Page 8 The Skanner Portland & Seattle January 13, 2021
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Walker
cont’d from pg 7
munity, Elisha encour-
aged the community to
keep faith in their nation.
Horizon of hope
Elisha’s example pow-
ered Walker’s message.
At Princeton, Walker en-
couraged the black sem-
inarians not to counte-
nance a nostalgia for the
past. In moments of deep
discouragement, Walker
said, distressed people
tend to retreat into a ro-
manticized past.
“In the jargon of the
street,” Walker said, “it
sounds like this: ‘Child,
don’t you wish it was like
it was back in the good
old days… .”
“And yet,” he declared,
“not by any wishing or
hoping or praying or
anything else can we
find any day when things
were better. There was
no such day!”
Walker proceeded to
caution his audience
against
maintaining
the status quo. Walker
proclaimed, “Whatever
dream of life it is we en-
vision for our children,
ourselves, our commu-
nity, our church, we will
never bring it to our fin-
gertips unless it begins
first with some initial
risk.”
For Walker, challeng-
ing the status quo was a
Civil rights and Union leaders sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ at the
conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march on March
25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama. Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty
Images
fundamental aspect of
existence.
“The elemental char-
acter of life is one that is
the status quo, Walker
offered the seminarians
at Princeton a new vision
of a political community.
Wyatt Tee Walker in Montgomery, Alabama on April 3, 1962. Afro
American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
moving and dynamic,” he
said.
Walker closed his ser-
mon by urging the audi-
ence to embrace hope-
filled struggle. But he did
not deny the desperate
reality.
Instead, in the face of
despair, he urged the
young seminarians to
take a risk of faith and
build a future that has
not been. For Walker,
that meant “doing, try-
ing, moving toward
things which have never
been tried before.”
Hope in democracy
The lasting testament
of black public faith is its
affirmation of new possi-
bilities during moments
of deep doubt. Rather
than relying on a myth
of the past or upholding
“What I’m saying to
you,” Walker declared,
“is that I have the ulti-
mate faith that we are
going to find a tranquil-
ity with justice in this
nation, in this world. We
must! And it is conceiv-
able it could happen in
our time.”
Many Americans are
angry with the state of
the political system. And
acts of racial bigotry and
religious
intolerance
have become far too or-
dinary.
In such times, Wyatt
Tee Walker’s words can
remind people to muster
hope and keep faith with
the possibilities of Amer-
ican democracy while
continuing the struggle
for a just society.