African-Americans That Inspired Me

As many of us know, this month, February, is African-American History Month (or Black History Month). However you want to call it; I think it’s honorable and respectful to take a moment and honor everyone who went before us and paved ways to make us better now than before. But this time, I don’t just want to take a look at their secular contributions, but the Spiritual ones; and sometimes the spiritual and secular both combine. So out of the many here are the top two.

The first person we're going to look at is the anointed worship leader named Mahalia Jackson. I remember the first time I heard her sing was in my 5th grade class. My teacher would play her records in class at lunch time. I would walk by the classroom and end up hearing her voice. She was born in a waterfront shack in New Orleans, LA. with crippled legs in October of 1911; which by the months, she healed from. Mahalia’s childhood was not easy. Her mother died at the age of 5 and she had to live with her aunt who showed her the ways of the Lord. Years later she became the world’s greatest Gospel singer. She was not just another singer or gospel singer, she was a worship leader that when she’d step up and sing, the world would feel the anointing on her, and end up singing along.

This second person, I would think, needs no introduction. I’m talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Atlanta,GA to second generation Baptist Pastors. He lived in a time of chaos in which racism was at an all time high. But one day God told him to stand up for justice and civil equality. One of his famous speeches “I Have a Dream” quoted a verse from Amos 5:24 which states “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream”. He was an eloquent, spirit-filled, Baptist Pastor, Father, Uncle, Brother, and Husband. His words have echoed throughout history and will continue to live on.

In comparison to each, the one thing i have loved to learn from both is the way they, and so many others, have used their creativity to serve God and His people. If it were, either, with words or with lyrics to a gospel song, they have enriched my life and in many others by, with their lives, stated that with God anything is possible. They also remind me to always look for God, through prayer, in everything that I am about to do. Although one came out from the poorest side of New Orleans and the other from a city in Georgia, together they made history not just with a secular title, but as “servants of God”. These were not just any other African-American singer or activist; but people filled with the Power and anointing of the Holy Spirit to cause change, and not just me, but many others are still being blessed from their contributions.