Here's a personal story from my trip to Montgomery yesterday (2017) that won't make it into the day trip story I'll write for the TimesDaily newspaper. I share it in hopes it will inspire someone to "be their best self."
I was early to my scheduled tour of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. That's me. Always early. The school group scheduled to tour before me was running a little late.
I sat and talked with Dexter Avenue Tour Director, Wanda Howard Battle, while she waited for the second-grade group from Montgomery's Davis Elementary.
We heard the bus pull up. I started to back out of the serene sanctuary content to step back outside into the beautiful spring-like February day and wait my turn.
Ms. Wanda said, "Monica, join us. You're here for a reason."
I was so glad she invited me. I couldn't say no.
(On assignment, I'm hyper aware to not hinder the natural progression of events. I want to observe in a way that people, of course, know who I am and why I'm there but my presence doesn't alter what they would naturally do in a setting. Does that make sense?)
These smiling children shuffled in the side door of the church and filed into the pews. It was at least 50 children. I was struck by these young lives filling pews that are more than 139 years old.
Ms. Wanda quizzed them about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They knew every answer to every question about him she pitched to them. They knew. Not just one or two children knew the correct answers, the group answered in unison.
She prompted them to repeat after her, "I will be my best self." I said the words, too.
We went to the basement to see the office and lectern where Dr. King prepared his sermons.
Ms. Wanda told us about Dr. King's potent words that are etched into history.
She invited the children to have courage, come forward and stand behind Dr. King's lectern.
One-by-one, they stood before the group and used their best "preacher voices" to first ask, "how long?" Then proclaim, "not long!"
Words from Dr. King's "our God is marching on" speech from 1965 at the conclusion of the march 25,000 made from Selma to Montgomery.
Not far from where Dr. King studied and prepared his historic words is a mural outlining significant moments in his life. At the center of the mural is a scene telling the story of King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." The children were especially interested in it. Ms. Wanda talks to them about non-violent protests and love.
What happened next had me once again crying like a baby -- it was just the 4th or 5th time of the day.
Ms. Wanda rallied the children into a circle. They held hands. Right there, before this stunning wall chronicling (not sugar coating) Dr. King's role in the Civil Rights Movement, the 50 plus second graders from Davis Elementary in Montgomery sang "We Shall Overcome."
They did.
It ended with hugs for everyone -- me included.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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