commitment to fight racism and uphold equal justice and opportunity.
The Birmingham Pledge simply says,
• I believe that every person has worth as an individual.
• I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color.
• I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.
• Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions.
• I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity.
• I will treat all people with dignity and respect; and I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.[87]
In signing this document, people are pledging to believe in the worth of every person God created and to treat people with respect and dignity. It is also an acknowledgment that racial discrimination—every thought and every cruel action—is harmful, both to the offender and to the recipient. So basic, so simple, and yet so life honoring.
The Gift of Forgiveness
Not long ago I was asked to speak at the Underground Railroad, a historic Civil Rights museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. During my visit I met the senior historian and adviser at the museum, a man in his seventies named Carl Westmoreland. He welcomed me, proudly gave me a personal tour, and showed me the museum’s artifacts. Carl and I had met many years earlier, and he had heard my story of choosing to forgive the men who had killed my four friends.
“After hearing your story, Carolyn,” he said, “I, too, decided to forgive the white men who had set my house on fire. I had been angry for many years, and I’d allowed my heart to fill up with hatred and bitterness. But after listening to you, there was no way I could continue to hold on to that bitterness. I knew I had to forgive.”
Then Carl told me his story. He had owned a house in an impoverished and fairly rough part of downtown Cincinnati. Developers eyed the property and decided they wanted to buy it so they could turn it into apartment buildings. Carl, however, turned down their offer. After many attempts on the developers’ part and Carl’s continual refusal to sell, someone went to Carl’s home while he was at work and set his house on fire. Carl’s eight-year-old son was home alone at the time. The boy managed to get out alive and unharmed, but Carl knew his son could have been burned to death. Over the years Carl hadn’t let go of his anger at this cruel act, and instead had allowed hatred, resentment, and bitterness to grow unchecked in his heart.
That day, during my visit to the Underground Railroad, Carl confessed to me, “When I heard you speak, I realized that if you could forgive those men who had bombed your church, murdered your friends, and almost killed you, I knew I had no choice but to forgive the men who had burned down my house and could have killed my son.”
* * *
* * *
From Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Where Do We Go from Here?” Speech
I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice; I’m concerned about brotherhood; I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.
And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn’t popular to talk about it in some circles today. And I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I’m talking about a strong, demanding love. For I have seen too much hate. I’ve seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. I’ve seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate, myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities, and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we aren’t moving wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels; you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behavior of molecules; you may break into the storehouse of nature and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge; and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. You may even give your goods to feed the poor; you may bestow great gifts to charity; and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing.
And if you will let me be a preacher just a little bit. One day, one night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus didn’t get bogged down on the kind of isolated approach of what you shouldn’t do. Jesus didn’t say, “Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying.” He didn’t say, “Nicodemus, now you must not commit adultery.” He didn’t say, “Now Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that.” He didn’t say, “Nicodemus, you must stop drinking liquor if you are doing that excessively.” He said something altogether different, be
cause Jesus realized something basic: that if a man will lie, he will steal. And if a man will steal, he will kill. So instead of just getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.” . . .
What I’m saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, “America, you must be born again!”[88]
* * *
* * *
He told me, “Carolyn, when I looked at you as you spoke, I saw a light in you. You reflected such joy and peace. At that time, I was miserable. I hadn’t been able to get past the pain and the anger. I still thought everyone was out to hurt me.”
Forgiveness had been a long process for Carl, too, but he had chosen to take that path. He went on to live a life worthy of God and filled with new purpose. What a marvelous and mighty God who raised Carl to his position at the Underground Railroad. He became one of the “wounded healers.”
* * *
As I raised my three children, I tried to teach them to give the gift of forgiveness to those who hurt them. I told them my story—the details of the church bombing and the murder of my friends. I checked out library books and read them the historical accounts of the bombing, the Civil Rights marches, and Dr. King’s work. I wanted them to be conscious that we live in a fallen world and that everything is not well on planet Earth. I tried to prepare them for possible racial injustices and hate-filled people. I wanted them to understand what it means to make the choice to forgive others who might hurt them.
Sometimes people ask me if the price of forgiveness is worth it. But God has rewarded me beyond my expectations for choosing to forgive. He has filled my heart with an overflowing love for people—black, white, whatever their color or culture. God took away the bitterness that, like an unattended garden weed, might have grown in my heart over the years and choked out joy and purpose in my life. He has given me a ministry of love and reconciliation that wouldn’t have been possible if bitterness had remained rooted in me. God has used my story of pain and suffering as a witness to how love can overcome hate, how forgiveness can overcome bitterness, and how joy can overcome pain.
It’s Time to Stop Watching
As I ponder on the title of this book, While the World Watched, I see that the world has stood back passively and watched people hurt other people for many years. But now I believe it is time for us to stop watching. It is time for us, with God’s help, to take action. For some reason, God has chosen to use imperfect individuals like us to bring about his will and his Kingdom purposes on this fragile planet. I am convinced that through the intentional actions of caring, concerned individuals we will see healing take place in this world.
Our society has taken down the signs on the public toilets and water fountains, but the battle is not yet won. Governments and organizations haven’t been able to erase human suffering on earth. I have come to understand that hearts must be changed one person at a time in order to truly put racial prejudices and violence behind us. The better way—the only way—is the personal way. The only hope for true transformation is for concerned, compassionate individuals to stop watching and decide to become ambassadors of forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation. Only God can change hearts, but he can use us and our stories to reach out and touch those in need of healing.
As believers in Jesus Christ, our responsibility is to teach God’s love and forgiveness to a world where injustice and pain often rule. We must show the way of love—love for God and love for our neighbors. We as a people can no longer be silent. We must speak out in love and speak out against those things that hurt others.
For many years we have seen the effects of hate on our world. Now it is time to prove what love will do. One day at a time, one individual at a time, and one act of kindness at a time—we can heal the world. We must stop watching and begin healing.
Sample Jim Crow Laws
• Colored persons may not address white persons by their given names; they must always use titles of respect (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Miss, Sir, or Ma’am). Whites must not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks. Instead, blacks must be called by their first names.
• Blacks must be introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example, “Mr. Peters [the white person], this is Charlie [the black person], about whom I spoke to you.”
• A black man cannot offer his hand to shake with a white man because it implies social equality. A black male is forbidden from offering his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman.[89]
• It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided.
• All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or under the same license.[90]
• Colored people must sit in the backseat or in the back of a truck driven by a white person.
• When crossing an intersection, a black driver must always give the right-of-way to the white driver.[91]
• Negroes are to be served through a separate branch or branches of the county free library, which shall be administered by a custodian of the Negro race under the supervision of the county librarian.
• The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals.[92]
• No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.
• The board of trustees shall maintain a separate building, on separate grounds, for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race.
• There shall be maintained by the governing authorities of every hospital maintained by the state for treatment of white and colored patients separate entrances for white and colored patients and visitors, and such entrances shall be used by the race only for which they are prepared.[93]
• All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races.
• The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs.
• All railroad companies are hereby required to provide separate cars or coaches for the travel and transportation of the white and colored passengers.[94]
• All circuses, shows, and tent exhibitions, to which the attendance of more than one race is invited shall provide not less than two ticket offices and not less than two entrances.
• Any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show, or place of public entertainment which is attended by both white and colored persons shall separate the white race and the colored race.[95]
• Separate schools must be established for the education of children of African descent. It is unlawful for colored children to attend any white school or any white children to attend a colored school.
• School textbooks must not be exchanged between the white and colored schools.[96]
• If an instructor teaches in any school, college, or institution where white and colored students are enrolled as pupils, he will be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, be fined.[97]
• It shall be unlawful for a Negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards.
• It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro
race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race.[98]
Letter from Barack Obama
to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham
September 15, 2008
Dear Friends,
Thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts as we gather here today to remember four little girls tragically taken from us in 1963, and to congratulate you on the restoration of one of the landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement in America.
I imagine that in quiet moments, many of you have thought about who Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley might have become had they been allowed to grow up. Maybe a doctor and a history teacher, a singer and a social worker—their world would have been one of increasing possibility, symbolized in no small part by this magnificent Church and the community that built and sustains it.
Much has changed in four-and-a-half decades, and our nation has made great progress. But as we gather here today, we know that so much remains to be done. We know that the Lord calls on us to keep the memory of these girls alive by fighting for justice so that we may look at each other and at ourselves and say that they have not died in vain.
On this day 45 years ago, four young souls were lost in the struggle of that time to extend our nation’s promise to all of our citizens. The men who inflicted the pain on that day sought to set off a chain reaction of similar events around the South. But what man meant for evil, God used for good, and the shock and horror of that day galvanized a nation. It led to an outpouring of protest from people of all colors, and to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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