Guest post by Tybre Faw
When I first learned about the Faith and Politics Institute (FPI), I didn’t know how important it was in keeping the fight for civil rights alive. The FPI Pilgrimage in 2018 gave me the chance to do something I had hoped for but never thought would happen. Meet John Lewis. I felt blessed. He was my hero. I never thought I would have the chance to see him, but I knew that I needed to shake his hand and thank him for how he fought for me and gave me courage. I became an activist and foot soldier for as many causes as I could in my hometown.
This year FPI invited me to come along on the pilgrimage for real. I got to attend all the events that people in Congress get to attend every year. This year was really special because I have learned more, and I get it now. I got to see places and people I had only read about at school and at home.
We had driven seven hours to get to Alabama from Tennessee. I wasn’t expecting to get there in time to attend the play Ruby, The Story of Ruby Bridges but we made it. Ruby Bridges was the first person I met in the hotel lobby. I knew all about her story from my Mimi who was a social studies teacher. Getting to the play was one of the coolest things that has happened to me. It was just like the movies-loading buses, secret service, the US Capitol Police, Members of Congress and to my good luck, Ruby Bridges was sitting right behind me on the bus. Roads were blocked off as we traveled from our hotel to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
“The play helped me see how the Civil Rights Movement played out in Ruby’s hometown and how different life was for different people because of the color of their skin. When you see it played out in front of you, it’s more powerful than reading about it in books. I remember when Ruby Bridges said that her experience came to her for a purpose. I think my experience with the FPI is helping me with my purpose.”
The events of the second day were nonstop beginning at breakfast with the Speaker of the House. People grow up saying they wanna be President and meeting and having Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the 3rd most powerful person in the world standing with me and writing me an excuse to school was mind blowing. She believes in the youth and I wanna fight with her to bring about change.
Everything I did and everyone I met took me back to the time it was happening to them. I will never forget one single moment. I knew about the Freedom Riders and the bus trips through the South. But Minnijean Brown-Trickey of the Little Rock Nine was another story of the struggle to desegregate that we need to hear more about. Going to the 16th Street Baptist Church where the four little girls died at the hands of the KKK was so sad. Such hate in the world has got to stop cause it still goes on.
“The feeling that I get at the Edmund Pettus Bridge gets to me in a big way. It’s like I go back to the time of Bloody Sunday. I can feel it. I try not to cry but the thought of those people getting beat while fighting for their rights overpowers me. I got to see John Lewis again. It was just for a few seconds, but it was enough. We exchanged an elbow bump and the power that rushed through me brought me to tears.”
I love and respect him and need to carry on his work. I have a ways to go because I’m young, but I am trying every day to get there.
All the people I met are fighting for peace in our world and I wanna fight with them. Some people were raised with the burden of hate and like I’ve learned – hate is too big of a burden to bear. I met a lot of people who I had seen, heard about and some I had met during past FPI pilgrimages, but this year was different. At age 12, meeting people you want to believe in; it’s big.
I feel blessed that FPI is actually spreading the word and are caring about what other people are thinking so our world can be better. Revisiting the past so we won’t make the same mistakes again – that’s what it’s all about. I want to make the world peaceful – it’s like FPI, MLK and John Lewis have tried to teach us – judge someone by their actions. It’s not the color of your skin but the content of your character. To me, the FPI has hope in me and I don’t wanna let them down.