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Why Black Preachers Are Better
Dr. King’s particular genius was his recognition that once he moved the freedom debate in a religious direction, segregation would have to fall. He knew that white Southerners of that time were immune to many finer things, but powerful preaching was not one of them. That’s what the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” is about: reminding white people who had been relentlessly exposed to religion since the cradle that, deep in their hearts, they knew what Jesus would do about the charade of “separate but equal.”
From interviewing Dr. Lowery in 1975 for My Soul Is Rested, I knew that he, like Dr. King, was a student of homiletics, the scholarly study of sermons as vehicles of communication. (For Dr. Lowery’s learned discourse on the history of the black church, see that interview on page 66 of MSIR.) White America got a crash course in black homiletics in the “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s a style that blends every rhetorical trick in giving memorable and entertaining form to a serious message. It uses soaring King James language, theological exegisis, references to the sublime and ridiculous, humor, rhyme and doggerel, snatches of poetry and song. It includes show-off words alongside downhome vernacular.
As was often noted during his lifetime, Dr. King had a predilection for big words. It was more than a trick to make George Wallace look uneducated. It was part of a poetic arsenal that came as naturally to King’s oratory as it had to Lincoln’s. With King as with Lincoln, there was a playfulness. My favorite example in his Lincoln Memorial speech, is his reference to the “curvaceous slopes of California.” It hits the ear like a clunker, but then comes the most deadly description of Mississippi’s physical and moral topography ever coined: “Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.” It’s that tossed-in “molehill” that makes with literary elegance the point that a state “sweltering” in ignorant racism needed to be—and could be—redeemed down to every molecule of red dirt.
Jesse Jackson Speech, Tendley Baptist, Philidelphia, PA: Jan 16, 1984
As for rhyme in public discourse, it was notably used but hardly invented by Muhammad Ali and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. I was surprised that Jon Stewart and the usually sure-footed writers of the Daily Show made fun of Rev. Lowery’s rhyming of “mellow/ yellow,” “red man/headman” and so on in the closing lines of his inaugural prayer. They didn’t seem to know that he was playing off the historic couplet about discrimination based on skin color. “If you’re black, get back; if you’re brown stick around.”
Ralph Abernathy Found Poem
Riffing this vernacular reference to skin color into a humorous and memorable closing for one of the most momentous events in American and African-American history was, to me, a signature work of artistry by Rev. Lowery. The comparison that comes to mind is Miles Davis taking a tired melody and investing it with the majesty of the blues.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Justice Clinton?
As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
finderj
His prayers for the nation come true as well, and God knows, he's been making them long enough and articulately enough, God is surely listening.
vankuyk
The man was charming, clever and with a sense of humor, just how it should have been. I enjoyed it tremendously and he made me smile when he said those couplets.
mark919
It's rare that I agree with Howell Raines but this column on Rev.Lowery is most informative and uplifting.
magicman
This is an excellent Benediction. Right up until he SLANDERS white people. "When white will do what is right"???? What is this man thinking???? He preaches 'tolerance' only a second earlier and then goes off slandering 'white people'???? Wow. Totally tansparent racism. Verrrry impressive. Well, we can all be cheered by the NEW TRANSPARENCY in America. The evidence is both transparent and clear that Rev. Lowry is a bigot. How nice.
Whether it is Jesus returning to earth riding on the 'dark side' of an Asteroid, no less, or Jim Jones and the 'electric cool-aid' crowd from Guiana, the Waco kids, or an entire Western State whose singleminded devotion centers around the practice of bigamy, especially when that bigamy involves the marriage of underage teen GIRLS; one can only conclude rationally that Protestantism is missing a gear. That 'gear' might be somehow connected to 'discipline', which Protestant's seem to lack in great abundance, and which the Rev. Lowry has demonstrated in his 'benediction'.
I suppose an apology is in order. That would be the PC requirement. But frankly, I'm not expecting one. You see, it is perfectly ok in this country to SLANDER white people, especially males. It is very regrettable that this 'idea' has now been extended to include Inaugural Benedictions as well. How lovely.
jamawa
This speech was ridiculous. Charming my arse. All Lowery did was bring race BACK into the picture. You should not have voted or be excited for Barak Hussein Obama because he is black any more than you should've voted for McCain because he is white. Get past the race issue already. Blacks aren't sitting in the back. If they are, it's their own choosing or their own self doubt. Everyone must work hard to get what they want out of life. Everyone. White man do what is right....idiotic. Lowery should be ashamed.
wildcard7
Although I found it funny like I find my grandpa's unintentional racist comments funny, I still think it was a little out of place. If you are going to have an inauguration theme of "we are one" and creating hype around a post-racial president, then why the comment "white will embrace what is right"? If you are "playing off a historic couplet", shouldn't it at least be relevant today? Didn't the majority of the white people in attendance "embrace what is right" in Rev Lowery's eyes by voting in the first African American/post-racial president?
itonlyhappens
wow, magicman, lighten up. I know, if a white guy had said something similar about other races he would be vilified, blah bIah. You have to see these things in context. Rev Lowry is a man who has lived through some of the worst times of racial prejudice and persecution. I agree with the author and other comments here, Rev. Lowry's remarks were charming, and his poetry made me smile. I'm white and non-religious, but I found the symbolism of the moment very touching, and the rhyming couplets clever wordplay in the african-american preaching tradition.
MaryC3
This is such an excellent column. Reverend Lowery was indeed the perfect choice to deliver the benediction on this historic occasion. Amen.
Mary50
I'm sorry, but I also thought it was corny. It was so outdated, and I thought it made the seriousness of the historical moment seem silly.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
bugnanny
Paster Manning is the best preacher I have heard in a long time, he tells it like it is.
apparently
An interesting perspective and informative piece. While I understood Lowery's word play, I was neither amused nor moved by it. I honestly thought that by electing Obama, we were moving forward and to end the inauguration with a piece of Civil Rights history seemed to be taking several steps back. Remembrances like Lowery's would have been far more appropriate during celebrations on Monday.
sincereblue
I loved his Benediction. Real.
The Republican cries of racism are too much. What did we see at the Republican convention, campaign stops? A sea of white.
The YouTube videos of Palin and McCain rallies, with racists blatantly exposing themselves and, even more disturbing, those surrounding them smiling and laughing, doing nothing to repudiate their disgusting behavior.
A Christmas gift of racism from RNC chair candidate Chip Saltsman with the songs Barack the Magic Negro and the Star Spanglish Banner.
They are truly clueless.
littlepitcher
Rev. Lowery's humor is an adaptation of black wit dating from the 1930's or before. It is not slander to hope that the white race (and I am mostly white) will do what is right, or to point out the hope of justices for other races or even other shades of African-Americans. Black preachers know that humor makes the message memorable. Bless them and the futures of their bombed, burned, imperiled, incomparable congregations.
xbainx
I'm white. You Republicans are way to sensitive. Look at that little old man! I just want to have him tell me stories and give me Werther's Originals.
He said that line because it rhymes and also he remembers when dogs and fire hoses were being used to suppress his people. And it wasn't the Asians doing it. It was whitey.
So relax. He'll be gone soon. Republicans will be gone soon. And finally we'll have some peace.
Thank you.
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