| "Fannie Lou Hamer-born in Montgomery County, Mississippi in 1917, died in Ruleville, Mississippi, in 1977. She was one of the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Mrs. Hamer lost her home and her job as a plantation worker because, in 1962, she tried to register to vote; then in 1963 she succeeded in registering but was subsequently jailed and beaten; at the Democratic National Convention of 1964 she spearheaded the challenge to the all-white Mississippi delegation, and later, in both 1968 and 1972, at those Democratic conventions, she actually was seated as a delegate; in 1976 she received the Congressional Black Caucus's Community Service Award. Fannie Lou Hamer-one of the wise bridesmaids of Christ who kept watch for the coming of her Savior with her lamp full of oil, all the while letting the light of justice and love emanating from her lamp shine out into the darkness of the world around her. Fannie Lou Hamer-poor and unlettered, walking with a limp, but gifted with both a wonderfully earthy sense of humor and the remarkable ability to quote at great length numerous passages from the Bible. [Kay Mills, This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Dutton, 1993), p. 1.] And my, o my, could she sing! Her untutored voice was big and husky, its range lay somewhere between contralto and bass, and it had behind it that godly power of purpose and passion. Not a single hum from her lips went wasted in its effect! And whenever she sang in public, her signature song was "This Little Light of Mine." [Mills, pp. 19-20] This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, Oh, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. All over Mississippi, I'm gonna let it shine, Yes, all over Mississippi, I'm gonna let it shine. All over Mississippi, I'm gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Eleanor Holmes Norton, former chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights and most recently the District of Columbia's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives-Norton "remembers hearing virtually all of the civil rights orators," and Norton believes "that Fannie Lou Hamer may have had no equal [among them], save only Dr. King. Mrs. Hamer was not the kind 'to reel off a bunch of one-liners, [nor] to put together a bunch of catchy phrases-although she could do that. "What captured Norton's respect 'was [Hamer's] capacity to put together a mosaic of coherent thought about freedom and justice, so that when it was all through, you knew what you had heard because it held together with wonderful cohesion. [Then Norton adds, Hamer] also would break out into song at the end of her [speeches], and I'm telling you, you've never heard a room flying [like one] that Fannie Lou Hamer set afire. Her speeches had themes. They had lessons. They had principles. and then [she] ended up [everything by] singing "This Little Light of Mine." You never needed to hear anybody else speak again. I'm convinced she chose that song for a reason,' Norton has said[. It] summarized her life. All she was was a little light, and she fastened upon the notion that every little light could make a difference. The reason that she fastened upon it, I think, is that she saw [that] walking off that plantation [to go register] had made a difference. That one little act had made a difference.'" [from Mills, p. 85, where she reports her interview with Norton on December 28, 1989] Christ the Bridegroom had called Mrs. Hamer to keep the lamp of justice and love aglow and shining in Mississippi during the 1960s, while she and others awaited the full light of Christ's reign on earth. And in our own dark and weary time, as we too await the light of Christ's reign on earth, Christ the Bridegroom is calling us to keep our lamps of justice and love aglow and shining. Mississippi in the early 1960s-what post-bellum place and time could have seemed to any Black woman less promising of hope. Yet Fannie Lou Hamer was convinced that one lamp alight could make a difference, so she let her light shine-and the world changed. To many of us, this new millennium of ours seems to be off to quite a grim start, to be offering as little reason for hope as the early 1960s. Yet, though this time, too, seems rife with resurgent evil, we, like Mrs. Hamer, are being called by our Bridegroom Christ to keep our lights shining-in the faith that the world can be changed. Now, the stock of oil that any one of us has may be quite different from Mrs. Hamer's. We may not be able to quote Scripture like her or to sing African-American spirituals like her, or to set a room of people flying like her. But each of us does have a particular set of talents that we can offer to the world as a fresh source of energy and light. So my prayer is that we, like Fannie Lou Hamer, may come to be numbered among the wise bridesmaids of Christ, who keep watch for the coming of our Savior with our lamps full of oil, all the while shining out that light of justice and love emanating from our lamps into the darkness of the surrounding world. You see, when injustice seems to be prevailing, when life is testing our patience, when we're worn out and tired and failing in hope, when pain and misery threaten to overwhelm us, when grief fills us with despair, when Christ seems distant, and when the coming of God's reign on earth seems too long delayed-even then even then our Bridegroom Christ still expects us to be keeping our lamps fueled with the talents for justice and love we have been given, so that the light we are able to generate, however small it may seem, may shine forth to help dispel the world's darkness. Yes, O Christ, this little light of mine-I am gonna let it shine! Let us pray: Amen |
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