In this Feb. 3, 1979, article that was printed on the Recorder’s Editorials and Opinions page, civil rights advocate John Lewis urges his fellow African-Americans to volunteer their time and talents to help one another.
“In the war on hunger, poverty, and disease, there can be no conscientious objectors, no waiting for a better time to become involved,” he writes.
Roughly seven years after penning this editorial, Lewis was elected to Congress; he has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since.
Though this piece was written through Lewis’ perspective as director of federal volunteer agency ACTION (he was appointed to the post by President Jimmy Carter in 1977), its sentiment is as relevant as ever: “As black Americans, we are not home free in our own struggle, but we can afford to reach out and lend a helping hand to others.”
Black History: a tradition of caring
By JOHN LEWIS
(Editors note: John Lewis, longtime civil rights advocate and former director of the Voter Education Project (VEP) now serves as Associate Director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency whose programs include Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and the Peace Corps.)
February is Black History Month — a time to look at the past and plan for the future — an appropriate time for black people to consider committing a year or two of their lives in helping others, either through VISTA or the Peace Corps.
February is also Peace Corps/VISTA Month, a time to salute over 132,000 men and women who have shared their skills, experience, and dedication as Peace Corps or VISTA volunteers over the years.
Black people have a tradition of struggle, a sense of caring for others, and history of involvement in the movement for human dignity. I see many parallels between serving as a Peace Corps or VISTA volunteer and participation in the civil rights movement which was so effective in the past two decades.
It takes a special kind of person, an unusual person, to be a Peace Corps or VISTA volunteer, just as it took the initiative of a special few to spark the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Black history records that our revolutionary movements were sparked, not by the majority of students on any college campus or the general population of any neighborhood or town, but by the audacity of a courageous, committed, caring few.
Being a Peace Corps or VISTA volunteer requires the same kind of courage and commitment as the sit-ins or the Freedom Rides of the early 1960s. It takes an individual who believes change is possible — one who is willing to invest time, energy and love work which uplifts others.
VISTA and the Peace Corps comprise an army of volunteers in much the same sense as did the civil rights movement. This is a nonviolent army, a movement to help people help themselves, a movement to enhance the quality of life for people on a sugar cane plantation in the South, in the ghettos of our nation’s urban areas, on Indian reservations, in the barrios of the Southwest, and in 63 nations around the world.
It is a movement to help those who are forgotten in a sea of poverty, those left out and left behind, the underclasses of the world.
No one can help a community organization deal with problems created by poverty like someone who has been there. VISTA volunteers work in rural and urban areas, in projects such as organizing nutrition and health programs, assisting farmer and consumer cooperatives, bringing together tenant and neighborhood groups to rehabilitate housing, or setting up centers for battered spouses, to name only a few.
More than half of the 4,000 VISTAs today serve in their own communities. About 15 percent are low-income men and women who are building their own skills and leadership capacities through volunteer service. Twelve percent of all VISTAs are over 60.
The Peace Corps needs volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Some of the 7,000 current volunteers are just out of college, while 15 percent are over the age of 55. Developing countries request volunteers with experience in farming, technical and blue collar skills and involvement in a variety of health fields.
The struggle in which black people are involved is a human struggle, a universal struggle. Whether you’re in Mississippi, Maine, the Philippines, or Tanzania, the struggle is one of the men and women striving to realize their own potential. In the war on hunger, poverty, and disease, there can be no conscientious objectors, no waiting for a better time to become involved. As Martin Luther King. Jr. taught us: “The time is always right to do right.”
As black Americans, we are not home free in our own struggle, but we can afford to reach out and lend a helping hand to others. We have riches to share — perhaps not financial resources, but we have abilities, skills, training, education, and, most of all, that tradition of caring which extends to the entire human family.
During Black History Month and Peace Corps VISTA Month, it is my hope that black Americans of all ages will make or renew a commitment to the struggle for human dignity by volunteering to serve. It is written, “As you give, so shall you receive.”
