We spent some time yesterday on youtube, watching “I Have a Dream” and the last speech from Memphis. We watched Walter Cronkite tell the nation about King’s death. And I found a neat roughly animated bit on the Children of Birmingham.
Talking to Kate about it was interesting. Trying to get her head around such hate was difficult. When the camera panned to the audience during I Have a Dream, she asked, “are those the Christians?” It was a reminder to me that God’s people will break her heart and disappoint her. Not sure how to prepare her for that but it’s something I will think about.
There is this part of the speech, “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Kate smiled at me when she heard it. She told me that was true at Cornerstone.
It’s not always easy to talk to kids about race, hate, prejudice, and injustice. I realized we need to be having more of these conversations.
yeah, Caleb was near tears when we were trying to explain what racism is and what MLK was striving for, only about an hour after they were playing with the (black) neighbor kids.