Civil Rights Movement: Historical & Theological Perspective

Deuteronomy 32:48-52

When African Americans were known as Negroes in the United States of America, they rose in the mid 1950s to form a "new" Civil Rights Movement in the nation. Throughout the USA, people of color were waiting for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored of People (NAACP) to achieve goals of freedom with justice for all in the land. The progress was too slow for the people in the south, who were being denied respectable seating on the bus, when whites came aboard. Eating establishments and other public facilities, including schools were segregated. Discrimination made separate, but equal a first class joke and a dream deferred.

While many had prepared themselves to make success in the battle of life, the cause for liberation needed a leader. One man was chosen in Montgomery, Alabama to head a movement protesting discrimination in public transportation. Historically known as the Montgomery Boycott, the young preacher recently graduated from Boston with a PhD. in Sacred Theology, Martin Luther King, Jr. was chosen as the voice of the people. He came to be more than a voice. Martin adhered to the call of God and became the sacrificial lamb. Mercy.

During the months of January (he was born on the 15th day of the first month of the year in 1928) and February (known for Black History Month), many people view the contributions of MLK, Jr. and other important leaders in the civil rights movement. Yet, when we pass through March, we enter the reality of April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was rifled down and his mind blown into death with the cessation of his life. Mercy.

On that 4th day of April in '68, pause became the reality for the civil rights movement. In many ways, we having been pausing ever since. It is not that there has been no leaders or leadership. What has happen among the people now called African Americans is a moment by moment mentality of acceptance and toleration that too often resembles a need for recycling. In a time that is calling for repentance, in order to achieve reconciliation, people are pausing to celebrate a few social advances, slow political progress, and joyous entertainment economics. What has been good for the so-called gifted and talented has left the United States of America drenched in sorrows and sufferings of the poor of every race, creed, and color, along with the African American, who is ever so reminded that to be Black is different and not always acceptable at any economic rate.

Martin Luther King, Jr. stated on the last night of his living something resembling a Mosiac experience: "I have been to the mountaintop, and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." The promised land, Canaan, the so-called heaven on earth was seen but not entered by Moses. Moses was not allowed to enter "because" he had broken "faith with" God "in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because" he "did not uphold" God's "holiness among the Israelites." King did not enter the promise land, because evil infected the people in our nation, even the people of goodwill. We as a people are still waiting to occupy the land held by the giants. You may even say that we remain on the mountaintop looking at the promised land, because we have had some mountaintop experiences.

I say: Let us leave the mindset of the promised land and go to the reality of Calvary. The Lamb of God was crucified, but arose for the new life of believers. We are no longer in need of Canaan, we need the New Jerusalem.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.