On January 18th, Martin Luther, Jr. Day, almost 50 Lyons residents gathered to place a “Stamp out Racism” banner on the front of the Lyons Community Church building stairway.
Statement by Pastor Emily Hagan, Lyons Community Church:
Our Goal is “Stamping out Racism.” Due to the unrest in our nation and our own convictions as people of faith, we were compelled to respond. We invite everyone to join us in our response of stamping out racism. We do so based on our knowledge that God calls us to love everyone, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Mark:12:31. We are grateful to humbly put these words into action and hope you will join us in our pursuit.
We are also having a Continuing the Conversation: “Stamping out Racism” on February 4 in the evening. Anyone interested can contact the church for the Zoom link: LyonsCommunityUMC@gmail.com == Worship Service via Facebook on Sundays at 9:30 am ( LINK TO LIVE SERVICE )
January 18th, Monday, national holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
In 1965, the Voting Rights Act had just passed. A black man named Marquette Frye was pulled over in a white neighborhood in Los Angeles and beaten by police. The crowd began throwing stones and bottles, and then came looting and fires. This was a state that Gov. Pat Brown had declared there being “no racial discrimination.” In an essay three months after the Watts uprising, King called out the disingenuous surprise of the white Northerners who had insinuated that it was a Southern problem.
“As the nation, Negro and white, trembled with outrage at police brutality in the South, police misconduct in the North was rationalized, tolerated, and usually denied,” he wrote. King showed that racism was a problem throughout the United States. But how much has changed since then? People are easy to point toward groups such as white nationalists, or prejudiced white police, but King said that the bigger problem was “polite” racism. It is used as an excuse to perpetuate racial injustice. King said that those who call themselves liberal or not-racist, those being of goodwill, often only seek to “make it less painful and less obvious, but in most respects retain it.”
