By TINA ALVEY
The Register-Herald
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Prompted by the weekend’s tragic events in Charlottesville, nearly 100 people gathered in Lewisburg’s Green Space park Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil that allowed them to grieve together and renew their commitment to battle bigotry.
The peaceful interlude stood in stark contrast to the venom on display Saturday in Charlottesville during an event dubbed the “Unite the Right” rally by participants that included neo-Nazis and other white supremacist and white nationalist organizations. There, clashes between the white supremacist groups and counter-protesters culminated in the deaths of 32-year-old Heather Heyer and two Virginia state troopers, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates.
In a media release announcing Sunday’s vigil, Greater Greenbrier Indivisible and The Women’s March – Lewisburg said, “We are horrified by what happened yesterday, but we are not surprised. We are creating a safe space to name and call out entrenched racism that is woven into the fabric of our society. We call on our friends and neighbors to not sit silent, but to condemn white supremacy, to admit that we see white privilege and to take action to shift this legacy in ourselves, our community, our state and our nation.”
Framed against a backdrop of the American flag and a rainbow flag, local singer/songwriter Jules Kessler joined several speakers in stepping up to the microphone, appealing to the better angels of their audience.
“Behind any anger is fear,” Episcopal priest Betsy Walker told the Lewisburg gathering. “We’re seeing a lot of people that are very fearful. People aren’t feeling like they’re being heard or respected.”
She said she is trying not to be fearful in the face of “policies coming out of Washington” that could affect her life adversely.
“We need to say, ‘I am not going to give in to fear; I am not going to give in to hate-mongering.”
She urged, “Let’s look at a new way to make a difference.”
Lewisburg Mayor John Manchester also urged, “Hate is not the way to go. Hate is not what we represent in each of our communities. We need to reflect on how we can get beyond the differences that keep us apart.”
Reading aloud Maya Angelou’s poem “Human Family,” Neely Seams repeated, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
Looking around at the people gathered in the Green Space, Herb Montgomery of Renewed Heart Ministries said that the “mostly white crowd” appeared to recognize that “this is our work to do” — that white America must address the issue of racism.
He acknowledged that even though Lewisburg is more progressive than many small West Virginia towns, it is not perfect.
“Even here, we have a long way to go to fight racism in our own small community,” he said.
Joan Browning, a Ronceverte resident who was recently named to the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and is a veteran of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, also spoke of her pride in Lewisburg’s expansion of its human rights ordinance to include the LGBT community.
But she added, “The work is far from finished.”
She asked the people present for the vigil to share their concerns with her so that she might more effectively continue the work in Charleston on their behalf.
See more from The Register-Herald
