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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(1/12/02 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
One Sunday morning a few months ago, I was traveling through the South Baltimore neighborhood where my family lived during my early childhood. Nearing the corner of Leadenhall & Cross Streets, I noticed people walking into historic Leadenhall Baptist Church, and I decided to join them.
During Rev. Dr. Eddie Wilson, Jr.’s uplifting worship service, the Pastor noticed my unexpected presence and asked me to offer a few remarks. I walked forward to speak just after the congregation had discussed the next session of their Vacation Bible School.
As my mother often says, "When we least expect to receive it, God will send us a sign."
The mention of Vacation Bible School carried my thoughts back more than 40 years to the time when the men and women of this church helped to transform my life.
Although my family were not members of Leadenhall Baptist Church, that congregation once offered all of the young children in our neighborhood the opportunity to learn that people outside of our own families and friends valued us and believed in our potential.
So, Dr. Wilson’s invitation to speak gave me the opportunity to recall for his congregation that I, too, had once attended their Vacation Bible School. I reminded them that the late Del. Troy Brailey and their church had once sponsored the Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops to which I belonged.
I also was able to publicly thank Mr. Louis Kerney (who remains a trustee of the church to this day) for offering me a part-time job after school at the City Barber Shop he owned and operated on South Charles Street – and for giving me his friendship and guidance during the years that followed.
To anyone whose life experience has been filled with opportunities and free from prejudice, these actions may seem little more than the support that any young person should expect. For those of us who grew up "Negro" (African American) and poor in South Baltimore, however, the impact upon our lives was transcending.
Because successful people like Troy Brailey and Louis Kerney believed in us, we learned that we were valuable human beings. That insight allowed many of us to overcome the limited expectations that a segregated society sought to impose.
On a Sunday morning decades later, I finally was able to thank the congregation for helping me to achieve my potential in life – and to encourage them to continue uplifting other young lives.
I am sharing these recollections because, this month, the nation will once again celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his dream of a more just world. As we honor Dr. King’s memory, we should also remember – and applaud – all of the less-famous Americans who have carried his dream forward by the conduct of their daily lives.
Dr. King’s vision for America lives on because of them.
Sadly, though, the promise of a better world remains unfulfilled for millions of people in this country. They look to the conscience of America to help them realize their own dreams.
My good friends, Eddie and Sylvia Brown, understand that this can happen only in an America that offers true educational opportunity to every child. One of the country’s most successful African American couples, the Browns recently donated $5 million to provide additional academic, health, social and employment services to Baltimore City middle-school students and their families.
Few of us can hope to financially match the Browns’ commitment. All of us, however, have the power to transform the life of at least one child, one day at a time.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of an America in which mutual respect would drive out prejudice and universal opportunity would take the place of exclusion. If we are to accomplish those goals in our lifetime, it will take the best effort that each of us has to offer.
Yet, achieving Dr. King’s dream for America will also require something more – a far greater commitment at all levels of government.
"If Dr. King were alive today," observes my friend and colleague, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, "he would be in the forefront of reminding the government that its first concern should be the basic needs of its citizens – not just Black Americans but all Americans – for food, shelter, health care, education, jobs, livable incomes and the opportunity to realize their full potential as individual people."
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
