MLK Train Richard

 Dear friends of ours, Lilia and Richard, invited us to go on the Heber Creeper railroad with them.  They were having a "I Have a Dream" celebration to commemorate the March for Freedom and Jobs in Washington D.C. 57 years ago.  Alfredo had to work late and Michelle and Ella were going to the high school football game so Gabby came with me.  It was amazing!

The Bonner's Unity Gospel Choir sang a couple of songs..."We Shall Overcome" and another song that was really beautiful.  They had teenagers share stories of a few of the people who were there at the march.  We heard part of the I Have a Dream Speech...and a few poems.

One 18 year old man named David attended the march.  He was on leave from the Air Force.  Just before midnight he boarded a train to head to Washington D.C.  He remembered that most women wore dresses and most men on the train wore ties.  He went because he'd seen freedom marchers being brutalized  Earlier that year, he had been denied service in Texas because of the color of his skin, despite being a soldier who was fighting for freedom in the Cold War.  While at the march, he saw Harry Bellafonte and Marlon Brando.  He was only about 20 feet away from Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Philip Randolph.  He said I was standing in a pivotal moment in history.  I am still moved deeply by the I Have a Dream speech.

Denise was a 15 year old black girl.  She went alone to the march. She lived in DC.  She walked to the monument.  Once there, an interracial group shared food and water with her.  She joined the Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and then the NAACP.  She spent her career working in civil rights.  She is grateful for Dr. King.

We learned about the BSCP...the brotherhood of sleeping car porters.   George Pullman founded the train car company after the Civil War.  He had luxury sleeping cars for travelers.  He hired as many African Americans as he could to be porters.  The hoursEwere terrible...they worked 400 hours per month (100 hours per week) and made 27 cents per hour.  All of these porters were called "George" after Pullman.So they formed the BSCP with help of A. Philip Randolph.  Randolph had tried to form 3 labor unions previously but had been unsuccessful.  But the BSCP was able to rise wages and lowered hours as Roosevelt agreed with Randolph and signed an order.

Interestingly, the March on Washington had been planned for 1941...but when Roosevelt agreed to sign the order limiting hours, the march was cancelled.  It was finally held 22 years later.

Teresa was a 20 year old white girl.  Her father was a union organizer.  She said, "You don't have to be an observer of history.  You can be a maker of history."   She said MLK's speech was mesmerizing.  Many of the phrases stayed with her throughout her life.  She became a machinist and worked in the anti-apartheid movement.  She became a chaplain.  Her son does anti-discrimination law.  This march shaped her life.

We heard the Ballad of Martin Luther King which is beautiful...and painful.  

Part of Langston Hughes' poem Harlem was shared:

"What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?"

And these words of MLK keep ringing in my head this weekend:

"And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

We have come a long way since 1963 but there is still more to be done.  At the end, they gave us each a card and asked us to make a commitment to do our part.  Each of us wrote down what we will do to continue to help see the fulfillment of the dream.  I will do my part...

I will listen to people's stories and when possible record them (in writing).

I will strive to expand my circle and to be kind to all I meet.

I will speak up when I see injustice occurring. 

I will teach my children and my students to treat people fairly and with kindness. 

LESSONS LEARNED:  

Stories are powerful and can shape our attitudes and behaviors.

All of God's children deserve to be free and to be treated fairly.

I have a role to play in helping justice come about.