My favorite photo from our Washington, D.C. experience today was of a reflection. We caught this shadow on the back of the Lincoln memorial at sunset, as a dad was proudly taking a picture of his son, who had just graduated from college. The dad asked the son to take off his robe but to hold up his tassel for the photo. The fact that they were both African American doesn’t really matter until you consider that this scene was being played out behind a statute of Lincoln on the other side of the wall, who lost his life for having the courage to confront centuries of slavery. Lincoln’s most famous words, carved in stone on the other side, still ring out with relevance today (“from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”) Earlier we also visited the Library of Congress, which has an excellent exhibit on the Civil Rights voting act, including a bill of sale for a slave for $400 involving two of our most honored presidents. I knew that Thomas Jefferson had slaves, and kept one as a common law wife, but to see a copy of Jefferson’s bill of sale for a human being is chilling. Jefferson sold slave “John Freeman” to President James Madison in 1809. Yes, a former President sold the then-current President a slave. We can’t pretend this nation doesn’t have deep roots of racism that still drive the kind of acts of violence that caused the assassination of President Lincoln, or that caused the assassination of innocent men and women in church two weeks ago. It inspires me away from hatred though — even hatred of murderers, even hatred of the blowhard conservatives we saw watching both houses of Congress today — and it moves me towards “increased devotion to the cause,” as Lincoln said, whether that’s preaching tolerance, unity, or just working for economic justice.
– Seattle writer Charles R. Cross is the author of numerous non-fiction best sellers, all of which can be found at Amazon.
