Laws of the Dark Trance

In 1867, Morehouse University was founded in Atlanta by the Reverend William Jefferson White with the help of two other ministers, the Reverends Richard C. Coulter and Edmund Turney. Their goal was to educate formerly enslaved men, believing that education was the route from slavery to freedom. 

Joe Biden was in Atlanta yesterday and spoke at the commencement ceremony at Morehouse. His speech centered on faith and how churches talk a lot about how Jesus was buried on a Friday and rose from the dead on a Sunday, “but we don’t talk enough about Saturday, when…his disciples felt all hope was lost." 

"In our lives and the lives of the nation, we have those Saturdays—to bear witness the day before glory, seeing people’s pain and not looking away. But what work is done on Saturday to move pain to purpose? How can faith get a man, get a nation, through what was to come?” 

For the Morehouse graduates, Biden noted, four years ago “felt like one of those Saturdays. The pandemic robbed you of so much. Some of you lost loved ones—mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who…aren’t able to be here to celebrate with you today….  You missed your high school graduation. You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. 

“It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you. 

“What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street?

“What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave…Black communities behind?

“What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?

“And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?” 

The crowd applauded.