Benjamin E. Mays - "The Second Two Hundred Years" (January 11, 1976)
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Transcript
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(organ music) | 0:03 | |
♪ Noel, Noel ♪ | 3:55 | |
♪ Noel, Noel ♪ | 4:00 | |
♪ Born is the King of Israel! ♪ | 4:09 | |
(organ music) | 4:25 | |
(congregation singing hymn) | 5:06 | |
- | Jesus has told us that God yearns over us | 9:02 |
as a hen broods over her chickens, | 9:07 | |
and that it is not God's will that we should live | 9:11 | |
as broken, separated, or destructive people. | 9:16 | |
And we know that the first action we can make | 9:21 | |
in being made whole people is to make a confession | 9:25 | |
of our personal and our corporate sin. | 9:30 | |
Let is pray. | 9:35 | |
Oh merciful God, we have done little | 9:38 | |
to forward your kingdom in this world, | 9:41 | |
to foster a world of understanding, | 9:45 | |
to establish love as the law of life, | 9:48 | |
we have allowed self to blind us, | 9:52 | |
pains to embitter us, we have forgotten | 9:56 | |
that whatsoever is done to one of the least of your children | 9:59 | |
is done unto You. | 10:04 | |
Pardon our shortcomings, forgive our neglect. | 10:07 | |
Give us a pure heart intent on pleasing you. | 10:12 | |
Help us in all our seeking to seek first | 10:16 | |
Your kingdom and Your righteousness. | 10:20 | |
And make us to come as came your Son Jesus Christ, | 10:24 | |
not to be ministered unto, but to minister. | 10:29 | |
All this we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 10:34 | |
And now, O God, we pray that you will hear us | 10:40 | |
as we make our personal confession. | 10:43 | |
Amen. | 11:09 | |
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. | 11:11 | |
There is a balm in Gilead that forgives us. | 11:17 | |
We are forgiven people, and for this we give thanks. | 11:23 | |
Amen and amen. | 11:28 | |
(organ music) | 11:32 | |
♪ Why should I be discouraged ♪ | 12:03 | |
♪ Why should the shadows fall? ♪ | 12:11 | |
♪ Why should my heart be lonely and ♪ | 12:18 | |
♪ And long for heaven and home? ♪ | 12:27 | |
♪ When Jesus is my portion, ♪ | 12:34 | |
♪ My constant Friend is He, ♪ | 12:42 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 12:52 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 13:03 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 13:15 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 13:27 | |
♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪ | 13:40 | |
♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪ | 13:49 | |
♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 13:58 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 14:09 | |
♪ Let not your heart be troubled; ♪ | 14:22 | |
♪ These tender words I hear; ♪ | 14:31 | |
♪ And resting on his goodness ♪ | 14:39 | |
♪ I lose my doubts and fears; ♪ | 14:48 | |
♪ For by the path He leadeth ♪ | 14:55 | |
♪ But one step I may see; ♪ | 15:04 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 15:12 | |
♪ and I know He watches me. ♪ | 15:23 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 15:34 | |
♪ and I know He watches me. ♪ | 15:45 | |
♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪ | 15:57 | |
♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪ | 16:05 | |
♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 16:13 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 16:24 | |
♪ Whenever I am tempted; ♪ | 16:37 | |
♪ whenever clouds arise; ♪ | 16:45 | |
♪ When songs give place to sighing; ♪ | 16:54 | |
♪ When hope within me dies; ♪ | 17:02 | |
♪ I draw the closer to Him; ♪ | 17:10 | |
♪ from care He sets me free; ♪ | 17:19 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 17:28 | |
♪ and I know He watches me. ♪ | 17:38 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 17:49 | |
♪ and I know He watches me. ♪ | 18:01 | |
♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪ | 18:13 | |
♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪ | 18:22 | |
♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 18:32 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 18:43 | |
♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ | 18:54 | |
♪ And I know He watches me. ♪ | 19:08 | |
- | Our scripture lesson is the first Psalm. | 19:41 |
Blessed is the man | 19:51 | |
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, | 19:52 | |
nor stands in the way of sinners, | 19:56 | |
nor sits in the seat of scoffers; | 19:59 | |
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, | 20:03 | |
and on his law he meditates day and night. | 20:06 | |
He is like a tree | 20:11 | |
planted by streams of water, | 20:12 | |
that yields its fruit in season, | 20:15 | |
and its leaf does not wither. | 20:19 | |
In all that he does, he prospers. | 20:21 | |
The wicked are not so, | 20:25 | |
but are like chaff when the wind drives away. | 20:28 | |
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, | 20:32 | |
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; | 20:36 | |
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, | 20:41 | |
but the way of the wicked will perish. | 20:44 | |
May the Lord add a blessing | 20:50 | |
to the reading and hearers of His Word. | 20:51 | |
May it sink deeply into our hearts | 20:55 | |
and bear fruit in our lives. | 20:58 | |
The Gloria Patri. | 21:02 | |
(organ music) | 21:05 | |
(congregation singing hymn) | 21:13 | |
Let us continue in worship by the Affirmation of Faith. | 21:53 | |
We are not alone, we live in God's world. | 22:00 | |
We believe in God: who has created and is creating, | 22:04 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus, | 22:10 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 22:13 | |
who works in us and others through the Spirit. | 22:17 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the Church: | 22:21 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 22:26 | |
to love and serve others, | 22:29 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 22:32 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 22:36 | |
our judge and our hope. | 22:40 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 22:42 | |
God is with us. | 22:47 | |
We are not alone. | 22:50 | |
Thanks be to God. | 22:52 | |
The Lord be with you. | 22:55 | |
- | And also with you. | 22:57 |
- | Let us pray. | 22:58 |
(congregation shuffling) | 23:00 | |
O Thou, in whose presence | 23:09 | |
my soul takes delight, | 23:14 | |
on Whom in affliction I call, | 23:19 | |
my comfort by day, | 23:25 | |
my song in the night, | 23:29 | |
my hope, my salvation, my all. | 23:34 | |
Eternal God, we come this morning | 23:44 | |
with many a different burden and concern. | 23:52 | |
We come, O God, into this hour of worship | 23:59 | |
the recipient of more blessings than we can list. | 24:07 | |
More blessings, O God, than we are worthy of. | 24:16 | |
But we come, O God, with thanks on our lips | 24:24 | |
and gratitude in our hearts. | 24:30 | |
We come this morning, O God, to be inspired by Thy presence, | 24:36 | |
To be strengthened with hope and new love. | 24:43 | |
We come, O God, we look and we see a world | 24:50 | |
in need of Thee more and more. | 24:56 | |
For, O God, many of the tools that we have fashioned | 25:04 | |
now have the power to turn upon us and to destroy | 25:13 | |
each and every one. | 25:21 | |
We come, O God, with advanced technology, O God, | 25:27 | |
but we realize that still it is difficult for us | 25:32 | |
to get along with the neighbor. | 25:40 | |
We realize that, more and more, | 25:47 | |
the neighbor is closer and closer, | 25:49 | |
that people on the other side of the world now, | 25:56 | |
through our technology, are very close to us. | 25:58 | |
But still we are unable to communicate, | 26:03 | |
unable to appreciate our differences, | 26:08 | |
unable to see and love the neighbor. | 26:15 | |
Inspire and challenge us, O God, with Thy presence | 26:23 | |
that we will be given the carriage and the vision | 26:29 | |
to see the neighbor in our differences | 26:32 | |
but yet acknowledge we are one. | 26:39 | |
Let Thy spirit move, O God, throughout the land | 26:46 | |
into each heart, and where the doors are closed, | 26:53 | |
knock louder, O God, that we might be compelled | 26:58 | |
to come and let Thy spirit enter our hearts | 27:03 | |
and bear fruit in our lives. | 27:08 | |
Teach us, O God, | 27:13 | |
the power and the glory available to us | 27:19 | |
when we learn to pray the prayer | 27:26 | |
that Thy Son taught us to pray when he said, | 27:30 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 27:35 | |
Hallowed be thy Name. | 27:39 | |
Thy Kingdom come. | 27:41 | |
Thy will be done on earth, | 27:43 | |
As it is in heaven. | 27:47 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 27:49 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 27:52 | |
As we forgive those that trespassed against us. | 27:55 | |
But lead us not into temptation, | 27:59 | |
But deliver us from evil. | 28:02 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 28:05 | |
and the power, and the glory, | 28:07 | |
Forever, Amen. | 28:10 | |
I would like to announce that this afternoon | 28:18 | |
at four o'clock, there will be a special service | 28:22 | |
here in the chapel. | 28:27 | |
Memorial service for the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 28:30 | |
Area choirs and ushers will be singing, | 28:37 | |
and our speaker, Dr. Benjamin Mays, will also | 28:45 | |
give us the Word at that service, | 28:50 | |
and we cordially invite each and every one to attend. | 28:53 | |
It is a great privilege to welcome | 29:05 | |
to the pulpit of Duke Chapel | 29:09 | |
our speaker for this morning, Dr. Benjamin Mays. | 29:13 | |
The awards given to this great spirit | 29:20 | |
are too numerous to be listed on our program, | 29:27 | |
but a few are listed on the back of our program. | 29:32 | |
In addition, I would like to mention | 29:40 | |
that Dr. Mays served for many years as an advisor | 29:45 | |
to the Protestant Fund for Theological Education, | 29:52 | |
a service that has touched the lives of many | 29:59 | |
a would-be theologian, including yours truly. | 30:05 | |
Last year, Duke University awarded Dr. Mays | 30:16 | |
an honorary doctorate, and among his many publications | 30:21 | |
is a book that I believe touches the spirit of all, | 30:30 | |
the publication Disturbed About Man. | 30:38 | |
In a spirit of gratitude and joy, let us pray | 30:47 | |
and welcome Dr. Benjamin Mays to this, | 30:53 | |
the Duke pulpit; Dr. Mays. | 30:59 | |
- | I thank you for your | 31:23 |
all too generous introduction. | 31:28 | |
Madam Cartel, | 31:39 | |
President, acting President Blackburn, | 31:44 | |
Chaplain Young, Mr. and Mrs. Beach, | 31:49 | |
my host and hostess, | 31:54 | |
faculty and students, ladies and gentlemen, | 31:58 | |
I have a long acquaintance with Duke, | 32:04 | |
reaching back to the days of Frank Graham | 32:11 | |
as president | 32:17 | |
of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. | 32:17 | |
I had heard about the mighty works | 32:23 | |
that Duke University was doing in academia. | 32:27 | |
But this is the first time I have spoken here | 32:35 | |
since I became an honorary graduate of Duke. | 32:41 | |
So you see, I am one of you, | 32:47 | |
no stranger. | 32:52 | |
I worked with Frank Graham on many fronts | 32:56 | |
in our effort to improve black-white relations | 33:00 | |
in the United States. | 33:04 | |
While president of Morehouse, I was honored | 33:08 | |
to confer an honorary degree upon | 33:12 | |
a truly great Southerner, | 33:16 | |
who had earned the right to be so honored, | 33:19 | |
so it should be clear that | 33:26 | |
my roots are interlocked, | 33:30 | |
interwoven, and intertwined | 33:35 | |
into the soil | 33:41 | |
of Duke University. | 33:44 | |
I feel at home here. | 33:47 | |
Let me supplement and complement | 33:54 | |
the scripture read to you, hopefully, that the poem | 33:59 | |
by Elizabeth Cheney, | 34:04 | |
will bring meaning | 34:08 | |
to what I shall attempt to say. | 34:12 | |
This is the poem: | 34:16 | |
Whenever there is silence around me | 34:21 | |
By day and by night | 34:27 | |
I am startled by a cry. | 34:31 | |
It came from the cross. | 34:37 | |
The first time I heard it | 34:43 | |
I went out and searched | 34:45 | |
And found a man | 34:50 | |
in the throes of crucifixion, | 34:52 | |
And I said, "I'll take you down," | 34:59 | |
And I tried to take the nails out of his feet. | 35:06 | |
But he said, "Let them be, | 35:13 | |
For I cannot be taken down | 35:20 | |
Until every man, every woman, | 35:25 | |
and every child | 35:31 | |
Come together to take me down." | 35:34 | |
And I said, "But I cannot hear your cry. | 35:42 | |
What can I do?" | 35:49 | |
And he said, "Go about the world | 35:54 | |
Tell every one that you meet | 36:00 | |
There is a man | 36:05 | |
on the cross." | 36:10 | |
There's a man on the cross. | 36:14 | |
Let me use, as a basis for this talk, | 36:23 | |
the Second Two Hundred Years, | 36:28 | |
the words of the prophet Jeremiah are appropriate. | 36:32 | |
Jeremiah was called of God to prophesy. | 36:39 | |
Jeremiah tried to convince God | 36:45 | |
that He needed a man who could speak well, | 36:49 | |
a person alive and eloquent. | 36:55 | |
He told God that he was a mere child | 37:00 | |
in the art of public speaking. | 37:02 | |
Jeremiah tells this story in the first chapter of Jeremiah. | 37:07 | |
Let me quote him. | 37:12 | |
Before I formed thee in the belly | 37:16 | |
I knew thee; | 37:20 | |
and before thou cameth forth out of the womb | 37:24 | |
I sanctified thee, | 37:28 | |
and I ordained thee a prophet | 37:33 | |
unto the nations. | 37:38 | |
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! | 37:41 | |
I cannot speak: for I am a child. | 37:47 | |
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, that I am a child: | 37:55 | |
for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, | 38:02 | |
and whatsoever I command thee | 38:07 | |
thou shalt speak. | 38:11 | |
Be not afraid of their faces: | 38:16 | |
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. | 38:19 | |
Then the Lord put forth his hands, and touched my mouth. | 38:26 | |
And the Lord said unto me, Behold, | 38:34 | |
I have put my words in thy mouth. | 38:40 | |
See, I have this day | 38:44 | |
set thee over the nations | 38:50 | |
and over the kingdoms, to root out, | 38:53 | |
pull down, to build, | 38:59 | |
and to plant. | 39:04 | |
A prophet is a unique person | 39:08 | |
called of God to do His thing | 39:13 | |
in His time. | 39:18 | |
Good speed and a story of the Old Testament | 39:22 | |
defined a prophet. | 39:24 | |
A prophet is one who interprets the will of God to man. | 39:28 | |
God calls a man to prophesy | 39:35 | |
to the people in his time. | 39:39 | |
Such questions as is the time right | 39:44 | |
or right for me to prophesy? | 39:48 | |
Will it be physically safe for me to declare God's Word? | 39:53 | |
Will the people repent, heed my words, | 40:00 | |
and change from their wicked ways? | 40:06 | |
Will government officials repent | 40:10 | |
and call upon their people to do likewise? | 40:14 | |
None of these questions are relevant. | 40:21 | |
The prophet does not debate them. | 40:24 | |
He speaks to the people in his time | 40:30 | |
because he has to, he must. | 40:36 | |
He's under divine orders to prophesy. | 40:42 | |
He has no choice. | 40:48 | |
When God called Jeremiah, | 40:52 | |
he described the experience | 40:55 | |
as being so urgent, so compelling, so demanding | 40:58 | |
that it was like a burning fire shot up in his bones. | 41:04 | |
If you can imagine a roaring fire | 41:13 | |
or a flame of fire burning in your bones, | 41:17 | |
you can understand the urgency of the call. | 41:23 | |
It is similar in Isaiah's call. | 41:28 | |
He declared that when the eternal God speaks, | 41:33 | |
who can but prophesy? | 41:38 | |
Micah declared that God | 41:42 | |
requires three things: | 41:46 | |
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; | 41:51 | |
and what doth the Lord require of thee, | 41:56 | |
but to do justly, and to love mercy, | 41:58 | |
and to walk humbly with thy God? | 42:01 | |
Micah demonstrated the | 42:06 | |
timelessness of prophecy. | 42:09 | |
These words are relevant for all times. | 42:13 | |
The words of Micah are symbolic of the fact | 42:17 | |
that nothing is bad, is merely | 42:22 | |
bad because it is old. | 42:26 | |
No, that is new; it's not necessarily good. | 42:30 | |
Jesus entered the ministry under divine compulsion, | 42:36 | |
an inner urge that drove Him on. | 42:41 | |
He tells us in the fourth chapter of Luke | 42:45 | |
that He entered the ministry by quoting Isaiah. | 42:49 | |
Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, | 42:54 | |
because he hath anointed me | 42:58 | |
to preach good tiding to the poor; | 43:01 | |
he hath sent me proclaim release to the captives, | 43:05 | |
and recovering of sight to the blind, | 43:10 | |
to set at liberty them that are bruised, | 43:15 | |
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." | 43:20 | |
But we do not have to go back 26 centuries to prove | 43:28 | |
the effectiveness of prophecy. | 43:32 | |
There are numerous modern examples | 43:36 | |
in the historical knowledge of many of us here today. | 43:39 | |
We know that Lincoln must have been called of God | 43:45 | |
to save the Union, and incidentally to free the slaves. | 43:49 | |
What we know, from Fred Douglass' own words, | 43:57 | |
that he was called by God to use his feet | 44:01 | |
to run away to freedom. | 44:08 | |
Harriet Beecher Stowe, what inspired | 44:12 | |
to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, | 44:17 | |
believed by many | 44:21 | |
to be the book that precipitated the Civil War, | 44:23 | |
thus freeing four million slaves | 44:27 | |
predicted by many | 44:32 | |
to soon die out because of the biological belief | 44:34 | |
of many at that time that the Negro could not survive | 44:38 | |
in a white man's world, which would result | 44:42 | |
in a solution to the race problem very soon. | 44:47 | |
It was believed that the black man would die out, | 44:52 | |
trying to meet the competition in a white man's world. | 44:57 | |
Disappointingly, the black man did not die out, | 45:02 | |
but instead he multiplied | 45:08 | |
from four million to 25 million. | 45:13 | |
William Lloyd Garrison was a great abolitionist, | 45:19 | |
but Fred Douglass was greater. | 45:23 | |
He came from slavery further down the scale. | 45:27 | |
Garrison never had to suffer the slayings and arrows | 45:32 | |
of outrageous fortune, the stigma of being black. | 45:37 | |
Garrison, being white, was expected to succeed | 45:46 | |
in freedom, but not a black slave. | 45:51 | |
I thank God for Harriet Beecher Stowe, | 45:59 | |
a great civil rights leader, but I adore more | 46:04 | |
Harriet Tubman, who called, | 46:09 | |
whom God called | 46:16 | |
to free 300 slaves | 46:19 | |
by the way of the Underground Railroad to Canada. | 46:24 | |
This brings me to the heart of this sermon today, | 46:31 | |
the challenge to America and to the black man, | 46:37 | |
in this, our centennial year. | 46:45 | |
America includes the black man in all | 46:50 | |
of its historical documents. | 46:55 | |
But it is hardly likely | 46:58 | |
that white America | 47:03 | |
would take the kind of initiative that is needed | 47:04 | |
at this particular time in history. | 47:08 | |
I'm convinced that God meant | 47:14 | |
that the initiative | 47:18 | |
in our bicentennial year should be | 47:20 | |
and must be taken by blacks. | 47:24 | |
I'm not comfortable in saying this, | 47:31 | |
in fact it gives me inward pain to say it, | 47:37 | |
but it is a fact that there has been | 47:43 | |
no voluntary effort taken by white America | 47:46 | |
to make the black man a citizen of the United States | 47:53 | |
with full equity | 47:58 | |
in his quest to achieve | 48:02 | |
full citizenship rights. | 48:05 | |
We know that, as fine a man as Lincoln was, | 48:10 | |
he had no such intention when he issued | 48:16 | |
his Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863. | 48:20 | |
He clearly stated that his sole purpose was | 48:26 | |
to save the Union, with or without slavery. | 48:30 | |
The freedom of the slaves was incidental. | 48:37 | |
In his speech in Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln said, | 48:44 | |
"We cannot make the Negro equal." | 48:48 | |
There is no doubt in my mind | 48:54 | |
Lincoln meant what he said in that debate | 48:58 | |
with Stephen Douglas. | 49:01 | |
He meant what he said because it was under, | 49:05 | |
it was never in Lincoln's mind | 49:09 | |
that the black man would be capable | 49:13 | |
of full citizenship rights. | 49:15 | |
I say this because immediately after | 49:20 | |
the debate with Douglas, Lincoln was making plans | 49:23 | |
to send the black man to Africa, | 49:29 | |
even before the emancipated slaves | 49:32 | |
had never been to Africa, | 49:36 | |
the home of their ancestors. | 49:41 | |
Some black people, | 49:44 | |
sharing Mr. Lincoln's vision, | 49:48 | |
got on Lincoln's African bandwagon. | 49:51 | |
The black man was brainwashed in accepting Lincoln's views, | 49:56 | |
because they, too, did not believe that the black man | 50:02 | |
had the courage and ability to survive | 50:05 | |
in a world that had never planned | 50:10 | |
that the Negro should be a participant in a world | 50:14 | |
that had never accepted him as a free man. | 50:18 | |
Carrying out this conviction, | 50:25 | |
a group of Negroes received plenty help from people | 50:28 | |
who wished them well in Liberia, | 50:32 | |
but not well as a free man in the United States. | 50:36 | |
As long as federal soldiers from emancipation | 50:43 | |
up to the Hayes-Tilden Compromise occupied the south, | 50:47 | |
the Negroes' rights were protected. | 50:53 | |
The election of 1876 was so close | 50:57 | |
that the choice of President had to be chosen by Congress, | 51:01 | |
and the House of Representatives chose Hayes | 51:07 | |
with the provision that the North would leave the black man | 51:10 | |
in the hands of the white South. | 51:14 | |
From that time on, up to around 1910, | 51:19 | |
the South, through various illegal methods, | 51:27 | |
had stripped the black man of all the rights | 51:31 | |
that the Constitution had given him. | 51:35 | |
The ballot was taken away. | 51:38 | |
The Thirteenth Amendment, which freed the Negro, | 51:42 | |
was taken away. | 51:45 | |
Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing | 51:49 | |
the equal protection of the law, was nullified. | 51:52 | |
The ballot was denied through illegal means | 51:58 | |
such as the white primary, fear, intimidation, | 52:02 | |
and frequently lynching. | 52:07 | |
Although judges enacted | 52:12 | |
the Voting Rights Act of 1875, | 52:16 | |
the Supreme Court in 1883 | 52:21 | |
overthrew Congressional law, | 52:26 | |
thus giving sanction and approval to segregation, | 52:29 | |
denying safety of life, person, and property rights, | 52:33 | |
making what was established in state law | 52:39 | |
through the white primary, poll tax law, | 52:43 | |
fear, and intimidation. | 52:46 | |
These restrictions took away the ballot. | 52:49 | |
The states made the segregation laws, | 52:54 | |
making it possible for all 13 of the original states | 52:58 | |
to have laws approving segregation | 53:02 | |
in every crack and crevice. | 53:05 | |
Throughout the South, | 53:11 | |
segregation soon became law. | 53:14 | |
Segregation became God, | 53:19 | |
and for a black man, | 53:24 | |
to tamper with that sacred law meant jail, | 53:25 | |
beastly whipping, and death. | 53:29 | |
It was as sacred as India's sacred cow. | 53:34 | |
The states encouraged lynching under the hypocritical | 53:42 | |
pretense of protecting white womanhood. | 53:45 | |
Ben Tillman, the arch-enemy of civil rights, | 53:50 | |
was invited to speak in the North and in the South | 53:54 | |
before church groups and civic bodies | 53:59 | |
and in social and civic groups. | 54:02 | |
He took, he told a Boston audience, | 54:06 | |
speaking at Tremont Temple in Boston, | 54:08 | |
that he would encourage lynching. | 54:11 | |
He told them that he would lynch any Negro | 54:16 | |
who raped a white woman. | 54:19 | |
The following statistics in this case, | 54:24 | |
however, proved that Tillman had not done his homework. | 54:28 | |
Out of 46,717 | 54:34 | |
lynchings in the country | 54:38 | |
from 1885 to 1946, | 54:41 | |
only 19 percent | 54:45 | |
were ever accused of raping white women. | 54:48 | |
Henry Grady, one of the most widely known | 54:55 | |
and respected Southerners in his day, condoned lynching. | 54:58 | |
Speaking before the New England Society in Boston, | 55:02 | |
Tremont Temple, Grady praised the black man. | 55:06 | |
He referred to the Negro's loyalty | 55:11 | |
to the women and the children of the South | 55:14 | |
during the four years of the Civil War, | 55:16 | |
when the black man's masters were fighting | 55:21 | |
to keep him in slavery. | 55:24 | |
Though a slave, the Negro was loyal. | 55:27 | |
Grady continues, when at last he raised | 55:33 | |
his black humble hands, that the shackles | 55:38 | |
might be cut off those chains, | 55:43 | |
the Negro remained loyal. | 55:47 | |
How ironical, how paradoxical. | 55:50 | |
Grady, speaking a year later in Dallas Texas, | 55:56 | |
he repudiated all that he said in Boston | 56:00 | |
and in the New York Times. | 56:04 | |
On May the 10th, 1900, let me quote Grady verbatim: | 56:06 | |
"Those who would put the Negro back in supremacy | 56:13 | |
would work against infallible decree, | 56:16 | |
for the white race can never submit to the domination, | 56:22 | |
because the white race is the superior race. | 56:28 | |
But the frequency, but the supremacy of the white man | 56:33 | |
in the South must be maintained forever. | 56:38 | |
And the domination of the Negro race resisted | 56:45 | |
at all points and all hazards. | 56:49 | |
Because the white race is the superior race, | 56:55 | |
this is the declaration of no new truth, | 57:00 | |
it has abided forever in the marrows of our bones, | 57:06 | |
and shall run forever with the blood | 57:12 | |
that feeds Anglo-Saxon hearts." | 57:15 | |
Reaching his peroration, | 57:22 | |
Grady said further | 57:27 | |
"Standing in the presence of this multitude, | 57:30 | |
sobered with the responsibility, | 57:35 | |
the message I deliver to the young men of the South, | 57:40 | |
I declare that the truth above all others to be worn | 57:45 | |
unsullied and sacred in your hearts, | 57:49 | |
to be surrendered to no force, | 57:53 | |
sold for no price, compromised in no necessity, | 57:55 | |
but cherished and defended at the covenant | 58:02 | |
of your prosperity, and the pledge of peace | 58:05 | |
to young children is that the white race | 58:10 | |
must dominate forever in the South, | 58:14 | |
because it is the white race and superior | 58:18 | |
to that race by which its supremacy is threatened. | 58:20 | |
It is a black issue that has come | 58:25 | |
to this point and stands here. | 58:29 | |
Here the air is pure and the light is clear. | 58:33 | |
And here honor and peace abide. | 58:37 | |
Juggling an evasion deceives not a man. | 58:41 | |
Compromise and subservience have carried not a point. | 58:46 | |
There is not a white man, North or South, | 58:51 | |
who does not feel it stir in the gray matter | 58:54 | |
of his brain and throb of his heart. | 58:57 | |
Not a Negro who does not feel its power. | 59:01 | |
It is not sectional issue. | 59:06 | |
It speaks in Ohio and in Georgia. | 59:08 | |
It speaks whenever the Anglo-Saxon touches an alien race." | 59:14 | |
Grady, in this speech, encouraged and approved lynching | 59:21 | |
because the white man had to be protected | 59:25 | |
from the scourge and denigration of slavery, of blacks. | 59:27 | |
What he did was to poison the minds of white people | 59:32 | |
and especially children. | 59:35 | |
Those alive and those born sensed with prejudice. | 59:38 | |
No one could ever know how much harm | 59:43 | |
this speech has done to the minds of the South, | 59:48 | |
both Negro and white. | 59:51 | |
The following statistics came | 59:54 | |
from Monroe Work at Tuskegee and his successor, | 59:56 | |
who recorded all lynchings in the nation | 1:00:00 | |
between 1882 and 1946. | 1:00:03 | |
The judges approved of lynching, | 1:00:08 | |
and ministers of Christ, God approved | 1:00:11 | |
by never uttering a mumbling word | 1:00:13 | |
in condemnation of it. | 1:00:18 | |
In a certain Southern city, I know of | 1:00:21 | |
one minister who abandoned his 11 o'clock service | 1:00:26 | |
to participate in the mob. | 1:00:30 | |
I recall cases where people from all around | 1:00:35 | |
came to witness a lynching, and women were given | 1:00:39 | |
souvenirs of parts of the victim's body. | 1:00:43 | |
Some women in the crowd requested a finger, | 1:00:46 | |
an ear, an eye, a toe. | 1:00:50 | |
This made bold a fact that | 1:00:57 | |
lynching was acceptable | 1:01:02 | |
and was ingrained | 1:01:07 | |
in the custom and practice of the time. | 1:01:13 | |
Eliott Abner, | 1:01:17 | |
an address delivered about the South, | 1:01:23 | |
Abram said this: "Where the Negro has thriven, | 1:01:29 | |
it has invariably been under the influence | 1:01:34 | |
and by the assistance of a stronger race. | 1:01:39 | |
These wanting he has inevitably and visibly | 1:01:43 | |
reverted towards an original type. | 1:01:49 | |
Slavery, whatever its demerits, was not in its time | 1:01:52 | |
the unmitigated evil it is fancied to have been. | 1:01:59 | |
The time has past, no power could compel the South | 1:02:04 | |
to have it back. | 1:02:08 | |
But to the Negro it was salvation. | 1:02:10 | |
It found him a savage, and in 200 years, | 1:02:15 | |
given seven million of his race | 1:02:20 | |
a civilization, | 1:02:26 | |
the only civilization it has had since the dawn of history." | 1:02:28 | |
A prophet is a statesman, called of God | 1:02:35 | |
to lead his people. | 1:02:39 | |
No question is irrelevant. | 1:02:41 | |
Questions such as, is it expedient to do this? | 1:02:43 | |
Is it wise that I do this? | 1:02:48 | |
Will it be rejected? | 1:02:50 | |
Will I be re-elected if I proclaim God's Word to them? | 1:02:53 | |
Will I lose my physical life? | 1:02:59 | |
None of these questions are ever raised by the true prophet. | 1:03:02 | |
Jesus, Paul, Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel | 1:03:06 | |
are proof of this assertion. | 1:03:11 | |
These are the reason | 1:03:15 | |
that I feel that the call | 1:03:18 | |
must come to the black man, | 1:03:20 | |
and to many white Americans to join hands | 1:03:24 | |
and unite to proclaim | 1:03:29 | |
God's Word | 1:03:34 | |
in the second two hundred years | 1:03:36 | |
of our national existence. | 1:03:39 | |
As our forefathers laid down the principles | 1:03:44 | |
outlined in the Declaration of Independence | 1:03:48 | |
and other American historical documents | 1:03:51 | |
such as Lincoln's Gettysburg speech | 1:03:55 | |
and the words on the Statue of Liberty, | 1:03:57 | |
the call of God will come to the black man | 1:04:02 | |
since he has known suffering. | 1:04:09 | |
Tredding the wine press alone, | 1:04:13 | |
battered and scarred | 1:04:17 | |
for 243 years as a slave | 1:04:21 | |
and another 100 years of segregation, | 1:04:27 | |
humiliation, and denigration. | 1:04:30 | |
The call to prophesy usually comes to the poor and needy. | 1:04:33 | |
The man farthest down. | 1:04:40 | |
The learned, the wealthy, and mighty, | 1:04:44 | |
those holding much money and power are hardly called. | 1:04:47 | |
If they are called, they foresake family and kin, | 1:04:53 | |
and those who hold power and position | 1:04:59 | |
cast their lot with those most in need. | 1:05:05 | |
What can the black man do? | 1:05:12 | |
He can thank God for the opportunity given him | 1:05:15 | |
to do His work at this crucial hour in world history. | 1:05:17 | |
No, it is not prejudice to do this. | 1:05:25 | |
It can be documented. | 1:05:31 | |
It is inherent in the nature of ethnic groups | 1:05:35 | |
to seek identity in its group. | 1:05:38 | |
It is not prejudice for the Jew | 1:05:43 | |
to stick his chest out | 1:05:47 | |
when he knows that Jesus and Paul paved the way | 1:05:50 | |
for Pentecost and out of these | 1:05:54 | |
experiences the Christian church was born, | 1:05:59 | |
thus giving us hope for the | 1:06:04 | |
good life here on earth | 1:06:08 | |
and hope for immortality beyond this veil of tears. | 1:06:10 | |
The Bible, Old and New Testaments, provide the basis | 1:06:17 | |
for our belief in both the Jewish and Christian faiths. | 1:06:23 | |
Our belief in God is set forth in the Bible, | 1:06:28 | |
it gives Jews and Christians the theological | 1:06:31 | |
foundation for their faith. | 1:06:34 | |
It is the basis for the theological, | 1:06:38 | |
for the theology of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. | 1:06:42 | |
It must not be forgotten that Jesus was the son | 1:06:48 | |
of a carpenter, that Paul, though a citizen of Rome, | 1:06:53 | |
was from an enslaved people and was an ordinary worker, | 1:06:59 | |
a tent maker by trade. | 1:07:03 | |
Moses preferred to suffer with his people | 1:07:06 | |
rather than to be the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. | 1:07:10 | |
Joseph never denied his Jewish nature, | 1:07:16 | |
even after his brothers had betrayed him | 1:07:20 | |
and sold him into Egypt. | 1:07:25 | |
Buddha, son of carpenter, | 1:07:29 | |
forsook his regal | 1:07:34 | |
and warrior family to do his thing in his time. | 1:07:35 | |
Legend has it that it had been prophesied | 1:07:39 | |
that Buddha would become a great conquering king. | 1:07:42 | |
His father did not want him, his son, | 1:07:48 | |
to be a religious leader, so he provided | 1:07:51 | |
his son with every luxury and kept him away | 1:07:54 | |
from unpleasant things. | 1:07:58 | |
One day, while riding through the royal garden, | 1:08:00 | |
the Prince saw a weary, bent old man. | 1:08:04 | |
This shocked him, and then Buddha saw that all men | 1:08:10 | |
become old, and all men die. | 1:08:15 | |
As a result of this experience, he began to ponder | 1:08:22 | |
what life was all about, observing that all races | 1:08:26 | |
of men grow old, get sick and die. | 1:08:31 | |
This troubled Buddha, and he was depressed. | 1:08:36 | |
He founded an order of monks and nuns. | 1:08:41 | |
He believed God had led him to see that mankind is united. | 1:08:44 | |
He died as the enlightened one, teaching at 80 | 1:08:51 | |
that mankind must be united. | 1:08:56 | |
And I might add, in God, | 1:09:01 | |
if he had followed | 1:09:07 | |
the legend of the times, he would have been | 1:09:09 | |
just another Asiatic king. | 1:09:13 | |
But now he is, according to H.G. Wells, | 1:09:16 | |
one of the six great men of history. | 1:09:21 | |
Now, Buddha belongs to history because he | 1:09:24 | |
identified himself with suffering man. | 1:09:27 | |
Today, millions are saved by operation on the human body. | 1:09:30 | |
The poetic Cicero, so impressed with the Roman Empire, | 1:09:37 | |
is reputed to have said that the Roman Empire | 1:09:41 | |
could never fall. | 1:09:45 | |
Given dates to fall as 476 A.D., | 1:09:48 | |
but that Empire had been falling for centuries. | 1:09:53 | |
Rome did not fall, though she was not defeated | 1:09:56 | |
on the battlefield. | 1:10:02 |
- | There is a time, element in life when we pay | 0:05 |
for violating god's moral and spiritual laws. | 0:10 | |
It gonna happen to the United States. | 0:14 | |
Mussolini boasted that he would build, | 0:16 | |
rebuild the | 0:21 | |
greatness of the Roman empire, | 0:24 | |
the greatness of the Roman empire, | 0:28 | |
not Mussolini, but a great writer, Cicero. | 0:31 | |
But he did not build it, he lost the second World War | 0:36 | |
and he and his mistress were killed trying to save their | 0:42 | |
lives by escaping to Switzerland. | 0:45 | |
And people who had worshiped him as god killed him, | 0:49 | |
brought their bodies back and hanged them on the streets | 0:54 | |
of the land, I've seen the spot where | 0:58 | |
their bodies were hanged and ridiculed | 1:03 | |
by the people who once worshiped them as gods. | 1:08 | |
Hitler boasted that he would build a German empire | 1:11 | |
that would last 1,000 years, it last 10. | 1:15 | |
Hitler's body and that of his mistress were found | 1:21 | |
dead by the bullets of their own hand. | 1:25 | |
There is a wideness in god's mercy, | 1:30 | |
like the wideness of the sea but there's also a wideness | 1:34 | |
in god's justice, god's wrath. | 1:39 | |
Like the wideness of the sea. | 1:45 | |
Where and when can we begin, | 1:50 | |
we can begin here at Duke today, | 1:56 | |
the challenge of God is to the black man | 2:02 | |
although I know that the black man's | 2:07 | |
hands are not clean either, | 2:10 | |
some blacks in the 1960s and the early 70s | 2:16 | |
were going around telling Negro to tell Whitey | 2:22 | |
while they made a habit of killin' Blacky. | 2:26 | |
No body can be any meaner | 2:33 | |
and brutal to one another than black folks. | 2:37 | |
I've been one a long time, | 2:43 | |
longer than most of you | 2:47 | |
under the sound of my voice. | 2:50 | |
But I do believe that the black man is the remnant, | 2:54 | |
God's chosen remnant, at this point in time, | 2:59 | |
I say this because | 3:05 | |
white man has enslaved, robbed | 3:08 | |
and brutalized black people all across the world. | 3:13 | |
I admire his skill and science | 3:20 | |
and his application | 3:24 | |
when he comes to dealing justly with the black man, | 3:27 | |
I cannot trust the white man to initiate | 3:33 | |
the kind of program I have in mind. | 3:37 | |
So we can begin at Duke | 3:40 | |
and today black and white together, | 3:46 | |
God's white remnant for there has | 3:50 | |
always been a small number | 3:53 | |
among whites urging people to do justly, love mercy | 3:56 | |
and walk humbly with they god. | 4:02 | |
Otherwise the black man would've been liquidated | 4:05 | |
a long time ago, | 4:08 | |
we would not be alive to tell the story. | 4:12 | |
Indian took up arms and where are they? | 4:18 | |
So in the bicentennial year, what can we do, | 4:25 | |
white and black together here at Duke? | 4:30 | |
We can pronounce and challenge all America to do | 4:33 | |
these four things, we should strive harder to lead | 4:36 | |
the world in universities and see if we cannot build trust | 4:41 | |
between the United States and Russia and other nations. | 4:47 | |
Our scientists have met the Russian scientists in space | 4:51 | |
and hooked up together for two days. | 4:55 | |
But officially United States and Russia do not trust each | 4:59 | |
other, with United States and Russia trying to outdo | 5:02 | |
each other, it will lead us downward to the end. | 5:07 | |
Beginning in 1976, we should set a goal to end poverty | 5:12 | |
in the United States and can do it in 10 years. | 5:17 | |
I believe it is cheaper and healthier to give people jobs | 5:20 | |
rather than wealth, | 5:26 | |
crime is rampant in the United States. | 5:30 | |
Federal government and corporation with state government | 5:33 | |
and religious bodies throughout the countries are | 5:36 | |
striving to reduce crime to negligible size in three years. | 5:39 | |
Instead of the federal government turning it's back on | 5:45 | |
the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court, | 5:47 | |
1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 voting rights act, | 5:51 | |
we should reassess these programs, | 5:56 | |
make them functional everywhere. | 5:59 | |
These are a few of the priorities the nation should | 6:02 | |
set for itself as we turn our faces to the future. | 6:07 | |
Some such spirited announcement should be made. | 6:12 | |
This is the time for the churches of America, | 6:16 | |
particularly the black church take the leadership | 6:20 | |
in urging the government to step forward | 6:24 | |
and lead in these areas. | 6:27 | |
Finally I really believe that a nation can decay | 6:32 | |
without being beaten on the battlefield. | 6:36 | |
A nation's survival depends in part on its will | 6:41 | |
to justice, a nation that makes human | 6:44 | |
value secondary will eventually fall. | 6:48 | |
Despite his economic and military power. | 6:56 | |
These are intangible and cannot be dramatized | 7:00 | |
on a blackboard but history is proof. | 7:04 | |
Things other than war can bring the nation down. | 7:08 | |
For it is as true now as it was centuries ago. | 7:12 | |
Except a lord buildith the house, | 7:18 | |
they labor in vain that build it. | 7:22 | |
And except the lord keepeth the city, | 7:25 | |
watchmen waketh but in vain, | 7:29 | |
I believe with all my heart, soul and mind, | 7:33 | |
eyes have not seen, ears have not heard | 7:40 | |
and the world had known what god would do for the world. | 7:47 | |
I hear God in the Negro spirit, | 7:56 | |
sinner, sinner, sinner. | 8:01 | |
Give up your heart to God, | 8:06 | |
we shall find a new hiding place. | 8:11 | |
And a leadership for world peace. | 8:16 | |
Judge all men and women who wanna work | 8:19 | |
and are able to work. | 8:24 | |
A concern for diseased bodies whether in the United States, | 8:27 | |
South Africa, South America, the middle east and Asia, | 8:31 | |
that mantle of leadership has fallen to the United States. | 8:35 | |
Hopefully that we will build a foundation | 8:40 | |
that's firm in the one our | 8:45 | |
forefathers built 200 years ago. | 8:50 | |
Let us build for the year 2175. | 8:55 | |
We cannot fail our founders | 9:00 | |
and we cannot fail our god. | 9:04 | |
Pass in retrospect, | 9:08 | |
only we can determine the | 9:12 | |
future for the year 2175. | 9:15 | |
No better place to begin than here at Duke. | 9:20 | |
Black and white together, not at Chicago, | 9:25 | |
not at Harvard, not at Yale and not at Columbia | 9:29 | |
but at Duke, proclaim it from every housetop. | 9:34 | |
Tell it on the mountains, | 9:41 | |
all over the hill and everywhere. | 9:43 | |
God has called Duke students to start a movement | 9:49 | |
that this nation under God will be as strong, | 9:56 | |
stronger in the year 2176 | 10:01 | |
than it is in 1976. | 10:07 | |
May we accept the challenge | 10:14 | |
at Duke. | 10:19 | |
- | We will be able to accept the challenge | 10:33 |
and thus continue our worship as we make our offering | 10:37 | |
of our lives and our monies to god. | 10:40 | |
(organ music with inaudible singing) | 10:51 | |
Accept these monies in our lives, oh lord | 17:29 | |
and follow us with your blessing | 17:34 | |
that we may work for a just world. | 17:38 | |
We pray in the spirit of Christ, Amen. | 17:42 | |
(organ music with inaudible singing) | 17:49 | |
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 21:01 | |
the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit | 21:05 | |
go with us now and forever. | 21:10 | |
(inaudible choir singing) | 21:15 | |
(church bells ringing) | 22:25 | |
(organ music) | 22:33 | |
(applause) | 28:37 |