"I, too, am America"

Today we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a life lived in peace, and a life spent working toward equality. Dr. King remains to this day an inspiration for all who still struggle for equal rights.

Growing up in Alabama endows a white Anglo-Saxon protestant with a unique perspective on race relations. Even though I never experienced segregation or the atrocities that were perpetrated in my home city of Birmingham in the sixties and seventies, I still experienced a form of “us-them” mentality as a child. I remember thinking and “understanding” that there was something different about the black, Asian, and Latino students in my classes.

I remember thinking that all of the custodians in my elementary school were black. I also remember how novel I found it when there was a new black woman teaching third grade one year. She was the only African-American teacher at my elementary school.

I remember that somewhere deep inside, all of these things bothered me. I never really understood why there was this separation. I didn’t get why the color of someone’s skin made him or her different. To be sure, my teachers and administrators were not mean spirited or intentional about this racial divide. But for some reason, this was how it was in my little Alabama public elementary school.

Over time, I learned about civil rights. I learned about a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday got us out of school. But that understanding grew further as we began reading poetry and books by African-American authors in middle school (like “The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes and The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis). Conversations about race became more mature and more academic in those years. Eventually we visited the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham in eighth grade. That was a turning point. There, right before our eyes, we could see the horrific treatment of people not so different than us.

I remember taking this new understanding into high school. It was there that I grew to love African-American literature. There is a heart buried deep in these writings that cannot be imitated. Over those four years I found myself engrossed in the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Ralph Ellison, Joni Morrison, Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and so many more. These writings helped me to grasp the magnitude of the African-American experience, at least as much as a southern white man can.

I am eternally grateful for teachers like Laurian Dumas, Mandy Beason, Susan Bank, Kristi Sayers, Brenda Hasterok, and Deborah Robbins for requiring their students to read challenging literature. I am thankful that they pushed us to encounter the greater narrative of civil rights. Teachers like them help Dr. King’s vision become manifest in the hearts of future leaders.

Even as I recognize that I write from a place of privilege, my heart empathizes with my African-American sisters and brothers throughout time. My heart breaks at the sacrifices that have been made by generations of black families. I will continue to live an American story inspired by Dr. King. I will speak of equality and peace. I will preach of hope and greater promise. I leave you now with words by Langston Hughes that have inspired me:

“I, Too, Sing America”

by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.