January 15, 2009
by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE – A hardy band of about 75 Presbyterian Center employees and others from around town braved near-zero temperatures today (Jan. 15) for a "Justice Walk" to commemorate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The three-mile trek took the marchers from the Presbyterian Center to seven historic sites in Louisville's own checkered racial history and concluded at the historic Presbyterian Community Center in the city's predominantly African-American Smoketown neighborhood.

At each stop along the three-hour journey, marchers paused for song, prayers of confession and intercession and readings reflecting the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s commitment to justice and equality.

Those who were unable to make the walk gathered for a worship service in the Presbyterian Center chapel.

"Today we walk and worship as a sign of solidarity with persons in the Louisville community and around the world who are deprived of justice. We walk for children and for all human rights," walkers declared in a litany before the walk started at 1:00 p.m., Eastern Time. "We walk for self-determination, education and interracial collaboration. We walk against human trafficking and unjust public policy.

"Let us also walk for fair immigration policies, equal employment opportunities and women's advocacy," they continued. "Let us walk and worship because our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. For whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. According to Dr. King, this is the interrelated structure of reality."

The first stop on the walk route was barely a block from the Presbyterian Center Å\ the site of the Garrison Slave Pen, Louisville's most notorious slave market in the early- to mid-1800s.

Other stops included historic African American churches Å\ including Second African Baptist Church, where King led a voting rights rally in 1967 Å\ the sites of two other slave markets, and Sheppard Square, named after the Rev. William H. Sheppard, a Presbyterian missionary to the Belgian Congo from 1890-1910.

Sheppard denounced the Belgian colonists' cruelty in the Congo and upon returning to the U.S. served as pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Smoketown from 1912 until his death in 1927.

Fourteen community groups dedicated to promoting racial justice in Louisville participated in organizing the Justice Walk, along with a planning committee of Presbyterian Center employees. The marchers were sent on their way by David Tandy, president of Louisville's Board of Aldermen (city council).

Presbyterian News Service