A change of heart

When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, I had just graduated from high school. In the years leading to this landmark legislation, I remember an argument by those opposed to it – “you cannot legislate morality!”

It’s a curious argument. On one hand, it acknowledges that racial discrimination is a moral issue. On the other, the argument asserts that governmental action is impossible, apparently because no law can change what lies in a person’s mind or heart.

Well, the law did pass, and it outlawed segregation and discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and it helped assure voters’ rights. In a previous posting, I talked about the Jim Crow laws that were enforced in some states as late as 1965.

The law also changed America’s heart.

Many of us see this change within our own families. Racial language and ethnic stereotyping that may have been tolerated at one time, at least within family circles, is no longer acceptable. Even the look of families is different – more families have welcomed spouses and partners and children from different races.

But we all know that prejudice has not gone away, and thankfully there are people who continue to work on the “mind and heart” problem.

Here in Syracuse is the longest-running program in America that focuses on dialogue to help end racism. It’s called the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism (CWD) , and for several decades it has been bringing together people who might not otherwise meet so they can build understanding, tolerance, acceptance, and friendship.

Today there’s a fund raiser for CWD at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor, and people from Community General have been great in helping to support this whimsical event, called The Duck Race. I am not entirely certain of this, but I think the duck theme comes from the old saw, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.”

The Duck Race has a festive and multi-ethnic atmosphere with music and dancing and food – but the main event is the “race.” Model and toy ducks, sponsored by local companies and school children, waddle or float or paddle from Onondaga Creek into the Inner Harbor. There are a number of prizes for the sponsor of the winning ducks.

It is a light-hearted approach to a serious subject. And it’s good for our community.

Lift Every Voice

The song was already 68 years old when I heard it for the first time.

I listened to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also called the African American National Anthem, at a memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that I attended in April 1968. It is a brooding, soaring, and inspirational piece of music. I was embarrassed at the time that I did not know the words.

Monday is the national holiday that honors Dr. King, one of the truly heroic figures of my time.

When “Life Every Voice” was written in 1900, there were Jim Crow laws in America, and they were enforced in some states as late as 1965. Lynchings were commonplace in the first half of the 20th Century. The Ku Klux Klan continued as a formidable presence well into my lifetime.

I remember being at a band concert one night when I was perhaps ten years old. I overheard two men talking, one trying to impress the other with a story from his childhood – his father had taken him as a young boy to see a lynching. He told the man that he didn't see the actual lynching, but he did arrive in time to see someone drive "a hot poker through the body" as it hung from the tree. I was horrified to hear such a description and dismayed that a parent would be part of it, let alone expose his child to it.

A few years ago, Pam Johnson, Community General’s CFO wrote a letter to her fellow employees about tolerance and diversity, and she spoke about her own experiences and how her views were shaped during Dr. King’s years:

My parents were active in the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s….

I had a childhood of door-to-door voter registration drives, protest marches, and rallies….My parents’ neighbors would not let their kids play with me in “protest” over my parents having people of color at our house. My father was badly beat up one night for his efforts in registering people to vote….

How ugly, how incredible, as we look back now, that such circumstances could have existed in this country.

Dr. King is a central figure in our history. He helped change not only the laws of America but also the hearts of many Americans. Let us remember and honor him.