The Best of American Instincts

These are precedented times. We have seen law enforcement brutalizing nonviolent protesters before in the history of our nation.

Today, let us remember the moral courage Dr. King called us to, time and time again. We visited Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, where Dr. King worshipped and preached in Boston, to bring his words forth once more.

This passage from Dr. King’s speech “Our God Is Marching On” given in Montgomery, Alabama after the completion of the Selma to Montgomery March seems especially resonant in this moment.

"Once more the method of nonviolent resistance was unsheathed from its scabbard, and once again an entire community was mobilized to confront the adversary. And again the brutality of a dying order shrieks across the land. Yet, Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it. There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes.

[…] It is normalcy all over our country which leaves the Negro perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of material prosperity. It is normalcy all over Alabama that prevents the Negro from becoming a registered voter. No, we will not allow Alabama to return to normalcy.

The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and worth of all of God’s children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice.”

Let the best of American instincts rise again.

Your Humble Servant,

Silence Dogood