Reverend Gerald Durley joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington on August 28 , 1963 . A college bookman at the metre , he was there — along with 250,000 others — to call for civil rights in the form of line of work , voting , and freedom . The pastor never imagine , then , that he ’d be press for another bent of polite rights today .
“ I began to see everyone has a inbuilt right wing , a God - afford right , to clean house piss and sportsmanlike air , ” Durley told Earther . “ That ’s a civil right . ”
The religious belief leader , who is a retire pastor of the Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta , took up the environment as an issue roughly 10 year ago . Before , he did n’t realize the ways race and the surroundings were inextricably linked . Then , he made some white friends who were doing environmental work and like a shot began to see the way in which community of color , rural communities , and down in the mouth - income communities were dependent to the worst impacts of pollution and environmental abjection .
“ I aver , ‘ This is a civil right for people to have the right to clean piddle and clean gentle wind , ’ ” Durley went on . “ I started challenging power companies , and then I really got much deeper . ”
Today , the rector sits on the board of Interfaith Power and Light , a religion organization that look at substitute energy sources . Former President Barack Obamanamedhim a Champion of Change in 2015 , recognizing Durley ’s work as a clime faith drawing card . Climate variety now plays a big character in the agency the pastor looks at injustice .
What he require to see is Dr. King ’s legacy play a role in how hoi polloi talk about the existential crisis that is climate change .
“ We want hope , ” Durley state . “ That ’s something that ’s lack aright now . ”
He ’s good . Feeling promising is difficult when theweather is weird , rivers are already locked into scary amounts of flooding , andcoasts are fairish plot for drilling . No apocalyptic scenario sounds insufferable these days , and that can be paralyzing for people ( including me and likely you ) .
On this sidereal day , when we lionize Dr. King ’s birthday , Durley wants multitude to remember — and honor — his legacy by apply onto hope . “ We can turn this [ climate change ] situation around , and we ’re in a critical point , ” he order .
Durley reminded me of the term black protesters met during the civil right hand motion : water hoses , roughshod police force andiron , taking into custody , anddeath . The sacrifice and the risk people were willing to take then is lacking today — and Durley pronounce that ’s because people have lost Bob Hope . And they need to find it . Fast .
“ If my mother got in my way , I would walk over my mother during the movement , because we knew that the cause was bigger than our individual enterprise , ” he said .
He saw this hope produce at the peak of the Standing Rock battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline . President Donald Trumpcrushedthose hop-skip , but that needs to serve as fuel , as motivation . The civic rights movement faced multitudinous hope - crush moments — from Dr. King ’s assassination in 1968 to antiblack drug laws in the ’ 70s — yet it persevered .
Dr. King ’s optimism and his inexorable spirit give Durley Bob Hope as he continues to pursue the dreams of one of America ’s most unforgettable civil rights leadership .
Durley stand up in the crowd as Dr. King recited his acclaimed “ I Have a Dream ” speech more than 50 years ago . King ’s word around integrating and solidarity still have got weightiness today .
“ Climate alteration is adequate opportunity waster , ” Durley said . “ It does n’t deal whether you ’re black or blank , or Hindu , or tall , or forgetful . It will destroy you every bit . Therefore , we ’ve every bit got to occur together to finish this devastation that ’s destroying man , plants , and animal lifetime . ”
Climate change
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