Posted by Jack Lee
It’s a warm spring Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. As the minister is about to present Holy Communion, a tall well dressed black man sitting in the section reserved for African Americans unexpectedly advances to the communion rail; unexpectedly because this has never happened here before.
The congregation freezes. Those that had been ready to go forward and kneel at the communion rail remain fixed in their pews. The minister stands in his place stunned and motionless. The black man slowly lowers his body, kneeling at the communion rail.
After what seems like an interminable amount of time, an older white man rises. His hair snowy white, head up, and eyes proud, he walks quietly up the aisle to the chancel rail.
So with silent dignity and self-possesion, the white man kneels down to take communion along the same rail with the black man.
Lee has said that he has rejoiced that slavery is dead. But this action indicates that these were not idle words meant to placate a northern audience. Here amongst his people he leads wordlessly through example. The other communicants slowly move forward to the altar with a mixture of reluctance and fear, hope and awkward expectation. In the end America would defy the cruel chain of history besetting nations torn apart by civil war.