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| 50th Anniversary March on Washington August 28, 2013 |
Courage to Change
by The Rev. Connie Yost
A Sermon Preached at
Eastrose Fellowship Unitarian Universalist
Gresham, Oregon
September 1, 2013
I returned last night from an inspiring week in Washington DC, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. On Tuesday, I attended a conference on Civil Rights, titled "Marching Forward By Looking Back," where people from diverse backgrounds came together to share stories and solutions of what has worked in different communities and what still needs to be done. There was a lot of hope and excitement in the air. I went to bed that night grateful to be part of this historic occasion and grateful to be in the work of ministry -- that work of justice, hope and healing that we all share.
On Wednesday, August 28, the exact day of the March on Washington fifty years ago, I joined with thousands of others as we marched in the rain along the streets of DC for about a mile and a half, down famous streets with names like Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenue, pausing at the Department of Labor, noting that the theme of this March was "Jobs and Freedom," a theme that was Martin Luther King Jr's focus when he was assassinated in 1968. It was an experience I will never forget, walking shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, with young people, old people, people in wheelchairs, people in baby carriages, black people, brown people, white people, people of all races, men, women, people of all sexual orientations, all religions, all together, all as one, singing "We Shall Overcome."
