Deacon Art Miller has never forgotten Emmett Till or the summer of 1955. Miller, a Chicago native who is now the director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, was a classmate of Till’s and their mothers were friends. Till was an African-American teenager from Chicago who was lynched in Mississippi at age 14, after reportedly flirting with a white woman. “When Emmett was killed, it was our community and love for that little boy that started the civil rights movement,” Miller told those gathered the evening of Jan. 15 for the Black Catholic Initiative’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. The service was held in the St. James Chapel at the Archbishop Quigley Center, 835 N. Rush St. The two-hour prayer service featured Scripture readings, music by the choir from St. Malachy- Precious Blood Parish, 2248 W. Washington Blvd., and a recitation of excerpts from King’s “Rediscovering Lost Values” speech by young adult Brandon Sapp. As he walked up and down the middle aisle of the chapel, Miller, a longtime civil-rights activist, told the congregation that it takes a community to raise a child. “Right now our community is sick and they are raising some sick children,” he said. He recalled growing up in Chicago where neighbors would keep an eye on all children and ask them how they were doing. It was done out of love, he said. The community that killed Till was based on something else. “The very foundation of that community was hatred,” Miller said. “Hatred killed that little boy.” Today’s communities must spread love and show Christ to others, he said. Drawing on that theme, Miller pulled people from the audience to portray characters in Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus and explained that Jesus doesn’t abandon his children. “We’re a community and God works through community,” the deacon said. Like Lazarus’ friends, we must clear away the boulders keeping people from Christ, and even more. We must continue to journey with them. “When our brothers and sisters come out of the cave, we don’t abandon them,” he said.
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Gomez: Imitate Rev. King’s ‘example, prophetic witness’ in work for justice The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged all people of goodwill to commemorate the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Jan. 17 holiday named for him by remembering “not only the justice he pursued, but how he pursued it.”
Pope Francis: King’s ‘vision of harmony, equality for all’ remains timely With “social injustice, division and conflict” threatening the common good, people need to rediscover and recommit to the vision of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to work nonviolently for harmony and equality for all, Pope Francis said.