Last year, our nation celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. This year's Academy-Award-nominated movie, "Selma," is aptly timed. March 7, 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a day that would be remembered as Bloody Sunday because of the brutal assault that marchers suffered. The images of that day resulted in a wave of support that led to a second march from Selma to Montgomery and ultimately the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

This month, we once again celebrate black history month. We grapple with the sin of slavery that is a part of our nation's beginning. We remember heroes of the past: Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, W.E.B. DuBois, the Tuskegee Airmen, Thurgood Marshall, James Bevel, Andrew Young, Diana Nash, to name a few. We give thanks, regardless of our political affiliations, that we are now a nation that has elected a president of African descent.

However, we also need to grieve. Medgar Evers, Jonathan Daniels, Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others who gave their lives for a vision of justice that remains unfulfilled. The arc of history seems to have slowed its bend toward justice, as is evidenced by the disproportionate number of African-Americans in poverty or prison. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the video of a suffocating Eric Garner in Long Island do not have the drama of Selma, but they should signal to us that something is terribly wrong.

Eight days after the violent encounter on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a flawed president from the hill country of Texas, stood before a joint session of congress to urge passage of the Voting Rights Act. President Lyndon Johnson joined his voice and authority to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. by echoing King's own clarion call, "We shall overcome."

It seems like the time has come for a new call to overcome racism and politics of separation, envy, and resentment. As followers of Jesus, we have a role to play. It is a fact that in our nation today, African-Americans, undocumented persons, Native Americans, women, people with disabilities, GLBT persons, the elderly, and the mentally ill, are stigmatized and marginalized. They receive fewer opportunities and are subject to a whole host of indignities.