Rev. Lowery’s Benediction Angers Some, Defended by Others

By: Denise Stewart

The Rev. Joseph Lowery was among the brave contingent of civil rights leaders who, in 1965, successfully marched to Montgomery, Alabama from Selma to demand voting rights for black Americans. And on Tuesday, the fiery 87-year-old minister punctuated the inauguration of President Barack Obama, America’s first black president, with a reminder, in his benediction, that not all wounds from the nation’s racial strife have been healed.

After Obama's swearing-in, Lowery ended his prayer with a rhyme familiar to black churchgoers: "We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."

His words, however well received and well intentioned, sparked a cry of racism on some blogs and support from others.

On her blog posted Tuesday afternoon, conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin wrote: “No question, Rev. Lowery has led a remarkable life. But the benediction’s eloquence was marred by glib racialism … Lowery got big cheers when he weaved in a weird prayer rap expressing his hope for a future in which the ‘brown would stick around,’ the ‘yellow would be mellow,’ the ‘red man would get ahead, man,’ and the ‘white would embrace the right.’

“The ‘white would embrace the right?’ Who wrote that line? Jeremiah Wright? And what would Obama’s grandparents and mother have to say?” Malkin wrote.

Rev. Lowery’s Benediction Angers Some, Defended by Others....