MLK and the Blue Moon Nightclub

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the life and witness of Martin Luther King in Memphis, TN.  People my age can remember hearing about his death and cringing.  We knew that would probably take the civil, racial unrest to a new level.  In my own case as a Quaker pacifist, I respected and wanted to emulate the non-violence that characterized King’s approach.  His life and ministry were grounded in his Christian faith.  It was easy to be aware of the others at that time who were calling for violent, forceful engagement of the issues.
  
I never met MLK.  I did know some people---a couple of Quakers---who knew him.  I knew people who went to parts of the South to march for justice.  For many the civil rights movement was linked to the peace movement trying to end the strife in Vietnam.  It was a complex time, but the issues of justice were very clear.  To do nothing was to be aligned with the wrong side was how most of us thought.  I wanted to be on the side of justice and peace.  It seems to be all people of faith would opt for this.
  
Sadly, we could still talk about unrealized dreams of justice and peace in our own times.  In 1968 most of us probably thought we would have been farther down the road by now.  Of course, progress has been made.  Laws have been passed, but laws don’t always fix the problem.  Anyone in their right mind would still recognize there are instances of racism and situations of injustice.  There is work to be done.  It is easier to change laws that to change some minds.  That is the work at hand.
  
This could be an exercise in memory of the times in 1968, but I would not have written about that alone.  What precipitates this reflection is an article I read about the influence of Martin Luther King on a Franciscan friar in Greenwood, Mississippi.  The Franciscan friar and priest was Nathaniel Machesky, of whom I never heard.  But reading his story was inspiring and worth sharing.  The headline of the article talks about how Father Machesky was able to channel the rage that followed King’s death into a successful boycott that brought change to that Mississippi town.
  
We are told simply that Machesky and another Franciscan came to Mississippi “to establish a Catholic mission for black residents of Greenwood.”  This was sometime in 1950, which gives the story some added punch.  This is nearly twenty years before King’s death.  It takes little imagination to see the boldness of this Franciscan move.  One of the delightful aspects of the story is the origin of the church they founded, St. Francis of Assisi.  We are told the two Franciscans “purchased the former Blue Moon nightclub on the outskirts of town, and transformed it into a place of worship.”  They worshipped there for the first time at the end of 1950.
  
Talk about transformation: making sacred the Blue Moon!  I think it is important not to see Machesky only in spiritual terms.  He wanted more for his flock.  The articles notes, “Because Machesky believed that economic self-sufficiency was essential for African-American progress, he organized a co-operative grocery store, credit union, and a business selling silk-screened religious posters and greeting cards.”  We need to keep working at all these levels in our own day.  He models good things for me.
  
We read the civil rights movement came to that Mississippi town in 1962 when civil rights workers arrived to try to register voters.  It would be easy---and wrong---to say this is when the real work began.  That was why it was important for me to learn that Machesky began his work twelve years earlier.  Maybe he helped set the table.  We are told Machesky and his workers supported the work of the new organizers in town, but they chose not to demonstrate.
  
King came to Greenwood in March, 1968, three weeks before he was murdered.  About King’s visit, we read this: "There is something wrong with America," he announced.  "And we are going all out this time to start getting America straightened out."  MLK’s death initiated a movement and boycott in Greenwood for economic justice, etc.  Machesky was central in this effort.  And it came at considerable cost to him---although recognizing the much higher costs his African-Americans friends had paid all their lives.
  
Enough new voters had been registered to affect the vote in 1969 and new, more moderate leadership in the city began to implement changes.  Much has happened in the half-century since this story.  Machesky ultimately left the South and died in 1995.  But we are told, “St. Francis Church and School stand today as his legacy, still doing God's work in the 21st century.”  That is a wonderful legacy.  And the legacy continues with the telling and re-telling of his story, MLKing’s story and the story of all those who work for peace and justice.
  
The function of stories is to inspire.  Stories intend for us, the hearers, not only to listen, but be moved to action.  Stories like Machesky’s, want to move us more deeply into our faith and be moved by our faith toward action.  Jesus still wants us to love and care for our neighbor.  Neighborhoods should have little to do with race, economic limitations, etc.  Sadly, we all know these kinds of divisions still haunt nearly all the places we live.
  
Machesky is gone.  We are still here.  There is no Blue Moon in my town.  But there are still places which can be transformed and people to be challenged and changed.  That is our mission.