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Men of Integrity, Nov/Dec 2000
What Happened to Emmett
This Week's Theme: Racial Bridge-Building
Monday, December 18
Key Bible Verse: Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him (1 John 3:15). Bonus Reading: 1 John 3:11-18
Mamie Mobley's only child, Emmett, was visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1956. Outside a general store, with boys playing games, the 11-year-old decided to go in and buy some bubble gum and candy. As he came out of the store, someone asked Emmett, "How'd you like the lady in the store?" Young Emmett whistled his approval. Someone nearby heard and didn't like an African American whistling at a Caucasian woman. It was 2:30 a.m. the next Sunday when two men stormed into the house where Emmett was staying and took him at gunpoint. Three days later they discovered his badly beaten body.
Years after the tragedy Mamie was asked, "Don't you harbor any bitterness toward the two men?"
Mamie replied, "What they did wasn't for me to punish. It wasn't for me to go around hugging hate to myself, because hate would destroy me. It wouldn't hurt them.
"I was brought up in [a] church [that] preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe the Lord meant what He said, and [I] try to live the way I've been taught. I haven't spent one night hating those people."
—Studs Turkel in Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
Respond:
Are you hugging hate?
Thought to Apply:
Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence.
—Hebrew proverb
Adapted from: Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession (Donadio & Olson, Inc. copyright 1992 by Studs Terkel).
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Prayer for the Week |
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God, bless me with the friendship of someone who's different from me. Help me to honor your blessing.
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