A New Hero

Last night was the first time I sat and watched the biography of Martin Luther King Jr. Prior to last night, the only thing I knew of him was that he was a civil rights activist and I had heard the sound byte, “I have a dream…”. After seeing this documentary with actual footage from the segregationist period of our country I was deeply saddened at the horrible injustices that were placed up on the Black people of America. I am Caucasian, and growing up as such after the civil rights movement, I was educated on the abolition of slavery, but not so much on segregation. I knew the end product of what happened, but I was spared the gory details in my school curriculum. The white community does not openly talk about their part in segregation.

In a sense I have not been moved to study segregation because I, personally am innocent of those crimes committed against those past generations. I love all races, and embrace all peoples of the world. However, I learned an important lesson the past couple of weeks. Embracing the person is good, but embracing their culture and history is even better. Taking time to learn where they came from and what brought us to this point deepens the bonds of respect and friendship between two parties. I have many black friends, but I have never taken the time to learn about their history until the past couple of weeks.

I spent hours searching YouTube finding footage from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. I watched the MLK biography. I picked up a book from my shelf I had not read in years from the Lincoln era about Frederick Duglas and Harriet Jacobs. It moved me to tears that we are not so far removed from these terrible events. I never understood Black History Month. I thought it was racist. I sincerely thought if we had a Black History Month, we certainly should have a White History Month as well. That thinking was not out of hatred, but out of a sincere desire for equality between our colors. After this week, I have changed my mind.

This impacted me so much, I had to find out how my family handled segregation. It saddened me even more to find out that my family turned away black families from a hotel we owned 49 years ago. I certainly feel the shame of my heritage being actively involved in the segregation of America. I had one ancestor who shouted to the world that he hated “niggers” and Catholics. I wish those parts of my history were different. I wish my family had not participated in any shape or form in the segregation of America, but they did. I wish I could say that that my family members marched with the blacks in the non-violent protests like many whites did back then. The truth is, we didn’t support it.

I have grown up in an era that has been relatively free from the violence toward blacks that was seen half-a-decade ago. Today, though saddened at portions of my own history, I am driven to make right was what wrong, even though I did not participate. The way that I am righting the wrong is by embracing all people of all walks of life, along with their history and culture.

Martin Luther King Jr. has been added to my list of heroes. He was a Godly man who preached the true love of God to all men. He never incited hatred toward the white people, but insisted that they love those who hated them. This was a great example of loving your enemies that was taught by my greatest hero, Jesus Christ.