Beaches, Blood, and Ballots by Gilbert R. Mason M.D

Author:Gilbert R. Mason, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2000-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Ballots, Beaches, and Bullets

And did those feet in ancient time,

Walk upon Englands mountain green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here,

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:

Bring me my Arrows of desire:

Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In Englands green & pleasant Land.

—William Blake, from Milton, a Poem in 2 Books

NOTHING WORTHWHILE COMES WITHOUT A STRUGGLE. Some struggles are physical. Some struggles are moral. Some struggles are legal and political. Every struggle is a spiritual struggle, a test of faith and will. Recently, a white friend twenty years younger than I heard me speak of the sad events of the bloody wade-in and of the simultaneous struggle we undertook for voter registration and school desegregation in Biloxi. Somewhat taken aback to learn how broad an assault we had launched against segregation in 1960, this white gentleman probed to understand why it was that we had been prepared to risk so much, to suffer so much and endure so long. It took eight years for the courts to settle the issue of our right to free access to the beach. After responding to several of my friend’s questions about the source of our motivation and strength without seeming to convey to him a satisfying understanding, I quoted from William Blake’s poem Milton, ending with these lines:

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In Englands green & pleasant Land.

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