Gracious God, sitting with his friends on the mountaintop in Galilee, your Son said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” By your grace, may your faithful people understand this seeming paradox as an invitation to organize and demand justice, following the example of those who founded the NAACP on this day in 1909, Abraham Lincoln’s centenary. Outraged by the terrorist lynching murders and segregation of the Jim Crow era, the founders worked for charge locally and nationally. Your Episcopal servant Thurgood Marshall was representing the NAACP when he persuaded the Supreme Court to rule 70 years ago that segregated public schools were inherently unfair. May the promise of Jesus Christ and the NAACP’s example inspire all who still hunger and thirst for righteousness. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Photo: Supreme Court associate Justice Thurgood Marshall being honored in 1962 at St. Phillips Episcopal Church in Harlem. Patrick A. Burns, The New York Times)