A Day with Martin Luther King Jr and Juanita Abernathy

Yesterday was a day with some very “weighty” images for me. Viewing the KKK robe and the many images of so many terrible acts committed by people who looked like me. And knowing so many of those people were self proclaimed “God fearing Christians”. The acts committed against others simply because they didn’t look like the perpetrator. Beatings. Lynchings. Overt acts of a systemic hatred. The weight of those images was somewhat disorienting. The vertigo those images caused left me with an awkward questioning. “What is my role? What is my responsibility?”… Today seemed to reinstill a sense of balance. There were reminders everywhere. In a video, President Johnson”…it’s really all of us who must overcome the legacy of bigotry and injustice.”

And then came Mrs Juanita Abernathy. There are things we would all recite as facts of our heads, but Mrs. Abernathy restored them in my heart. She spoke as a fiesty grandmother that was a staunch contrast to her true role as a “civil rights foot soldier”. This was a woman who put her family on the front lines of the movement. She spoke distinctly of the role of women in The Civil Rights Movement. She wove a thread that in a way sewed me into the story. She reminded me that no matter our role, we are all tied together. “We are all responsible for the injustice around us. Each one reach one”. Her personal stories provoked both laughter and tears. It provided us with insight into the people that were at the front of the movement peeling away some of the notoriety that makes them larger than life. These were real, regular people making very courageous decisions, but real people just the same. Being reminded of that helped remind me that the actions of each regular person matter, including this one.

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