Know the Spirituality That Comes With This
Today was a very packed day. The biggest thing that sticks out in my mind that was visual that I encountered was seeing Martin Luther King Jr.’s neighborhood as a whole. It was fun to visualize him walking those streets and looking at the same houses and street signs as I did today.
I felt a lot of conflicting emotions today. I think that two of the biggest emotions I felt were despair and pride. I saw the picture of Martin Luther King Jr. just moments after he had been shot in the jaw, laying there bleeding, for the first time and it really struck a cord in me. I’ve seen the before-the-shot pictures and funeral pictures plenty of times, but to see him just seconds after he was struck down made me feel a level of despair that has never been pulled out of me from simply looking at a picture before. I felt my stomach drop and I felt like my heart was beating a mile a minute. I definitely think that this is the closest of I’ve ever been to feeling the despair, hopelessness and utter disbelief that the black people of America felt during the wake of his death. These feelings were countered when I continued to travel through the museum and I listened to various speeches and quotes. I listened to Mahalia Jackson and others sing and I instantly began to fill with pride, because my people were able to be strong and resilient and hopeful enough to sing through some of the hardest and harshest circumstances.
Today I also noticed a lot of similarity between the activists of the Civil Rights Movement and modern day preachers. Most of the principles and beliefs are still apparent in today’s society as they were during the movement. I attend church regularly and felt very connected and joyful during the church service at Ebenezer. Faith played a big part in the progression in the movement. Most of my thoughts keep referring to how Martin Luther King Jr. used his unique way with words to invoke a sense of hope and determination in the people then and now and how Reverend Warnock does the same. I also can’t help thinking about my experience with the sit-in simulation. I found myself squeezing my eyes extra tight multiple times through that simulation and there wasn’t even a physical aspect to it, just auditory.
-Ericka Love
I felt a lot of conflicting emotions today. I think that two of the biggest emotions I felt were despair and pride. I saw the picture of Martin Luther King Jr. just moments after he had been shot in the jaw, laying there bleeding, for the first time and it really struck a cord in me. I’ve seen the before-the-shot pictures and funeral pictures plenty of times, but to see him just seconds after he was struck down made me feel a level of despair that has never been pulled out of me from simply looking at a picture before. I felt my stomach drop and I felt like my heart was beating a mile a minute. I definitely think that this is the closest of I’ve ever been to feeling the despair, hopelessness and utter disbelief that the black people of America felt during the wake of his death. These feelings were countered when I continued to travel through the museum and I listened to various speeches and quotes. I listened to Mahalia Jackson and others sing and I instantly began to fill with pride, because my people were able to be strong and resilient and hopeful enough to sing through some of the hardest and harshest circumstances.
Today I also noticed a lot of similarity between the activists of the Civil Rights Movement and modern day preachers. Most of the principles and beliefs are still apparent in today’s society as they were during the movement. I attend church regularly and felt very connected and joyful during the church service at Ebenezer. Faith played a big part in the progression in the movement. Most of my thoughts keep referring to how Martin Luther King Jr. used his unique way with words to invoke a sense of hope and determination in the people then and now and how Reverend Warnock does the same. I also can’t help thinking about my experience with the sit-in simulation. I found myself squeezing my eyes extra tight multiple times through that simulation and there wasn’t even a physical aspect to it, just auditory.
-Ericka Love
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