張英

Joseph Lowery， preacher and civil-rights campaigner， died on March 27th， aged 98.

As he ran home crying， the hot tears coursing down his cheeks， he knew exactly what he had to do. He would find his fathers pearl-handled. He knew where it was. Then he would run back to the family store while the white police officer was still there， the one who had told him “Get back， nigger！ Dont you see a white man coming in the door？” and had smacked him in the belly with his nightstick—and he would shoot him dead.

Luckily his father stopped him in time， saving his child-self from being lynched by the outraged whites of Huntsville， Alabama. And it seemed to Joseph Lowery that a seed was planted that day， a seed of struggle. It could have made him hate： just one more insult among the many he was used to， being born black. Instead， it grew towards love. He had learned non-violence1. Several years later， he became a Methodist preacher. The New Testament repeated the lesson： do good to them that hate you. Or as he liked to put it later in one of his rhymes， not suppressing a smile， “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth， will leave us all blind and gumminour food.”

That conviction grew all the stronger when he met Martin Luther King. （He liked the guy from the start， even though he was Baptist2.） Together in 1957 they founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference3 that led， with prayers， sit-ins and marches， the civil-rights campaigns of the 1960s： for desegregated lunch counters， for equality in hiring and education， for the vote. When Martin was killed， at 39， in 1968 the SCLC fell on hard times for a decade， but in 1977 he took over as president and broadened what it did. Now it raised its voice against poverty and discrimination in general， against police brutality and the death penalty， as well as for peace in all corners of the world. Justice would roll down like waters， and righteousness like a mighty stream.

He felt no fear in speaking truth to power. Both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton felt the hot lash of his tongue for failing to raise up people out of poverty. Both Bushes， senior and junior， were scolded publicly over Iraq： for war， billions more， but no more for the poor. After the march on Selma in 1965 he presented a voting petition to Governor George Wallace—going like Moses through the Red Sea， through a Blue Sea of state troopers—and told him frankly that God would hold him accountable. Though he might seem a mild fellow， with his spectacles and jokes， he had a fire in him that fire-hoses couldnt wash out. For years he had thought that social justice on Earth had little to do with the kingdom of Heaven. Now he knew that a ministers job was also to make Earth more heavenly.

Besides， non-violence had wrought a spiritual change in him. He had become a new creature， perplexing to his enemies， as everyone in the movement had. The first proof came early. In Mobile in 1955 he and another minister rode one day in the front of the bus to Prichard， a more racist town. When a white passenger came up to bawl them out he quietly told him to sit down， and the man obeyed. Pretty soon， no black person on Mobiles buses had to give up his seat to a white. After this success Martin asked him to help with the year-long bus boycott in much bigger Montgomery， which in 1956 led to the desegregation of buses all over America. Patience paid off. Love worked. They were crazy， perhaps; but good crazy.

Time and again he campaigned. He decided to take a train back to Nashville on the night his motel room in Birmingham was blown apart. He and his wife Evelyn escaped death when Klansmens4 bullets whooshed over his head， and through their car， in Decatur， where he was supporting a mentally disabled black man.

In each of these trials the old anger would flash through him， and with prayer he would hold it back. The hardest point came on that spring day when Martin was shot in Memphis， a rare day when he was not at his side. He curbed his grief by pouring energy into the two big United Methodist churches， Central and Cascade， which he ran in Atlanta for many years， building up membership mightily. But he poured even more into the SCLC， Martins organisation as he saw it， by keeping that flame burning and by reminding Americans what sort of man his friend had been. A doer， not a dreamer; a revolutionary who challenged the capitalist system and the powers that be5， whose birthday should be marked every year with marches against the injustice and inequality that still stalked the land. The job was far from finished. And they had marched too long， bled too profusely， to give up striving now.

At Barack Obamas inauguration he was asked to give the benediction. He was delighted to; that way， he would get the last word. Time for a rhyme， but a heartfelt one. He prayed for a day when black would not be asked to get back， brown could stick around， yellow would be mellow， and white would embrace what was right. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was the only thing that followed him.

As an anti-war campaigner it was not a piece he liked， with all that “bombs bursting in air” stuff. But it sounded better than ever then. It was not the anthem that had changed; the country had changed. Say amen！ And amen！ In the fierce cold of that January day， hot tears coursed down his cheeks.

約瑟夫·洛韋里，牧師兼民權運動領導者，逝于2020年3月27日，享年98歲。

小約瑟夫一路哭著跑回家，熱淚順著他的臉頰流淌。他非常清楚自己要做什么，他要找到父親那把珍珠貝母手槍，他知道槍在哪兒。然后他要跑回自家商店，因為那個白人警察還待在那里。那個警察剛沖他吼道：“趕緊滾！黑鬼，沒瞧見白人進來了嗎？”說罷，一記警棍就抽在了他肚子上。小約瑟夫想要開槍打死他。

幸好父親及時阻止了他，免得孩子被憤怒的亞拉巴馬州亨茨維爾白人們私刑處死。從那天起，小約瑟夫心中似乎埋下了一顆抗爭的種子。這顆種子本可能開出仇恨之花：這只是他生為黑人遭受過的諸般侮辱之一。但是，種子最終選擇了向愛而生。他領悟了非暴力理念的精髓。幾年后，他成為一名衛(wèi)理公會的牧師?！缎录s》中的教導再次在他腦海浮現(xiàn)：善待恨你們的人。正如他之后微笑著說出的那句詩，“以眼還眼，以牙還牙，只會讓我們喪失光明，自食其果”。

在他遇見馬丁·路德·金后，這種信念變得更加堅定。（他從一開始就喜歡那家伙，盡管馬丁·路德·金是浸禮會教徒。）1957年，他們共同創(chuàng)立了南方基督教領袖會議，通過祈禱、靜坐和游行等活動，領導20世紀60年代的民權運動：爭取共用餐臺，為了爭取教育和就業(yè)公平，也為了爭取投票權。1968年，馬丁遇刺身亡，年僅39歲。此后十年，南方基督教領袖會議舉步維艱。但在1977年，約瑟夫成為該組織的領袖，并擴大了該組織的活動范圍?，F(xiàn)在，該組織發(fā)聲反對貧困和各種歧視、反對警察暴力執(zhí)法和死刑，呼吁世界和平。他們堅信：公道會奔流似水，正義將噴涌如泉。

他敢于向當權者直言。他痛批吉米·卡特和比爾·克林頓沒能成功幫助民眾脫貧。他曾在公開場合譴責布什父子對伊拉克發(fā)動戰(zhàn)爭，戰(zhàn)爭耗費了數(shù)十億美元，而這對父子給予窮人的幫扶資金卻少之又少。1965年，塞爾瑪大游行爆發(fā)后，約瑟夫向喬治·華萊士州長呈遞了一份投票請愿書，就像摩西穿過紅海一樣，他穿過一片亞拉巴馬州警察組成的藍海，直截了當?shù)馗嬖V州長：上帝會讓他為此負責。雖然他戴著眼鏡，愛說笑話，看上去溫和謙恭，內心卻燃燒著一團火，一團任何冷水也澆滅不了的烈火。多年來，他一直認為人間的正義與天堂幾乎無關?，F(xiàn)在，他終于明白，把人間變得更像天堂，這也是牧師的職責。

此外，非暴力理念也改變了他的精神境界。如同之前所有參與了這場民權運動的人一樣，約瑟夫重獲新生，這讓他的對手困惑不已。早有跡象可以佐證他的改變。1955年的一天，在莫比爾市，他和一位牧師坐在了巴士的前排，前往普里查德，一個種族主義更加泛濫的城鎮(zhèn)。一名白人乘客上車后就開始轟他們下車，他卻平靜地讓其坐下，那人最終照做了。很快，在莫比爾市的巴士上，黑人不必再給白人讓座。這次成功的經(jīng)歷之后，馬丁讓他幫忙在更大的城市蒙哥馬利推進巴士抵制運動，這場運動持續(xù)了一年左右，最終于1956年促成當局在全美廢除了公交種族隔離。耐心終得正果，仁愛遂見良效。他們或許是瘋了;但是，他們瘋得漂亮！

他一次又一次地參加運動。一天晚上，他決定乘火車回到納什維爾，正是在那天晚上，他在伯明翰汽車旅館訂的房間遭遇了炮彈襲擊。在迪凱特，他為一名有智力缺陷的黑人男子發(fā)聲。3K黨黨徒射出的子彈擊穿汽車，從他的頭頂呼嘯而過。幸運的是，他和妻子伊芙琳得以幸免于難。

他每一次面臨審判時，舊日的怒火都會涌上心頭，但祈禱過后，又會重歸平靜。最艱難的時刻是那個春天馬丁在孟菲斯遇刺，二人平時形影不離，不巧的是，那天他不在馬丁身旁。之后他化悲憤為力量，全身心地投入中央會區(qū)和喀斯喀特會區(qū)兩大教會聯(lián)合衛(wèi)理公會教堂的管理建設工作之中。他在亞特蘭大時，已管理這兩所大型教堂多年，擁躉眾多。他將南方基督教領袖會議視作馬丁的心血，為之投入了更多精力，正義的火種得以延續(xù)。他要告訴所有美國人，他的摯友馬丁曾是怎樣的一個人。作為一名實干者，而非夢想家，馬丁是一位敢于挑戰(zhàn)資本主義制度和強權的革命家。只要追求正義和平等的斗爭還在繼續(xù)，人們就應記住他的誕辰。征途漫漫，他們行已至遠，傷已至深，不能輕言放棄。

在巴拉克·奧巴馬的就職典禮上，他受邀上臺祝禱。他樂意如此，這樣他可以為典禮致結束語。那是屬于他的詩歌時光，他的言語真摯而誠懇。他祈禱終有一天，非裔美國人不再受排擠;美洲原住民不必背井離鄉(xiāng);亞裔不再背負刻板印象而悠然自得;白種人不再拿有色眼鏡看人。在他祝禱之后，現(xiàn)場演奏起了美國國歌。

作為一名反戰(zhàn)運動者，他并不喜歡國歌中“炸彈轟轟作響”之類的歌詞，但此時它比以往順耳了。改變的并不是國歌，而是國家本身。一月的凜凜冬日，他重復禱告著“阿門”，兩行熱淚滾落臉頰。? ? ? ? ? ? ? □