ARTICLES

Students celebrate African American heritage

By Steve Neill
Of The Catholic Virginian

The multi-cultural student body of St. Benedict School in Richmond already knows what it’s like to mingle with children who are different in terms of skin color and national heritage.

But most likely none of them had heard the stories of Lenny Skutnik, Arland Williams and Emily Edmondson, three individuals who made a difference as they struggled to help other people who were experiencing great difficulty.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo told the stories of these three people at a Mass celebrating African American heritage Feb. 29 at St. Benedict Church. The liturgy and the education program which followed was a joint effort of the diocesan Office for Black Catholics and Office of Worship and marked the school’s observance of Black History Month.

The first story took place on Jan. 13, 1982 when an Air Florida plane, which had just taken off from National Airport in Washington during a snowstorm, crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River.

“There were two people who tried very hard to make a difference in the lives of the passengers,” Bishop DiLorenzo said.

One was Lenny Skutnik, a 28-year-old government worker. The other was Arland Williams, a passenger in the downed plane.

“This young government worker saw four people struggling in the water,” Bishop DiLorenzo said, adding that he tried to help the people shivering in the cold waters of the Potomac get to land.

Mr. Williams tried to encourage those struggling to grab hold of a rope and hang on so they could be pulled to shore. “Here’s the rope, hang on,” he shouted.

“Arland never got to the shore, Lenny did,” Bishop DiLorenzo said.

The two men were honored by then President Ronald Reagan a few nights later at the President’s State of the Union address.

“We saw again the spirit of American heroism at its best,” President Reagan said in his address.

The bishop recounted the story of Emily Edmondson, an abolitionist who sought the end of slavery. Her mother was a slave and her father was a freed man.

“Her love was universal,” Bishop DiLorenzo said of Miss Edmondson, pointing out that she did not discriminate in how she dealt with people.

“She worked very hard to do away with slavery, a very bad part of our American history,” he said.

The three people he had talked about had one thing in common.

“They were not interested in their own welfare,” Bishop DiLorenzo said. “They were interested in the welfare of another person.

“We, in turn, must love other people.”

The students were challenged to look beyond the color of one’s skin or heritage.

“You are important because you are a child of God,” Bishop DiLorenzo said.

The tune from the song “We Shall Overcome,” from the American civil rights movement, was sung during the memorial acclamation: “Jesus Christ has died, Jesus Christ is risen, Jesus Christ will come again....Deep in my heart, I do believe — that Jesus Christ will come again.”

The program included selected students from St. Benedict’s giving portions of the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A racially mixed group of older and younger students were stationed in the church sanctuary as they spoke the famous lines of the slain civil rights leader who died almost 40 years ago.

Several of the black and African priests serving in diocesan parishes also spoke to the children.

“I believe that faith is what kept the first black people strong,” said Father Silvio Kaberia, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in South Hill.

This was highlighted in the final two stanzas of the liturgy’s recessional hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes referred to as the Black National Anthem:

....”Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,

....”True to our God, true to our native land.”

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