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"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” said the Rev. Martin Luther King in 1968. Later that year, King was shot down on a balcony in Memphis. For Bishop Marcus Matthews, the events of 1968 and this idea of justice are forever etched in his mind. As the nation observes Black History Month, he remembers. 

I grew up in Florence, South Carolina, a small segregated southern city. All public facilities and institutions in that city, and in the South in general, were, as most people know, segregated. This included our schools, our restaurants, our hospitals and our churches. So I learned early on what it meant to be rejected, simply because of the color of my skin. And I never had to look very far to be reminded by society at large that I was not to be valued as a person of worth. 

Looking back now, I can see that it was only by the grace of God that my family, my local church – Cumberland United Methodist Church – and my schools provided me with an alternative safe haven in spite of the stain and sin of my city’s segregation. It was only by the grace of God that these alternative institutions gave me a glimpse of what I could become. 

But in 1968, my life would forever change because of two major events that brought home for me the realities of America’s original sin. I was enrolled as a senior at South Carolina State University. On Feb. 8, 1968, after three days of efforts to integrate a bowling alley, by members of the black community, including students at university, the Orangeburg city officials decided to invite the South Carolina State Highway Patrolmen to come in and use any means necessary to prevent students from leaving campus. 

So on the night of Feb. 8th, there were more than 200 of us students, who found ourselves lying on the ground of the campus after hearing the sounds of bullets ricocheting through the trees. That night, 27 students were shot in the back, and three students were killed, including Henry Smith, a close personal friend. This tragedy was the first of its kind on any American campus, and became known as the Orangeburg Massacre. 

Needless to say, I was angry. I was afraid and I was also in shock. And I needed somehow to believe that God was still present despite the tragedy of that moment. I recall that it was precisely at one of my lowest moments, while lying there on the ground, that I remembered the words of a prayer so often said at bedtime while growing up: “Jesus loves me and I love him. Amen.” 

The shooting lasted only eight minutes. But those minutes somehow felt like hours. And then in the midst of what had earlier felt like total abandonment from God, I suddenly discovered God’s presence. Somehow my fear disappeared. It was then that I knew that it was only by the grace of God that my life had been spared

Two months later, in April of ’68, Dr. King and several of his friends gathered on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. 

Dr. King was in town to lead a demonstration and to rally support for some 1,300 sanitation workers who had been striking for three months to secure decent wages and better working conditions. A prayer hymn was requested by Dr. King to be played that night. Then a gunshot rang out, and Dr. King slumped down and then fell over on the ground. 

Dr. King’s greatest legacy, I believe, was not just the fact that he was a non-violent warrior for racial and social justice. It was not just the fact that he was a prophetic voice for peace. In my humble estimation, Dr. King’s greatest legacy was that he never lost focus on the main thing in life – keeping Jesus Christ at the center of all he did.

God has, throughout history, constantly challenged us, as people of faith, to see things from the perspective of a Savior who makes all things possible. 

Dr. King’s greatest legacy was that somehow, someway, he managed to keep Christ first. And because of this, we all now enjoy the blessings of standing on the shoulders of one whose tireless efforts helped to level the slope of the hills and mountains of injustice everywhere around us. 

As fellow followers of Christ, let us commit ourselves to ensure that the arc of history does, indeed, bend toward justice.