Take my little light round the world. I’m going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
I was all for the tearing down of the Berlin Wall (doh!) but on the whole I’d prefer to see construction before destruction.
Which may be why I instinctively balk against the current spate of tearing down statues.
The other reason is that it has the whiff of McCarthyism about it.
I think we can say, and achieve, more through the civil disobedience mantra of Gandhi and King than the Malcolm X call to arms.
So if you want to see how best to deal with racism go to the Deep South and Jackson, Mississippi where civil disobedience still means something.
At the epicentre of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum https://www.mdah.ms.gov/2MM/ is an interactive rotunda experience where This Little of Light of Mine plays out.
You’ll go though a history of oppression and resilience along the way and pass, of course, remnants of Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow.
The 20s Gospel song which was taken up by the Civil Rights Movement is played on a loop.
It is a simple, defiant stance but it sums up what has gone before it, the Freedom Rides, the Diner sit-ins, the King speeches.
The America www.visitusa.ie most of know from the movies and take back from our visits is a New York or California dream.
As much as I love both it is the Deep South where we see the heart and soul of this great nation
And where I will return and return to as I continue my journey to Dr Martin Luther King’s Promised Land… https://www.deep-south-usa.com and The Promised Land.
You won’t blow my little light out… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cKkbIZtqhyQ.
