When I was at Candler School of Theology, one of my teachers was Bishop Nolan B. Harmon.
Bishop Harmon – in his nineties at the time – was a well-respected leader in the United Methodist Church. He had served as the book editor of the Methodist Church and bishop of a number of our conferences, including the Western North Carolina Conference, which includes Robbinsville United Methodist Church.
I had two courses under him and loved the times when he would share a story from the past. He was a library of church history.
Yet, there was one part of history he never discussed.
In 1963, he was the Bishop of North Alabama. The Civil Rights Movement was at its pinnacle and Birmingham was the center of the battle. He was among seven white Christian clergymen and a rabbi in Birmingham who published an open letter titled “A Call for Unity” on April 12, 1963.
The letter stated for the people, churches and African-American community of Birmingham to handled the struggle for civil rights locally and through the courts, and not have any outsiders involved or directing the struggle. The “outsiders” was in reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
King had been invited by the local African-American community to help the fight to end segregation in Birmingham. In Birmingham to organize gatherings and boycotts, King and others were arrested and in the Birmingham city jail. While in jail, he received a copy of the newspaper with the published “Call for Unity” and started his response. What developed was his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”
Read and studied in schools and colleges to this day, the letter is an important document of the American Civil Rights Movement. Responding to the criticisms of the clergy, he wrote his organization was not an outsider. They had been present and involved in Birmingham and other cities across the South for some time. Just as the Old Testaments prophets spoke out against injustices to a whole nation, the message of equality and freedom was to be proclaimed to the whole nation.
He continued with a lesson why people cannot wait for moral injustices to just take of themselves. King used legal, historic and religious grounds to make the point why he was in favor of working to overturn unjust laws.
He wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” To his fellowship clergymen, he wrote how they were well meaning but it was time for a change.
It is unfortunate the seven clergymen are seen as racists by each new generation that reads the letter. This is far from the truth.
There is an old spiritual hymn called “I Will Trust in the Lord.” The second verse goes, “I’m gonna’ treat everybody right, I’m gonna’ treat everybody right – until I die.”
On Jan. 18, we can honor the work of Dr. King by treating everybody we know and meet right, regardless of race, color, creed or gender.
Eric Reece is the faith columnist for The Graham Star. He is the pastor of Robbinsville United Methodist Church.