Compassion Speaks: Celebrating Fifty Years of Blessed Change

by Susan McCarthy, RDC

Fifty years ago, I was not able to attend  (I lived in a convent, aware of, but not fully involved in world events).  So when the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's and the Civil Rights March on Washington occurred, I knew I needed to be there.  My heart has always called me to compassionate concern for those whose civil rights have been abused or ignored.  And this was a day to celebrate an event that challenged and corrected many such mistreatments.  And what a celebration it was!

Celebration
It was a celebration of thousands of Americans who gathered together to be reminded of all the changes that had occurred in our nation as a result of the challenge that was issued to us through our foremothers and forefathers half a century ago.  I celebrated with several groups of people, unknown to me before Wednesday, just by sitting peacefully on the lawn of the Lincoln Memorial in a wonderfully integrated gathering.

We just enjoyed spending the day together despite the intermittent rainfall.  It was a celebration of all that we have been through together, growing as American people, learning to care about and respect each other.  The speakers reminded us of much of our history:  

The Speakers
Caroline Kennedy and Lynda Johnson Robb recalled the role their fathers had played in addressing segregation in schools, on busses, at lunch counters.

President Carter acknowledged that he and the other two Presidents on the stage with him (Clinton and Obama) would not have been elected ". . . had it not been for Martin Luther King, Jr., and his movement and his crusade for civil rights."

President Clinton acknowledged that his own watching of the March on TV as a 17 year old is what moved and challenged him.  He spoke of the movement gaining the force to open "the stubborn gates of freedom" out of which flowed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Immigration Reform, Medicare, Medicaid, and open housing.
 
John Lewis, Senator from Georgia and the only living speaker from the original March,  reminded us of those “good old days” “. . . when black and white people could not be seated together on a Greyhound bus". . . and when blacks were subjected to a poll tax and had to "pass a so-called literacy test, count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap, or the number of jellybeans in a jar."

Two of MLK’s children, Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Bernice King, spoke at the event. Bernice (who was 5 years old when her father spoke at the Lincoln Memorial) reminded us that no woman spoke at the March that day.

Re-commitment to Dr. King’s Dream
All of the King family gathered with the former presidents and other guests to ring the church bell from the 16th Street Birmingham Baptist Church, where four little black girls were murdered less than three weeks after the March.

The ringing of the bell signaled a re-commitment on all of our parts to the struggle, something which President Obama called us to in his remarks.  He reminded us that all of us (teachers, employers, mothers, fathers) are continuing “'to march” when through struggle and discipline, faith and persistence we work for freedom for US ALL.

Remembrance
I attended the 50th celebration on Wednesday in memory of all that I had been taught in my family and in my Catholic faith about respect for all people; and in memory of all who had suffered and given their lives to bring about the changes we now see in our country.

Here I especially recall Richard Morrisroe, a man I met in recent years, who as a young priest marched in Selma and was badly wounded while a Minister next to him was killed demonstrating for voters rights.  I also attended on behalf of many Americans, some of whom have spoken to me directly, who have personally benefitted from the improvement in race relations in the United States.

Wednesday was a joyous day!  I wish you could have been there!