In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma

Preface

xi Preface Ever since I was a teenager I have had an interest in civil rights. I participated in the Youth Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Tampa, Florida, at an early age. In Tampa the president of the NAACP was Rev. Leon Lowry and the field secretary was Mr. Robert Sanders. But my active involvement in the civil rights movement began when I was a student at the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. My roommate, John Robert Lewis from Troy, Alabama (who was later elected U.S. Representative from Atlanta, Georgia), persuaded me to attend some nonviolence workshops conducted by Rev. James Lawson. I was preoccupied with my studies and jobs on campus and felt I was too busy to take on another obligation. However, after going to one meeting I was convinced that working toward nonviolence and peace would become one of my life’s missions. What fascinated me about Rev. Lawson’s approach was the clear connection between our biblical and theological studies and the social change movement. Up to that point I had not seen the connection. This was a turning point in my life where I combined the gospel with the social change movement based on the concept of love from New Testament theology. I was curious to learn more. My introduction to Gandhi and learning about the powerful nonviolent movements he led were life changing for me. I began to see the relationship, connection, and symmetry between Gandhi’s movement in a country on the other side of the world and our movement of social change right here in the United States. I was inspired, just as Dr. King was, by the possible impact that nonviolence could have in this country. The most important aspect was that it had immediate practical application , not just intellectual curiosity. The idea of civil disobedience intrigued me as I came to understand that it was more important to obey a moral law than an unjust civil law. The fact that a foreign country could have experienced a similar situation in struggling for civil rights made me realize that nonviolence is universal. xii Preface I was fascinated with the methods Lawson used in teaching, particularly role play and social drama. We set up the situations we might encounter and practiced our responses to them. The other concept that captivated me was how people’s emotions significantly affect their behavior . Emotions are always present, and if we allow them to gain control, we can move in the wrong direction. If we find the strength to discipline our emotions, this can serve as a catalyst for guiding our own behavior in a positive direction. Lawson strung together many different threads into one woven philosophy. And I wrapped myself up in this cloth. Most important was the personal challenge to bring out the best of myself. While I had studied the scriptures and the concept of love—loving your enemy and doing good to those who mistreat you—I was internalizing how moral behavior could be a force for change. Changing the relationship with others, particularly our adversaries, was part of the strategy of nonviolence. The Nashville workshops were designed to help us embrace others as individual human beings, and also to learn how the same moral force could be used to change the attitudes of an entire community . These workshops emphasized not only interpersonal change but systemic change. It was a personal experimentation as I grasped these new ideas, not just intellectually but by living them each day. The practice of learning to love people who had literally put their foot in my face was a challenge. I could take the blows physically without retaliating, but the question was whether or not I could muster up enough emotional feeling to actually love those people. I came to understand that if I were to reach the goal I was seeking, I needed to accept the suffering. The goal was to win those people over and to help bring out the best in other people, so I had to present the best in myself. I had to be the example that I wanted them to see. Nashville became a laboratory for me. I liked collaborating with others in a collegial way where decisions were made by consensus. I got caught up in the movement, and it became the most important thing in my life because it meant I was doing something concrete. The practical...