LINKS:
QUOTES: Martin Luther King
I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH AND VIDEO
WE SHALL OVERCOME: Historic places of the Civil Rights Movement
ROBERT GRAETZ’S BOOK: A White Preacher’s Message on Race and Reconcilliation
Years ago, I sat in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery Alabama and watched a young service woman speaking with an elderly gentleman in the front pew: One was white; the other was black. Fifty-five years ago that encounter most likely would not have taken place. I imagined the space filled with voices of Martin Luther King Jr. and crowds gathered in prayer supporting the Montgomery bus boycott.
It began with Jo Ann Robinson, head of the Women’s Political Council, who along with other women mimeographed thousands of flyers asking Montgomery Blacks to boycott buses on the day Rosa Park’s case was heard in court. The boycott’s success encouraged the black community, and the following day many gathered in Dexter Avenue Church, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, and spurred on by its newly elected leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., called for a citywide bus boycott.
When we visited the museum at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church and watched historic newscasts, my young adult children expressed horror at scenes of protesters being attacked by dogs and thrown to the ground by water blasts from fire hoses. For many adults today, the early Civil Rights movement in this country is ancient history.
That reality prompted me to invite Rev. Robert and Jeannie Graetz to speak in my adult Even Start Class. He had accepted his first assignment as a Lutheran minister in Montgomery Alabama the same year Martin Luther King Jr. became pastor at Dexter Ave. The only white minister to publicly and actively support the bus boycott along with Jeannie, his family’s home were fire bombed and his life threatened. Their neighbor, Rosa Parks, helped clean up the mess left by the bombs and took a neighborhood collection to replace tableware smashed in the attack.
His stories of life in the South in the 60’s, MLK’s leadership, and the black community’s courage impressed the students. His call to address not only racism, alive and well in this country, but also other areas of discrimination spoke to their experience. Many lived in poverty and suffered abuse. 
Respect All Cultures Equally” is the phrase Bob and Jeannie use whenever they address a group. In addition to racism, issues that demand our attention and activity include equal rights for transsexuals and homosexuals, protection and services for ethnic minorities, and recognition of systemic discrimination against the poor in our country.
PHOTOS OF GRAETZS: MARY VAN BALEN
Everyone may be entitled to an education, but the quality of that education is determined in large part by pocketbook. People don’t flock to inner cities for outstanding schools; pricey suburbs tout top-notch education.
Did you know that in most cities in our country a person can be refused housing or be fired from a job because they are transsexuals? How many people know what “transsexual” is? Not many, yet fear of the “other” fuels discrimination and violence against them.
Martin Luther Kings work to end racism in the United States not completed. We must carry it on while extending our quest for justice to include other groups as well, both within our borders and beyond them.
Faith was the root of Dr. Kings vision and courage and that courage and that of those who walked with him, challenging bigotry and its ugly manifestations in this country. One way to honor them is to ask God’s help in seeing all as our sisters and brothers. God can replace fear with love, for as King said, At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
He challenges us with these words: Lifes most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? What ARE we doing? We might contact Senators and Congress-people about the shame of millions of Americans without health care and insist they pass a reform bill. We might volunteer at an afterschool center that attempts to close the huge educational and experience gap between the rich and the poor.
We might change our lifestyles, consuming less and respecting resources, and seeking justice in their global distribution. The earthquake in Haiti has refocused attention on abject poverty in our world.
As he talked about the new issues to be addressed, Bob Graetz liked to quote King: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Take time today to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.s birthday not just by sleeping in or going shopping. Reflect on his words, examine your heart, and live to make a difference.
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