12/2/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
Photos, video and audio of Bishop Woodie White reading his annual letter are available.
Bishop
Woodie White reads over a letter he has written to the late Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. White writes to King each year about current events. A
UMNS photo by Dan Gangler, Photo number 03-501, Accompanies UMNS #578,
12/2/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Bishop
Woodie White pens a letter to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
White uses the annual letter to reflect on current events affecting
civil rights. A UMNS photo by Dan Gangler, Photo number 03-500,
Accompanies UMNS #578, 12/2/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Bishop
Woodie White reads over a letter he has written to the late Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. White writes to King each year about current events. A
UMNS photo by Dan Gangler, Photo number 03-502, Accompanies UMNS #578,
12/2/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Each year, United Methodist Bishop Woodie W. White
writes a letter to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in advance of
King's Jan. 15 birthday. White, 68, was the first staff executive for
the denomination's Commission on Religion and Race, where he served from
1969 to 1984. He was elected a bishop in 1984 and led the church's
Illinois Area for eight years before being appointed to the Indiana Area
in 1992. He wrote his first "Dear Martin" letter in 1976.
Dear Martin:
I write this year on the anniversary of your birth with special memories, profound thanksgiving and a somewhat unsettled spirit.
It
is difficult to believe this is 2004, a special year for me personally.
It was 50 years ago - 1954 - that I said "yes" to God's call to
ministry, and in nine months I shall retire from active ministry in the
United Methodist Church. It hardly seems 50 years ago that I left my
beloved Harlem and ventured to your beloved Georgia to attend college.
Where have the years gone?
This too, Martin, will be the 50th
anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision, a
momentous one, rendering the concept of "separate but equal"
unconstitutional and bringing an end to legalized segregation in public
schools. I remember the day well. I fear it was a gift to the nation
largely squandered. That day brought out the worst, not the best, in us.
While legal segregation as policy has disappeared, separation
of the races has not. Ironically, Martin, 50 years after the Supreme
Court decision, public education in the nation may be more segregated.
Indeed, quality public education for black children and increasingly for
Hispanic and immigrant students remains one of the great challenges.
Martin,
this challenge not withstanding, individual achievement by black
Americans continues in every field of public life. It is what I call the
"quiet revolution." Black Americans are appointed, selected, promoted
or employed in positions of prestige, power and importance.
Yet,
Martin, there is another "quiet revolution" taking place in our nation:
the repackaging of racism! It is no longer wrapped in negative language,
nor even vile racist deeds, but often in "color blind" rhetoric and
"color blind" decisions that result in racist consequences. I believe it
will require a new kind of leadership response to combat and challenge
racism consequences that may not be called racist nor are intended to be
racist!
In many ways, Martin, the races are closer than they
have ever been - but still worlds apart. It often does not take much to
reveal the still deep divide between "black" and "white" America. There
is still much work to be done!
Martin, we lost some great
leaders and champions this past year - persons who made a difference in
my life and who made significant contributions in breaking down the
barriers that separate the races.
We lost Maynard Jackson, who
became the first black mayor of Atlanta; Althea Gibson, the great tennis
star who learned the game on the courts of Harlem and became the first
black person to win the prestigious Wimbledon title; and Larry Doby, who
broke the color barrier in the American League, becoming the second
black player in Major League Baseball shortly after Jackie Robinson. I
saw him play often at Yankee Stadium. I must confess I was a Yankee fan!
There were others, politicians and entertainers, who were
defining character formers and inspirational leaders. Perhaps it is to
be expected in these my settling years.
Martin, I am elated and
surprised to note that one of my early heroes, Paul Robeson, has been
honored with a commemorative stamp to be issued in January 2004. He was
an extraordinarily talented and courageous champion of civil rights. I
am pleased he is now remembered and honored.
Martin, no emotion
is more evident as I write than one of thankfulness. I have learned in
these years to value two qualities - truth and perspective. Truth looks
reality in the eye and names it. Perspective looks at all reality, not
just a part, and acknowledges it. Truth and perspective create my spirit
of thanksgiving.
I am thankful, Martin, that in my lifetime I
have seen black Americans achieve places in American life not even its
leaders imagined, and indeed perhaps unparalleled in many other
multiracial societies. It was accomplished as Americans of every race
and faith gave themselves - their best - to make the nation even greater
than the founders may have perceived.
You, Martin, made the
critical difference at an important juncture in the nation's history,
and that cannot be emphasized enough. For I believe what you did so
magnificently was to place the issue of race in America as a moral
issue. Martin, I believe that is where it must be if progress is to be
sustained and new gains achieved. America must be true to itself. But,
Martin, you said it even more eloquently: "The passing of systems
that were born in injustice, nurtured in inequality, and reared in
exploitation … represents the inevitable decay of any system based on
principles that are not in harmony with the moral laws of the universe."
Martin,
as always, I close with hope and thanksgiving. Thanks for your
continuing impact on the human spirit, public discourse, and the
achievement of racial and social justice.