Arthur Miller:
CLASS OF 1963
Hirsch High SchoolClass of 1963
Chicago, IL
Harlan High SchoolClass of 1964
Chicago, IL
Englewood High SchoolClass of 1963
Chicago, IL
McCosh Elementary SchoolClass of 1959
Chicago, IL
Arthur Dixon Elementary SchoolClass of 1959
Chicago, IL
Arthur's Story
Nearly 50 years ago I sat quietly in a jail cellÿ Frankly I
was frightenedÿ It was the summer of 1963ÿ I was 17 years old,
a soon to be freshman at the University of Illinoisÿ I sat in that
jail questioning the decision I had made to protest the segregated
school systemÿthe segregated housing patternsÿall of the
injustices that were a part of being Black in AmericaÿAnd yet as I
sat in that hot sticky cell I knew the truth ÿand that truth was I
could never lose hopeÿ I could never lose hope in what I
believed black people could do and be. I was raised believing in
hopeÿHope that one day we would overcomeÿ Hope that the
day would come when justice would overcome injusticeÿthat
one day righteousness would roll in on the slow pondering wheels
of the inevitability of my hopeÿAnd yet it never dawned on me
that my far off dream, the dream for the ages would happen while
I still walked and breathed on this side of the graveÿ
I never thought that the hallowed strains of
Lift every voice and sing, "Til earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of Liberty"
Could sound so sweet and good and finally so trueÿ
But why now am I different? Is it only because of that man going to that House? You know what man and what House? Oba man and dat white House.
I have pondered that questionÿ deeplyÿdeeply pondered within the depths of my soul why. Why? Why now am I different? After all, I spent four years serving this country during the Viet Nam war. I would have died for the people and idea of this country
called America. So why now am I different? I always stood alongside others at football games or at school pledging allegiance or singing about the home of the freeÿYes, I always
stood, but proudly? Then, I askÿWhy now am I different?
Great-great-great granddad Hiram fought for the union in the war that Lincoln said freed us. Uncles and cousinsÿmy brotherÿmy son served this country. Why now am I different?
Maybe itÿs all those scars, not on my skin but in my heart, in my bones, in my sinew, in my remembrances, DR. King, James Meredith, George Wallace, Bull Connor, Little Rock nine, Emmett
Till, Rosa Parks. Vicious fire hoses held by adult firemen spraying water on black children. Police men with their dogs grabbing black children with American flags in their hands because they wanted to be Americans. A black man being struck by a white teenager ÿhe struck that black man with the American flagÿ The flag that
I saluted, the flag that I fought forÿthat my son fought for...that my brother fought forÿthat my ancestors fought for. Then why now am I different?
Those scars put a strange membrane around me and mineÿ It insulated me from America. I fought for itÿpaid taxes for itÿsang the songs and pledged the pledge. I did it all while looking at white folksÿ teary eyes for a beloved country that I saw, that I lived in, but I was invisible to, unless some black fool did something
ignorantÿThen oh yes then I was always visible. Having to answer questions about why do my peopleÿ? Or drove in a town where we didnÿt liveÿ Or walked into a restaurant where we didnÿt goÿor into a meeting where I was the only oneÿThose meetings where all the eyes turned and conversations stopped, Oh yea I was truly visible then.
That membrane not only insulated me from Americaÿbut it insulated America from my loveÿ America, why now am I
different?
Because America apologized, America apologized without knowing how much I needed thatÿAmerica apologized to me
without knowing it.
America apologized for my scarsÿthe scars that I have endured, the scars that my mother bore, the scars that my father boreÿthe scars of all those who suffered, whose yearnings to be free were denied.
America apologized even though many do not believe she needed to apologize. But thatÿs ok too because America
apologized anyway.
America , magnificent America, lived up to what it started out to be and became in one night what it had never been. In one night a people were healed. That healing will unleash a love and patriotic fervor it did not know existedÿ The face of America has
changed, it has beco...Expand for more
me wider and broader and now includes all of me.
That is why I am now different. Today for me and those who preceded me, for those black and brown children who follow meÿ Youÿre freed from the past scars of our generationsÿ It was all
done for you. Go out and love this countryÿfight for this country ÿPledge and sing, for America is now beautiful for all of its children.
"Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea."
And then the gift of memory stops me coldÿ Did not those enslaved black folks rejoice when Lincoln signed that
proclamation that emancipated our people? And didnÿt this country go to war so that my folksÿ folksÿ folk could be free? When was that January 1,1863ÿ? Wasnÿt Emmett Till murdered in 1955? Ninety-two years after
Lincoln put his signature on that proclamation?
1863? One hundred years later 1963 wasnÿt I sitting in jailÿ? Because no one had proclaimed that emancipation to the hearts and spirit of too many of the people in this nationÿ
1963 wasnÿt that the year King preached about his dream?...
1965 wasnÿt that the year the voting rights act was signed and Still today black folks votes are misused, miscounted and misplaced..?
And here we are 146 years to the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was made lawÿ And I am left with one
question.
Is the hope we have longed for finally arrived ? After all Black people in America have never been optimistic, for we have always known better; but we have always been hopeful, full of hope. That is why we continue to sing James Weldon Johnsonÿs Lift Evÿry
Voice and Sing and respond particularly to the words:
"Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?"
So is the hope we have longed for finally arrived? Is the place our ancestors have sighed over finally comeÿ I accept that we have been much like the lost people of Israel who wandered in the wilderness seeking the hoped for promised landÿ we have
grumbled because our freedom has not come easy ÿand yes we have often been bitten by the snakes in the grassÿ Oh yes we haveÿand we know the names of some of those snakes donÿt weÿ Yes they are calledÿ drugsÿthey are called povertyÿthey are called racismÿbut they have other names donÿt theyÿyes Iÿm going thereÿ for the snakes are also called envy and jealousyÿ
self-righteousness and vain gloryÿthey go by greed and denialÿ
But despite all thatÿdespite our communityÿs sometimes destructive behaviorÿwe continue to struggle through our difficult momentsÿWe face the snakes in the grass and march onÿ
climbing and reaching and pulling ourselves forward.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reached the mountain topÿhe told us that when he looked over he saw the promised land and even though he got there before us, we believe what he told us when
he said that we as a people will get to the promised land.
It is 2009 And I ask you this. Has the bright promise of hope finally dawned? What is it our kids say after a long, and difficult journey? Are we there yet? I tell you Yesÿ Yesÿ
ÿNow is the time and we must not falterÿnow is the time and we must not be deterred, today in the fierce urgency of now we must gather together as one community, one people, one nation and lift our voices to Godÿ Filling the skies with hopeÿfilling our lives with joyÿfilling our souls with gladness because now we can
look over and see and believe the promised land is realÿ
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past,'Til now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand,May we forever stand,
True to our God, True to our native land!"
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