“What has been will be again. What has been will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastic.
However, some things such as race relations of unity that go on now and throughout history have not been well publicized, with countless unsung white activist of uncompromising integrity. They considered themselves not as saviors but equal allies in the quest for justice.
John Brown and Charles Sumner were two white standout figures, among many, who opposed slavery, albeit with different tactics. John Brown, who started an armed rebellion against slavery, wanted to recruit Frederick Douglass, a self-educated runaway slave. Douglass expressed view was it’s like walking “into a steel trap” and not “coming out alive!” Douglass had a less radical tactic . However, Brown paid the ultimate — his life. They both viewed Judge Roger Taney as someone who should have recused himself based on conflict of interest and vagueness, which is an article within itself.
Charles Sumner was a “radical Republican” before its present day evolution. Sumner labeled the slave institution as the “harlot” of the nation in which people and women in particular were exploited. To which Preston Brookes, who was a supporter of the institution of slavery, caned him until he had become unconscious. About a century before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sumner tried to integrate schools, albeit failingly.
About a century after Brown and Sumner’s valiant efforts, there were other whites who were God-inspired to carry on their good works. During the heyday of the Civil Rights movement, Doy Gorton, who was a photographer, covered that nuances of behavior of the other Southern white America. There were Southern whites who gathered at Pentecostal revival with Black people to stand against segregation, at risk of their own peril. It did not make the news in mainstream media during that day. The “if it bleeds it leads” media mindset was the same as it is today.
In contemporary times, a white, female Heather Heyer, was killed in a counter protest in Charlotteville, Va. These were white people of unsung bravery who had the spiritual conviction to stand up for what is right, which is “nothing new under the sun.”
On a personal note about the bonds of divine unity, there is a family member, Leonora Henderson, whose tuition was paid in full to an elite school by a white doctor. He paid tuition for many others, as well.
None of them were saviors. They were allies in the belief that we ought to be “one nation under God.” Tomorrow there will still be the hidden figures of unity. However, it is something beyond mortals understanding often that “There is nothing new under the sun!”
William Barrett lives in New Haven.
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Opinion: A long history on the right side of civil rights - CT Post
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