My Father's Lessons - Equality to All

Shortly after his return from Viet Nam, my father joined Jacob J. Pearson VFW Post 637 in Hopewell, VA.  Given his personality to take charge, he eventually chaired the Post's annual Memorial Day Parade.  The parade started in downtown Hopewell, went down City Point Road, and ended at the City Point National Cemetary.  Seeing him calling the shots to ensure that the marching bands and floats were in place made me feel proud.  Each year, the VFW also coordinated a memorial service at the cemetary complete with a military speaker and local minister to offer up the invocation and benediction.

As he sat in the audience this one year, my father noticed that those within the cemetary gates were all white.  He further noticed that African-American families had arrived at the cemetary but waited outside of its gates as if they did not feel welcome nor it appropriate to join the assembled audience.

My father often shared how this scene touched him.  For interred in this national cemetary were Americans of all ethnicities and religious denominations.  All these brave men and women had family members who mourned their loss.  Yet, they felt compelled to wait and honor their fallen family members after the ceremony concluded.

I am certain that my father reflected upon how he could change this  He once shared with me how his heart had been softened toward African-Americans from a childhood experience in which he witnessed violent discrimination.

The following Memorial Day, he invited a Black minister to offer up the prayers at the cemetary.  In sitting in the audience that day, my father saw how at least for this one moment in time, that community was one in honoring those who made the supreme sacrific for their country.  I often like to think that perhaps some of fallen were peering down from above that day, nodding in approval, and saying to each other "now, this is why we fought and died",  to see a land where there is equality, unity, and harmony. 

I am very proud of my father for the stand that he took and the example he set.  To this day, I find myself reaching out those individuals of all races, particularly African-Americans who still experience discrimination in our society.  It is my way to honor my father's lesson on eqality but also to heed my Savior's commandment "as I have loved you, love one another".