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July 2
Joseph Cinqué, Thurgood Marshall, Medgar Evers, Elie Wiesel, the Civil Rights Act, and the Feast of the Visitation.
David Barnhart
July 02, 2025
Dill, 2025. Own photo.
Today is a big day in civil rights history.
in 1839, Joseph Cinqué and 53 kidnapped Africans mutinied against their enslavers and took control of the ship Amistad.
On July 2, 1964, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Those who support the current fascist regime have been trying to roll it back for sixty years.
Today is the birthday in 1908, of Thurgood Marshall, first African-American Supreme Court Justice and former civil rights lawyer.
Today is also the birthday of Medgar Evers, who I wrote about on June 12.
Today marks the death, in 2016, of Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and peace worker.
Today is the midpoint of the year, and as such it is the Feast of the Visitation, commemorating the time that Mary, the mother of Jesus, visited her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, six months before the birth of Jesus. In the lectionary (the church calendar) we read about this event during Advent, just a few weeks before Christmas.
Reflection:
According to Luke 1:46-55, Mary the mother of Jesus sounds like a revolutionary. She says:
…He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
Elie Wiesel said:
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
and
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”
Prayer: God, too much of our world is marked by indifference, yet you come with abundant life in your outstretched hand. Give us the grace and tenacity to make the oppressed the center of the universe. Amen.