While the World Watched: Chapter 19-Barack Obama's Letter

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. psalm 37:25, KJV

With their wisdom and patience and steady belief in God, they were a source of stability in my turbulent life.

“I guess he and the other Klan members planted the church bomb to explode on that Sunday as a threat to stop us from integrating the public all-white schools in Birmingham.”

I shivered when I envisioned the hate-filled Klan on the loose, posing a real threat against the nation’s homes, churches, and neighborhoods.

In 1994, his niece Elizabeth Cobbs (who had changed her identity and name to Petrie Smith) wrote a book about her uncle, the trial, and the entire ordeal.

And on some level, I expected a brand-new Birmingham—a friendlier and more accommodating Birmingham, where my children could experience the freedom that had been lacking for me as a child.

Other than the addition of an elevator, no renovations had been done since the ones immediately following the bombing.

Before long, however, interracial incidents in my neighborhood interrupted my sense of peace and serenity.

Later I heard that the problem on the buses came about because white students had boarded school buses wearing white sheets, mimicking the Ku Klux Klan, and black students had responded by trying to remove the sheets.

The local newspapers picked up the story, and parents started to maintain a vigilant presence at the school.

One contingent in Birmingham seemed to make a serious effort to “leave the 1960s” and move forward to justice and equality for all citizens.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

I also started work as a consultant for a project that helped lift the socioeconomic status of Southern rural black women, especially the extremely impoverished in communities such as Alabama’s Black Belt, rural areas of Georgia, and the Mississippi Delta.

The subpoena ordered me to appear in court at 9:00 a.m. on May 6, 2002—to testify on behalf of Bobby Frank Cherry!

He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

Who would have thought that, almost forty years later, I’d still be dealing with the fallout from that September day?

“Carolyn, just answer the questions as simply and succinctly as you can,” he had instructed me.

Every now and then the bailiff walked into the dead-quiet room and called a name.

The evening news showing stretchers covered in white sheets, carrying the burned, mutilated bodies of my four friends to the morgue.

I searched deep for some sign of sympathy or sadness or remorse for the lives he had cut short, for the pain he had caused so many people.

During the late 1970s and the 1980s, Birmingham’s black mayor, Richard Arrington, had conceived the idea of building a Civil Rights museum as a place to display and store historical documents, photographs, correspondence, reports, and other memorabilia that recounted the dark and difficult Civil Rights struggle in the South, particularly in Birmingham.

I felt that God was calling me to be part of this effort to bring people together, to demonstrate a tangible expression of interracial progress.

When I stepped back and looked at the newly restored church, it truly felt like a piece of God’s work of redemption.

I could offer love and support during their times of illness and bereavement because I knew what it was like to be there.

Please, God, give me the strength to put it all down. Please fix my body and take away my cravings for alcohol.

The other criminal, however, rebuked the insulting thief, saying, “This man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41).

He helped me through the long process of forgiveness, and by his grace I chose to sincerely forgive all those who had so profoundly impacted my young life.

As we live and work and commute in the course of our busy everyday lives, we often miss opportunities to truly connect with the people who live around us.

These were anonymous acts of kindness that helped the woman toward physical healing and allowed her to take care of her family.

This commitment became a grassroots movement committed to eliminating prejudice in Birmingham and throughout the world.

He welcomed me, proudly gave me a personal tour, and showed me the museum’s artifacts.

And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels; you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing.

Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behavior of molecules; you may break into the storehouse of nature and bring forth many new insights

yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge; and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing.

You may even give your goods to feed the poor; you may bestow great gifts to charity; and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing.