Bryan Stephenson, the Equal Justice Initiative
Lynchings, and a note from Savitri
So this is not my usual type of post, but Jan heard Mr. Stephenson talking about this today and I’m still so moved by it I wanted to share it with you.
********************************************************************************
So this black woman, maybe in her 40s or so? She’s digging up some dirt on the side of the road in a fairly remote spot in Alabama. It’s a spot where a black man was lynched a few decades back.
As she’s digging, a pick up truck drives past her, slowly…. a white guy driving the truck. The guy turns around and starts driving back toward her. She’s getting real nervous.
So he drives back, parks nearby and starts walking toward her.
She’s terrified.
He asks her, “What are you doing?”
She had planned not to say anything about what she was really doing, maybe tell him she was gathering dirt for her garden, but “something got into me,” as she put it.
She said, “A black man was lynched here many years ago, and I”m gathering some dirt from this site to put in a jar to bring to the Equal Justice Initiative, where there is a large collection of jars with dirt from many lynching sites.”
She had a piece of paper which told the story of that particular lynching site, and gave it to him to read.
And then, she was stunned... he said to her, “Can I help you?”
She said yes, handed him the digging implement she was using, but he waved her off and said, “No, I’ll use my hands.”
So she’s digging and he’s digging, and they’re putting the dirt in the jar, and she’s crying, and she looks over at him and sees him all red-faced and notices he’s crying too.
And when they finished he said, “Where are you going?” She told him the Equal Justice Initiative was in Montgomery, AL. He said, “Can I drive along with you?”
He told her, through the tears, that he was concerned that it could have been his grandfather who was involved in the lynching at this site.
************************
The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven,
The life you lead conceals the light you are.
Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors;
Far-off upon your tops the god-chant sounds
While to exceed yourselves thought’s trumpets call,
Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire…
An epic of hope and failure breaks earth’s heart;
Her force and will exceed her form and fate.
A goddess in a net of inconscience caught,
Self-bound in the pastures of death she dreams of life,
Self-racked with the pains of hell aspires to joy,
And builds to hope her altars of despair,
Knowing that one high step might enfranchise all
**************************
From Book IV, Canto 1, The Birth of the Flame
Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, by Sri Aurobindo
LITERAL GOOSEBUMPS!