At the second inauguration of President Barack Obama on Jan. 21, 2013, Myrlie Evers-Williams was the first layperson to give an inaugural invocation prayer. She is one of the mothers of the civil rights movement and the widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was killed by a white supremacist in 1963. During the prayer, she said the following: “We invoke the prayers of our grandmothers, who taught us to pray, ‘God make me a blessing.’ Let their spirit guide us as we claim the spirit of old.”
She concluded her prayer by saying: “There’s something within me that holds the reins. There’s something within me that banishes pain. There’s something within me I cannot explain. But all I know, America, there is something within. There is something within.”
The power of knowing that there is “something within” speaks to the soul of Pan-African faith communities. Like Evers-Williams, diverse mothers of faith within these communities have been sustained and have nurtured this spirit among people of African descent. BlackWeb points out that “Black children have been raised by mothers, stepmothers, grandmothers, aunts, older sisters, cousins, family friends, foster mothers and adopted formally and informally, and they use Mother’s Day to salute those women as well.”
One of the Biblical mothers celebrated in these communities for having “something within” is Esther. She is probably most noted for her role as a young leader who stood up for her people, even unto death (Esther 4:12-17), but she was also a mother to Darius who became King Darius II. According to Rabbinic sources, she brought him up to be favorable to the Jews, and he eventually lifted the ban against the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple), which led to the building of the Second Temple.
Esther’s leadership as a queen and mother, like Pan-African mothers of faith, demonstrated the power of “something within her” that sustained her while risking her own life for her people. She discovered this while praying and fasting. Today all of us are invited to look within ourselves through prayer and fasting so we, too, can stand up for all of God’s children, especially mothers and children.
Won’t you stand up against the president’s proposed 2018 “skinny budget” proposal that will especially harm mothers and children who experience hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world? Bread for the World feels led to call for a season of prayer, fasting and lamentations on the 21st of every month until the end of the 115th Congress. It is grounded in the Biblical story of Esther.
Please go here to participate: bread.org/bread-newsletter-may-2017.
Dr. Rev. Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan-African and Orthodox church engagement at Bread for the World in Washington, D.C.
