For Jackie Robinson: 'Steal away home', by Jesse Jackson

27 October 1972, New York, USA

Today we must balance the tears of sorrow with the tears of joy, mix the bitter with the sweet, death and life. Jackie, as a figure in history, was a rock in the water creating concentric circles and ripples of new possibility. He was medicine. He was immunised by God from catching the diseases that he fought. The Lord's arms of protection enabled him to go through dangers seen and unseen, and he had the capacity to wear glory with grace. Jackie's body was a temple of God, an instrument of peace. We would watch him disappear into nothingness and stand back as spectators and watch the suffering from afar. The mercy of God intercepted this process Tuesday and permitted him to steal away home. Where referees are out of place, and only the supreme judge of the universe speaks.

For Addie, Carol & Cynthia: 'They have something to say', by Martin Luther King Jr - 1963

18 September 1963. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

On Sundey 15 September 1963 four Klansmen bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Four young girls died, and this is the eulogy at the service for three of the victims, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley. A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson. In the film, ‘I Am MLK Jr’, a civil rights leader said this was the only speech where he saw Dr King shed tears.

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children-unoffending, innocent, and beautiful-were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician [Audience:] (Yeah) who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats (Yeah) and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. (Speak) They have something to say to every Negro (Yeah) who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

And so my friends, they did not die in vain. (Yeah) God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. (Oh yes) And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force (Yeah) that will bring new light to this dark city. (Yeah) The holy Scripture says, “A little child shall lead them.” (Oh yeah) The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland (Yeah) from the low road of man’s inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. (Yeah, Yes) These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham (Yeah) to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. (Yeah)

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour (Yeah Well), we must not despair. (Yeah, Well) We must not become bitter (Yeah, That’s right), nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. (Yeah, Yes) Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

May I now say a word to you, the members of the bereaved families? It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which are floating in your mental skies. But I hope you can find a little consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men.

I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity’s affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah, Yes) Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah) And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him (Yeah, Well), and that God is able (Yeah, Yes) to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. [moans] They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. (Well) Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. (Yeah) And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died. (Yeah) They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham (Yeah, Well), nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes. (Yeah) They died between the sacred walls of the church of God (Yeah, Yes), and they were discussing the eternal meaning (Yes) of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. (Yes) Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare: (Yeah, Well): Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. (Yeah, Yes) And may the flight of angels (That’s right) take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.

For George Floyd: 'Keep my brother's name ringing!' by Terrence Floyd - 2020

1 June 2020, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

First of all …Hello.

Audience:
Hello, hello.

I understand you all upset, but I can deservedly say, I dealt in y’all’s habits of society.

Audience:
Come on, now. I can’t hear. Speak.

So if I’m not over here wilding out, if I’m not over here blowing up stuff …
… if I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are y’all doing?

Audience:
White nationalists.

What are y’all doing? Y’all doing nothing, because that’s going to bring my brother back at all.

Audience:
It’s not us. It’s Donald Trump’s buddies. Yeah, Donald Trump’s buddies is right.

It may feel good for the moment, just like when you drink, but when it come down, you going to wonder what you did.

My family is a peaceful family. My family is god fearing.

Audience:
Amen.

Yeah, we upset, but we not going to take it, we not going to be repetitious. In every case of police brutality, the same thing has been happening.

Audience:
Yes, sir.

Y’all protest, y’all destroy stuff, and they don’t move. You know why they don’t move? Because it’s not their stuff, it’s our stuff.

Audience:
That’s it.

So they want us to destroy our stuff.

Rev. Kevin McCall:
Come on, guy.

They’re not going to move.

Audience:

Yes, sir. It’s the truth.

So let’s do this another way.

Audience:
That’s right. Come on now, brother.

Let’s do this another way.

Audience:
Yes, let’s fix this city. They’re going to try to take it. Let’s fix this city. Speak. And get our people into office. They’re going to try to come build. Let’s fix this city.

Y’all right. Let’s do this another way. Let’s stop thinking that our voice don’t matter and vote.

Rev. Kevin McCall:
There you go.

Audience:
Vote.

Not just vote for the president, vote for the preliminaries, vote for everybody.

Audience:
Justice

Educate yourself.

Audience:
Educate and agitate.

Educate yourself. Don’t wait for somebody else to tell you who’s who. Educate yourself and know who you’re voting for.

Audience:
That’s right. You’re right.

And that’s how we going to hit them, because it’s a lot of us.

Audience:
Hard.

It’s a lot of us.

Rev. Kevin McCall:
That’s right.

Audience:
Hell yeah.

It’s a lot of us.

And we still going to do this peacefully, because that’s when we going to get them, because we going to fool them. They think we going to do this, they think we’re going to do something, and we’re going to switch it on them.

Audience:
Change it up.

Let’s switch it up, y’all. Let’s switch it up.
Do this peacefully, please.
My brother moved here from Houston, and I used to talk to him on the phone. He loved it here. He started driving a truck. He was good. So I highly doubt … no. I know, he would not want y’all to be doing this. And I’m not saying the people here. Whoever’s doing it, relax.

Audience:
It ain’t us, man. It ain’t us. It ain’t us. Come on, brother. Come on, brother. It’s okay, brother. It’s okay. It’s okay. Take your time, take your time. Take your time. Come on, brother.

And I like Reverend McCall said, “Peace on the left … ”

Rev. Kevin McCall:
Justice on the right.

Did I forgot already?

Audience:
Peace on the left, justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

I says that. Who says that? Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Justice on the right.

Audience:
Peace on the right.

Right, that’s what I’m saying. That’s what I want to see. Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

Peace on the left.

Audience:
Justice on the right.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Audience:
We love you, brother.

On behalf of the Floyd family, thank you. Thank you for the love.

Audience:
We love you.

Thank you for the flowers. Thank you for the memorials.

Audience:
That was my family.

Thank you.

Audience:
Don’t mention it. Thank you, brother.

Now before I go, I just want to hear this again. What’s his name?

George Floyd.

What’s his name?

Audience:
George Floyd.

What’s his name?

Audience:
George Floyd.

What’s his name?

Audience:
George Floyd.

George.

Audience:
Floyd.

George.

Audience:
Floyd.

George.

Audience:
Floyd.

George.

Audience:

Floyd


Lert us pray for peace. I thank you.