On the Shoulders of GiantsChikamu

How the Walls Came Down

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. -Joshua 6:1

A decorated Marine and World War II veteran, Cecil B. Moore fought against Nazi tyranny. Yet Moore and other Black soldiers were then denied at home the liberation they battled to secure for others. Racism and segregation remained the norm.

In 1953, Moore became a civil rights lawyer and battled an imposing fortress of racial inequality in Philadelphia: Girard College. This lavish college preparatory school founded in 1848 for “white male orphans” boasted a 10-foot wall enclosing its North Philadelphia campus, serving notice to the poor, Black community surrounding it: No Black children welcome!

Moore organized a peaceful protest in 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined Moore’s march to desegregate Girard College. Moore’s marches continued every day, for seven months and 17 days until a landmark court decision forced Girard to integrate!

Twenty years after Moore’s march, my mother enrolled my brother and me in Girard. The free, quality education we received opened new doors, academically and spiritually. I would later become the first in my family to graduate from college.

While attending Girard, I learned that Jesus broke down walls on the cross: between humanity and God, the oppressed and liberation, and between anything the enemy of our souls would use to divide us.

Jesus is a wall-breaker: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).

Rasool Berry

The same God who empowered Joshua to tear down the walls of Jericho is still breaking down the walls of injustice and division today.

Thank You for providing the shoulders of giants on which we can stand.