On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested because state law dictated her to do so. She was a seamstress and worked hard all day; she was tired. But not so tired physically; she was more tired spiritually—tired of giving in. After Barak Obama was nominated as the forty-fourth president of the United States, rapper and record producer, Jay-Z, offered his deep-reaching declaration, “Rosa sat so that Martin could stand, and Martin stood so Obama could run, and Obama is running so we can all fly.”
Four months before Parks’ arrest, a fourteen-year-old black Chicago boy, Emmett Till, was visiting family in Mississippi when he was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was abducted, tortured, and brutally beaten before he was lynched, and his murdered body dumped into the Tallahatchie River. Emmett’s mother requested an open casket at his funeral so that people could view the barbarity. Some Americans point to these events as the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement in our country.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who studied active non-violent resistance to injustice as illustrated by Mohandas Gandhi and taught by Jesus, became the central figure of this national movement. In 1965, after a decade of bus boycotts and other demonstrations of civil disobedience, people of cultural diversity from across the country walked with him from Selma to Montgomery to secure voting rights for African Americans. The marchers included many Catholic nuns, priests, and others who defied orders from superiors because they knew that Dr. King walked closely with Jesus, and they wanted to walk closely with him. It is important for us to know that blacks and whites strode together; and people of various religions walked hand-in-hand, praying and singing. The child was killed, and the lady was tired; she sat, so another could stand.
King stood strong and with great integrity. When he stood up, admirable people stood beside him, and they walked as one. We’ve got to walk before we can run. Obama’s run, half a century later, allows black children to fly to new heights. Yet since he ran and won, other tragedies sadly emerged. During his presidency, a seventeen-year-old black Floridian, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot in a dreadful case of racial profiling. Earlier this decade, George Floyd, a black Minneapolis resident, was murdered by a white police officer who knelt on his neck and back for over nine minutes rendering him unable to breathe. These notorious setbacks hinder the advancement of racial harmony. No doubt, our world has made tremendous strides since 1955, but still, many who work hard are tired that we haven’t proceeded further. Always satisfied with our achievements and dissatisfied with our failures, we continue to stand for what is right and just, as we proclaim at every Catholic Mass.
And we continue to be connected to Jesus who said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches…I am in you, and you are in me…We are one.” Connected to Emmett, Rosa, Martin, Barak, you, and me, we can be proud of doing what is right and just, though we have a long way to go. I pray that we will soar to new heights (racially, morally, civilly, spiritually, politically…) and that we will not forget our history. The civil rights history of our nation and the salvation history of our church should cause us to stand, walk, run, and fly even if we’re tired, even if it demands civil or ecclesial disobedience—because it is right and just.
Though the Catholic Church has lost vitality in our nation during this same time period and has a declining allegiance from young people, we can inject new life into it. Ways to do so include celebrating Mass in a racially diverse community, supporting businesses that help unite our city, and encouraging unity in activities that gather us as one. Jesus wants us to know that being connected to Him means being connected to one another. And, connected to our history—warts and all—we will make better choices walking together into the future.
