Black Press International |

Date: Feature Week of February 15, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Politics
Author: Lakisha N. Williams
Article ID: article_ema021503a

BEYOND FEAR

February 13, Corpus Christi, TX–students at Miller High School were evacuated from their building as they awaited a 1:30 assembly featuring Democratic presidential candidate and National Action Network President and CEO, Reverend Al Sharpton. CCISD Superintendent Jesus H. Chavez called in and canceled the Reverend’s visit “for safety reasons,” his staff said.

Sighting complaints and threats from the local Ku Klux Klan as directly related to his Miller High cancellation, Reverend Sharpton’s Press Secretary Rachel Noerdlinger added, "He still stands firm that he will not be deterred nor surrender to hate."

Reverend Sharpton's visit to Corpus Christi was partially sponsored by the local chapters of the National Action Network and 100 Black Men. Instead of speaking at the school, Sharpton addressed community members and parishioners at the Church of God Pentecostal. He was also the keynote speaker for the NAACP and the Corpus Christi Black Chamber of Commerce’s Community Empowerment Celebration.

Somehow, the Corpus Christi incident is reminiscent of what Dr. King recalled to as one of his low points in 1956 during the height of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. During this period, he had been arrested received a regular barrage of phone threats not only on his life, but also against the livelihood of his young family. After having spoken at a mass meeting one evening, King was approached by an elderly churchwoman named Mother Pollard. She asked whether something was wrong because he “didn’t talk straight” that night, and when he replied that he as “feeling as fine as ever,” she gazed at him in a deeply discerning manner. “I don told you we is with you all the way,” she said. “But even if we ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you.” King said that even as she spoke, “everything in [him] quivered and quickened with the pulsing tremor of raw energy.”

Mother Pollard passed away long before King and the Movement’s aspirations would be realized, but the spirit and eloquence of her comforting words would carry King and strengthen him until his own assassination over a decade later. It is this spirit, the spirit that acts and exists beyond fear, that sustained King and abides with Sharpton as he continues in the justice-seeking liberationist tradition.

(Lakisha N. Williams is a writer for National Action Network - http://www.nationalactionnetwork.org/newslettervol3-no2.htm)

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