Imagine standing in front of Zion Baptist Church 24 years ago in the presence of not one but two powerhouses. A man with a gift for sharply-honed eloquence and possessing disciplined self control, the late Rev. Walter R. Murray Jr., seared every word into your brain when he spoke.
U.S. Rep. John R. Lewis, who died on Friday at the age of 80, stood next to Murray on that September 1996 day. With a look in his eye that embodied the definition of determination, Lewis carried in his compact stature a strength that made you stand up straight and square your shoulders as he spoke in low measured tones.
Lewis came to Lynn in 1996 to endorse Salem Democrat John F. Tierney in what would be his successful bid for congress. But Lewis also came to Lynn to renew an acquaintance with Rev. Murray forged in the fight for civil rights.
Murray was a 16-year-old high school student sitting in history class in Nashville when a commotion erupted outside the school and a man called out to Murray and his classmates.
The man was John Lewis and Rev. Murray, during Lewis’ visit to Zion, recalled the challenge Lewis laid at the feet of Murray and his fellow students.
“He said, ‘You’re in that school studying history, come out here and make history.’ So a young boy came out to organize high school students and that boy’s name was Walter Murray.'”
Like Lewis, who endured beatings and jail to follow the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Murray heeded Lewis’ summons and never looked back in his quest to fight for racial justice in Nashville and, eventually, in Lynn where he was a central figure 25 years ago in calling for increased public safety, educational equity and youth engagement.
Standing side by side on that September, Lewis and Murray summoned up an energy greater than the power crouched and ready to spring in each of them and summarized the fight for change in America in 1996.
“Today in Congress,” Lewis told his Zion audience, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would not pass. There is a mean spirit there. We have to change this.”
You shiver and take a deep gulp when you contemplate Lewis’ words and graft them onto 2020’s political landscape. Lewis came to Lynn two months after Rev. Murray galvanized Lynn pastors in joining national condemnation of arson flames destroying southern African-American churches.
Murray led a chorus of demands for justice and Lewis never stopped fighting for justice. In life, he challenged us to demand justice or, in avoiding doing so, to deny it. With his passing, we are called on to snatch up his standard and wave it high.
