Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters - August 14
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 102 PM Psalm 85:7-13 Amos 5:18-24 Acts 7:17-29 Luke 1:46-55
Today’s Reflection
Quite likely, some of you have visited the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, since it’s less than two hours down I-65 from here. When I taught my Visual Communication course, my students and I would always discuss the symbolism of this memorial’s design.
Designed by architect Maya Lin, the memorial features two components, both formed of black granite. The first part is a curved wall that acts as the backdrop for the second component, which is a round, table-like structure. Both the wall and the table have water flowing over them.
Etched onto the wall are the words, “…until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” with an attribution of the words to Martin Luther King, Jr., because this is a phrase King used both at the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott as well as in his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963: “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ … No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
But King did not come up with this phrase—he was quoting scripture. The words on the wall of the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery are a quote from the Book of Amos. Maya Lin recalls how these words inspired her design: “The minute I hit that quote I knew that the whole piece had to be about water. I realized that I wanted to create a timeline: a chronological listing of the Movement’s major events and its individual deaths, which together would show how people’s lives influenced history and how their deaths made things better.”
The second component of the Civil Rights Memorial, out in front of the wall, is a round, table-like structure, onto which are etched the names of 40 people who were killed during the years 1954-1968, killed either because of their race or because of their civil rights activism.
I’ve always thought was the most powerful design element of this memorial is that visitors can place their fingers or even their whole hands into the water flowing over the surface of the timeline—which both changes the course of how the water flows down, and allows them to make their own mark in the timeline of history, as they pay respect to these civil rights martyrs.
One of the names included in this timeline is Jonathan Myrick Daniels, with the date August 20, 1965, the day he was killed in Hayneville. Daniels was a seminary student at the Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts. That March, he had come to Alabama with a classmate to participate in the march from Selma to Montgomery. But they didn’t think it was right to come protest for just a few days; they wanted to make a longer-term commitment to the cause. So, Daniels asked for permission from EDS to stay on in Alabama for the rest of the spring to keep working for civil rights, returned to the seminary for exams, and then was back in Alabama in July and August.
On August 14, he was arrested in Fort Deposit for protesting at three businesses there. Released from the county jail in Hayneville on August 20, he tried to enter a local shop with a group of other activists, black and white, in search of a cold drink. There they encountered an armed, off-duty deputy, who pointed his gun toward 17-year-old Ruby Sales. Daniels pushed Sales out of the way, taking the fatal shot intended for her.
Each year, we set aside August 14—the day of Daniels’ arrest—to remember this seminary student, civil rights activist, and martyr. The readings for our Morning Prayer and Noonday Prayer today connect with Daniels, allowing us to reflect on the ways in which he gave his gifts and his life to “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
What can we learn from the decisions Jonathan Daniels made in the last several months of his life?
What are some tangible ways we can help “justice to roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” in our world today?
Daily Challenge
The Diocese of Alabama sponsors an annual Jonathan Daniels Pilgrimage. Because of the pandemic, this year’s pilgrimage will be held online this Saturday, August 15, from 11:00-1:00. If you would like to remember Daniels’ and others’ sacrifices for civil rights, you can find links to connect here: https://www.dioala.org/digital_faith/events/3184074