August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have Dream Speech” (Photo Credit: RNS File Photo)
ATLANTA (RNS) The King Center is urging communities around the world to participate in a bell-ringing ceremony next month to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
King Center officials say they have reached out to all 50 governors and to cities across the globe asking them to participate in the bell ringing at 3 p.m. ET on Aug. 28, or at 3 p.m. in their respective time zones.
“My father concluded his great speech with a call to ‘let freedom ring,’ and that is a challenge we will meet with a magnificent display of brotherhood and sisterhood in symbolic bell-ringing at places of worship, schools and other venues where bells are available from coast to coast and from continent to continent,” said Bernice King, King’s daughter and CEO of the King Center.
The King Center and the 50th Anniversary Coalition will host a seven-day celebration in the nation’s capital of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. King’s riveting speech was the keynote event of that march.
The bell ringing is planned as a way to allow those who can’t make the trip to Washington to participate in the celebration, according to the King Center.
On Aug. 28, 1963, King ended his speech with a call to “let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire…from the mighty mountains of New York…from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania…from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado…from the curvaceous slopes of California…from Stone Mountain of Georgia… from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee…and from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.”
Bernice King asked that participating communities come up with diverse commemorative programs that “bring people together across cultural and political lines to celebrate the common humanity in creative and uplifting ways in the spirit of the dream.”
Bell-ringing ceremonies are currently planned in communities such as Concord, N.H.; Allentown, Pa.; Lutry, Switzerland; and Tokyo, the center says.
The King Center is asking that communities wishing to participate submit a brief description of their bell-ringing event to [email protected].
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the civil rights movement, “Parting the Waters,” Taylor Branch wrote that King departed from his prepared text and that much of the speech’s greatness was extemporaneous.
“More than his words, the timbre of his voice projected him across the racial divide and planted him as a new founding father,” Branch wrote. “It was a fitting joke on the races that he achieved such statesmanship by setting aside his lofty text to let loose and jam, as he did regularly from two hundred podiums a year.”
(Larry Copeland writes for USA Today.)
Copyright 2013 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
Dola Indidis, a Roman Catholic, is petitioning the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, to nullify Jesus’ conviction and death sentence. (Photo Credit: Fredrick Nzwili)
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) The conviction of Jesus by Pontius Pilate may be the most famous court verdict ever — and perhaps the most consequential, since it led to Christ’s crucifixion and the founding of a global religion.
Now a Kenyan lawyer wants to overturn Pilate’s decision, though he wants to keep the faith that flowed from it.
“The selective and malicious prosecution (of Jesus) violated his human rights,” said Dola Indidis, a Roman Catholic who is petitioning the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, to nullify Jesus’ conviction and death sentence.
Indidis, a former spokesman for the Kenyan judiciary, accuses Pilate, who was the Roman governor of Judea, of “judicial misconduct, abuse of office, bias and prejudice.”
That may well be the case, at least in the view of believers and many Bible scholars. But getting a court to rule on a 2,000-year-old case from an outlying province in a long-defunct empire will not be easy.
Indidis first brought his case before the Kenyan High Court in Nairobi in 2007, but the court refused to hear it, saying it lacked jurisdiction.
Now he is turning to the International Court of Justice, often referred to as the World Court, which is best known for ruling on territorial disputes between members of the United Nations.
Officials at The Hague would not confirm or deny that they have received a petition.
But Indidis seems undeterred and points to the example of Joan of Arc, the 15th-century saint who led the French to major victories against the English before she was captured and burned at the stake. A quarter-century after Joan’s death her conviction was overturned by a papal court, and in 1920 she was canonized.
Indidis’ petition has surprised Christian leaders in Kenya. The Rev. Maloba Wesonga, a spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, said the exercise was futile, at least from a theological point of view.
“As we know it, the trial had to happen,” said Wesonga. “We must understand that Jesus was not vulnerable and nobody can do justice to God.”
Copyright 2013 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
It has been a year and a half since Robert Champion, a Florida A&M University drum major, died after being severely beaten in a hazing ritual. Within that time over a dozen of the students who participated in the hazing were charged—some facing up to 15 years in prison, Champion’s family sued the university, the Marching 100 was suspended, and band director, Dr. Julian White, retired. Widespread news of the hazing incident also resulted in a drop in enrollment, the president’s stepping down, and severe financial loss for the institution. Thus, the road to recovery has been a long one for the band and the school, but there seems to be a light shining at the end of the tunnel.
Within the last few weeks, a video of the FAMU Music Department has made its rounds making people wonder if the band is coming back. The video was part of “Working Together to Stop Hazing,” a recruitment and outreach tour targeting high school students in South Florida. The video not only showcases the band’s musical expertise, but also sheds light on the positive aspects of FAMU that mainstream media hasn’t touched on since the hazing incident. Various students in the music department extol the virtues of an education at the university and remind viewers that FAMU is still committed to “Excellence with Caring” (the school’s motto) by ending hazing and focusing on the development of brilliant and successful people. Here’s hoping that this is truly a sign of recovery for FAMU.
Check out the video of FAMU’s Music Department old school and contemporary music and discussing the core values of the school.
President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address to over 500 college graduates at Morehouse College on Sunday, May 19, 2013 (Photo credit: David Tulls, Newscom).
Last Sunday, President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College. This marks the second time that Obama is delivering an address at an Historically Black College and University.
Obama spoke movingly about the power of setting examples – particularly in identifying and correcting the injustices within the world. He charged the graduating class to connect maximizing career opportunities while serving their respective communities: to practice law that defends the rich and powerful but also the powerless; to practice medicine and provide healing in well-served and underserved areas; and to run small business that create personal wealth while brings jobs to the economy and great products/services to the nation at large.
In speaking at the distinguished male-only college, the President situated himself within the legacy of luminaries: Ralph Abernathy, Ralph Bunche, Spike Lee, and Thurgood Marshall, and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
With the facility of expression for which he is celebrated, President Obama used his life story – as well as the narratives of Drs. Benjamin E. Mays and Martin Luther King – to challenge the class of 2013 to exemplify excellence within their careers, communities, and families. If Morehouse Men could succeed during 1940’s and 1950’s, then so can you. If a skinny kid with a funny name can grow up to become President of the United States, then upward mobility is a dream within the reach of all black men. We’ve heard the refrains before, of course, but Obama delivered them with a noted vigor and vibrancy.
Still, President Obama delivered a rather safe speech – avoiding mention of what is often called the New Jim Crow; skipping over the massive loss of wealth among black families due to the Great Recession and mortgage crisis; and minimizing the role of structural discrimination within American labor markets by emphasizing the dog-eat-dog nature of a globalized labor market. A safe speech, but a strong one just the same. As the saying goes. You can tell a Morehouse Man – even an honorary one – but you can’t tell him much.
Sweet Brown, it was a good run while it lasted. Yesterday, a new Internet legend was born. His name is Charles Ramsey. Ramsey was at his Cleveland home eating some good old Mickey D’s when he heard screams coming from next door. After going to investigate, he found a young girl pleading for help. The young lady turned out to be Amanda Berry, a woman who went missing 10 years ago. Two other women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who went missing in 2004 and 2002, respectively, were also found in the home. Check out the video interview with Ramsey below:
Some classic lines in there, right? So much personality. So much sincerity. Trending on Twitter. A lock for viral video of the month. I don’t want to discuss the timeline for Ramsey’s autotuned YouTube video release. Instead, I think it’s important that we talk about something he said in the interview:
Ramsey: “Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty, white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something [was] wrong here. Dead giveaway! Deaaaddddd giveaway. Deaaaaadddddddddddddd giveaway. She’s got problems. That’s the only reason she’s running to a black man!”
Epic quote. Here’s a black man, living a predominately Latino community in Cleveland, who rescues a white girl from what appears to be a human trafficking situation. An unlikely hero. Ramsey’s comment reflects what many of us think, but don’t have the guts to say: Race relations in America still suck. But in this moment, Amanda Berry could care less if this dude was Black, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Columbian, Caribbean, or from the tribe of Zamunda. She saw a potential rescuer. I’m sure when her family heard the news of the rescue, their first words weren’t, “A black guy? Really?” What mattered most is that their girl was safe.
What was the telltale sign that showed Ramsey something was wrong? A white girl running into his arms. Culture hadn’t taught him this was the norm. Whites usually crossed the street when he came around. They clutched their purses a little more tightly. They got a little more pep in their step. They held their little Amandas a little closer. Now Ramsey was holding someone who he was taught, through experience, feared him. But there was a greater fear at work here. The fear of suffering another moment in that home—trapped for ten long years. Amazing how tragedy causes us to put aside our differences. Think back on the events that unfolded in Boston weeks ago. First responders weren’t categorized by race; instead, every able-bodied person rendered assistance to those in need.
Maybe we can learn something from Ramsey. And it’s not what he ordered from the Golden Arches that day. Nor is it how to leverage viral video success into a somewhat successful “career.” It’s just the opposite. Ramsey taught us several things yesterday. Evil is evil. It has no racial identity. There’s no race profile for victims. Heroes come to us in the most unlikely form. And it might be uncomfortable at first. I’m sure the first moment of that hug with Amanda Berry was awkward. But as Ramsey held her, he felt her humanity. He felt her pain. When we encounter injustice in any form in our lives daily, may we all feel the same pain—and put our Big Macs down and do something about it.
