Last August, I had the great joy of returning to the first church I served in the ministry -- the congregation of Rasberry Chapel United Methodist Church in Indianola, Mississippi. The impact of that congregation has stayed in my heart and ministry every day of my life.
Indianola is in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. It is the home of segregationist Senator James Eastland and the home of freedom fighter Fannie Lou Hamer. Indianola has exhibited the most horrible and vivid examples of segregation. For decades, sociologists came to Indianola to study segregation in its most primitive, tragic forms. Before I went to Indianola, I had read thousands of pages of sociological studies: Caste and Class in a Southern Town by John Dollard; After Freedom by Hortense Powdermaker. Reading the historical context of Indianola made the acceptance and welcome of these people all the more precious.
This is me with Mrs. Annie Clay--the only living member of the Pastor Parish Committee at Rasberry in 1982 who asked for me to come be the pastor at Rasberry. The request of a black congregation for a white female pastor was (to their credit) a stunning event of its own.
Today, as Barak Obama is inaugurated as the first black president of our nation, my heart is full of the courageous, faithful people who made this day possible. In my pastorate at Rasberry, I had the great privilege of knowing some of the greatest of these heros. Charles McLaurin (pictured here) is one of the true heroes of our country. Now, "Mac"'s name is written all through the history books of the civil rights movement. He was one of the original SNCC workers who came to the Mississippi Delta to work for voting rights for blacks.
Mac experienced the brutality of white resistance in ways that take my breath away. He was arrested more times than he could count. He was beaten. He was jailed. And yet, he and his wife had the grace to take me on a personal tour of civil rights sites in the Delta. Here is Mac at one of the jails where he was held (in Drew, Mississippi).
Mac was Fannie Lou Hamer's right hand man.
He saw history up close.
And, in this church, I had the opportunity to know the first black member of the Indianola School Board, one of the first organizers of the NAACP in Indianola, principals of all the public schools, the first black policeman in the state of Mississippi -- along with a host of unsung faithful who kept the faith, registered to vote, worked for a better tomorrow and gave personal examples of integrity to the young people coming along. I will never forget their faith in such adverse circumstances. This inauguration day is directly linked to their courage to believe in their dignity as God's children.
Now, it is our turn to pick up this difficult world, work for what is right and let our lives shine with faith, courage and hope. As I walked again the world of Sunflower County, I can tell you that if Fannie Lou Hamer and Charles McLaurin could keep the faith in the brutality of the civil rights movement, we should be able to unswervingly keep the light shining.
(sign at Fannie Lou Hamer's grave; Ruleville, Mississippi)
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