Growing Up In Changing Times
The Call For Justice in an Unjust World
I was a student at Trinity Lutheran School in the 3rd Grade when Dr. Martin Luther King came to speak at nearby UW Marathon County. Like many of my classmates, for certain reasons, I was unaware of his visit to the Wausau area.
That does not mean that over the years I had not felt the impact that Dr King made on this country and how it changed us all. I really believe that Dr. King is a clear example of how God can call a man to serve. I think that he expected to have an ordinary career as a baptist minister, but the circumstances of the times called for a man who would through his message to change the world. Like his namesake, Martin Luther, he might not have set out to start a reformation, but the wheels of the civil rights movement were already set in motion when he accepted the call to serve as the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
The message that really hits home with me is in not judging a man by his race or the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Dr King’s model came directly from the way he saw Jesus Christ. Jesus himself came to be the savior of the whole world for all people.
Dr. King’s message of civil rights and social justice was not just aimed at the de jure segregation of the south, but also at the de facto segregation that happened in other parts of the United States including the northern cities. For Wausau, it would pave the way for the issues that would surface when Hmong settled here after the Vietnam War. Wausau had been one of the whitest communities in the entire United States.
Big cities like Milwaukee would have that issue as more blacks had moved north to find jobs. White flight would become the rule as people were afraid of change in their neighborhoods. Enter Vel Phillips. Vel Phillips would be the first black woman to be elected to the Milwaukee City Council. She would propose in 1962 an ordinance to outlaw housing discrimination. She was appointed to serve as a circuit court judge in 1971. She later served as Wisconsin’s Secretary of State.
Attitudes can be changed when love rules. Trinity Lutheran in Milwaukee is a welcoming church for all peoples. So is my Trinity in Wausau. Wausau has embraced diversity! The Milwaukee Trinity evolved from an all German congregation to a house of prayer for all people. Blacks, whites, asians and all peoples can join and be a part of these churches.
With the police murder case in Minneapolis, it is pretty evident that change is still needed. George Floyd need not have suffered in vain. Trust needs to be built and that trust has to reach beyond color of one’s skin. If people in Milwaukee can change, people can change everywhere. We have a long way to go.
Racism is not just directed towards blacks. It is directed at times by blacks towards whites, towards native Americans, towards asians. Mixed with anti-semitism, it is also directed towards Jews. We vent our anger towards the scapegoat and that is often a person of color. We do have a long way to go.
