Journalist Says Blacks Have Looked to Churches, Courts

Law and religion represent powerful vehicles through which blacks can look to change America, NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams told a gathering of students last night in the Adams House Junior Common Room.

Williams led off the discussion of an Institute of Politics (IOP) study group on religion and politics with a talk entitled, “This Far By Faith and By Law: Churches and Lawyers in the struggle for racial justice” in which he contrasted two forms of social reform undertaken by Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Williams characterized Marshall as a predominantly secular man who saw the practice of law as the most important vehicle for social change.

“Marshall was opposed to sit-ins, freedom rides, and mass action because he saw them as an invitation to violence and abuse. He didn’t want young people arrested ” Williams said.

Williams argued that King, on the other hand, became involved in restructuring the laws through social activism. Despite an initial reluctance to become involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King became a leading advocate for mass-action protests, and had a major impact on civil rights reform.

“Dr. King and Malcolm X as religious leaders are celebrated by the media and remembered, yet Thurgood Marshall did not have that impact,” Willams said.

Williams, an Emmy award winner who appears on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and is the author of several books on the civil rights movement, was in town to speak at the Kennedy Library last night—40 years after George Wallace stood in the door of the University of Alabama to block its desegregation.

During a question and answer session following his talk, Williams spoke on the major civil rights issues facing America today and the possible impact of religion on those issues.

Williams addressed the rights of immigrants, homosexuals, and the growing racial discrepancy in incarcerations; however, he felt that the churches were most likely to become involved in the immigration issue.

Williams addressed concerns that religious organizations were neglecting some issues because interest groups were funding churches to pursue other topics.

“The great sin of our time would be condemning so many minority children to an inferior education,” Williams said.

The fear that the Baptist church, which was active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, had lost its idealistic base resounded with students as well.

“I’m a baptist and I’m worried because the church doesn’t seem to see the issues of AIDS and prisoners’ rights,” Ryshelle M. McCadney ’07 said.

About twenty undergraduates, law students, and students from the Kennedy School of Government attended the meeting, as did IOP fellow and former Lt. Governor of Alaska Fran Ulmer.

The session was organized by IOP fellow and former solicitor general for the state of New York Preeta Bansal as part of her “Courts, Gods, and Politics” study group.

“As people search for moral compasses in real life and public policy, two sources are faith and law, and Mr. Williams is someone who has chronicled this, ” Bansal said, explaining why she chose to invite Williams.