WASHINGTON — Sometimes national tragedy can inspire a life of personal faith.
Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, remembers where he was when he learned of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.
He was a college freshman listening to rock radio when the tragic bulletin came across. Searching for answers, he entered church that Easter Sunday for the first time on his own volition.
“I became a Christian essentially because of the Civil Rights movement,,” Rev. Hall tells WTOP.
Now, decades later, Rev. Hall will take part in a free panel discussion Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the National Cathedral, marking the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.
The panel is co-sponsored by Ford’s Theatre, which is rolling out a series of events leading up to the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War on April 9 and Lincoln’s assassination on April 14-15.
The discussion — dubbed “Civil War to Civil Rights: The Last Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.” — will be moderated by Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball” on MSNBC. It will focus on Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address and King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.
“I’m a former English teacher so I’m interested in those two texts,” Rev. Hall says. “Right at the end of the Civil War … (Lincoln) gives this speech that interprets the war theologically, that the war has been God’s judgment … on America for our sin of slavery. … Then King, in his final sermon the night before he was assassinated … gives this address that essentially sees liberation. He sees this whole history of human oppression, starting with Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt into the promised land, he sees all this suffering leading toward freedom.”
In addition to Rev. Hall, other panelists include Dr. Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, and Stanford historian Dr. Clayborn Carson, who was selected by the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King to edit and publish the papers of her late husband.
“We are once again coming to terms with this unending race violence and racial injustice as an issue that we still have never solved as a nation,” Rev. Hall says. “It’s like when you’re in therapy, and you think you’ve solved something, and then a few years later, it comes back and it’s a problem again. … It’s like being an alcoholic. We’re always going to be in recovery from racism, but we’re never going to be cured of it. I think King’s speech and Lincoln’s address both point us to ways in which we can continue to recover in the current moment and move to a healthier, more just and happy place.”
Listen below for the full interview with Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral:
