While Matt and David were at the Dome this week, there was a remarkably moving event in my town of Williamstown, Massachusetts, the home of Williams College. On Monday night Williams hosted a forum with nine members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including John Lewis, the prominent civil rights leader and since 1987 a Congressman serving the district that includes Atlanta, Georgia.
When they walked into the packed auditorium, we all rose and didn't stop applauding for five minutes. Again, many of us with tears welling up, couldn't believe this event was happening in our relatively isolated rural area, just two weeks after the election of Barack Obama.
When they walked into the packed auditorium, we all rose and didn't stop applauding for five minutes. Again, many of us with tears welling up, couldn't believe this event was happening in our relatively isolated rural area, just two weeks after the election of Barack Obama.
http://www.williams.edu/admin/news/multimedia/video/black_caucus.php
I sat there thinking it was only 47 years ago that, in the fight for desegregation, John Lewis was severely beaten as a Freedom Rider; this was the same year Ernie Davis won the Heisman Award. Lewis was beaten again a few years later on one of the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.
In the Q and A following the forum, a student asked how Barack Obama was going to change anything, he was doubtful that meaningful change could ever happen. Congressman Lewis, with the scars from the beatings he suffered still showing on his head, gave the young man a rather stern lecture on the necessity of perseverance, reminding him that the struggle for civil rights and social justice was a life long commitment - and beyond.
I sat there thinking it was only 47 years ago that, in the fight for desegregation, John Lewis was severely beaten as a Freedom Rider; this was the same year Ernie Davis won the Heisman Award. Lewis was beaten again a few years later on one of the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.
In the Q and A following the forum, a student asked how Barack Obama was going to change anything, he was doubtful that meaningful change could ever happen. Congressman Lewis, with the scars from the beatings he suffered still showing on his head, gave the young man a rather stern lecture on the necessity of perseverance, reminding him that the struggle for civil rights and social justice was a life long commitment - and beyond.
This is both, a severely challenging and an inspiring moment in our country. We will need all of the courage and determination that the number 44 has represented at Syracuse University. Indeed, it is a good time to be looking at the photographs of Jimmy Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little. And the time to honor President Obama with the number 44 at the Dome on February 14th.
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