Over the course of our trip in Alabama we met with several women who spoke about their experiences growing up in Alabama, with segregation, and "The Movement." There were varying degrees of personal impact - from learning in a 3 room Rosenwald schoolhouse without running
water, electricity or bathrooms (as late as 1953) to being jailed and attacked by the policed while fighting for civil rights. They saw people they loved humiliated, targeted, arrested, hurt, and even killed.
It would be understandable to be angry. And sometimes they were, but, to a woman, each one held onto the lessons at the core of The Movement - non-violence and forgiveness. They stated that violence doesn't really do anybody any good. It just leads to more violence - not change. They shared their perspective on forgiveness - that it's really for yourself and not for those who perpetuate the hateful things against you because if you don't forgive, it eats you up inside.
This aligns with Martin Luther King's work "Strength to Love" where he highlights the scripture "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." MLK believed that many of the people who did these terrible things to the Black community were blind to the evils they were doing and needed to be enlightened.
It's amazing how deeply ingrained these lessons of nonviolence and forgiveness are in the speakers we heard from. Despite the passage of time, despite the ills they faced, when asked if they still believed in non-violence, the answers were a quick response and an unequivocal yes. Perhaps that's impacted by the astounding results The Movement achieved. But they maintain in the face of also all acknowledging that we have not come as far we should have. That is a lasting lesson.
And it creates in me a lesson that I also hope is lasting. I fear that now our society thinks the way to struggle for what we think is right is berating others, shouting on social media, and encouraged blindness to the perspective of others. We must do better than letting that be the lasting lesson of today.
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