#8 Eyes on the Prize

A couple weekends ago, I watched “Eyes on the Prize,” a documentary over the civil rights era. The documentary presented a lot of footage I had never seen before and I’d highly recommend checking it out. One scene in particular stuck with me. While the narrator was talking about the Little Rock Nine, they showed footage of a black reporter covering the story being assaulted by the mob waiting outside the school. Without any police protection, the reporter was in grave danger as the crowd became unruly. The footage showed him trying to walk away from the scene, followed by a group of men throwing rocks and running up to strike him from behind before retreating back into the anonymity of the crowd.

Each time he was struck, his hat would naturally fall off his head. Each time his hat fell, the reporter would bend over, pick it up, put it back on his head, and continue walking.

I imagine he was afraid. I imagine he knew how situations like this usually ended in the South. I imagine he knew attempting to run away or fight back would not help and would compromise the reason he was there in the first place. I imagine he realized the only thing in his control was his own response, and he decided to not let the hatred of the mob change him. He walked at a normal pace. He stopped to pick up his hat.

In a sense, I believe those few seconds of footage sum up the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans decided to stop waiting and to live as equals, patiently enduring the consequences as the rest of their brothers and sisters caught up to them. I believe God has called the church to live with such patient endurance as well, to be people who can sense the hatred in the world around us, but not let it change us even when it threatens our well-being. I believe we are called to be people who can, even with a mob breathing down our necks, walk with quiet dignity, stopping to pick up our hats along the way.