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Elwin Wilson did something few of us have ever done. He publicly and sincerely apologized and asked forgiveness. It took nearly 50 years. Nearly a half-century after Elwin Wilson (then a young member of the Ku Klux Klan) beat and kicked U.S. Congressman John Lewis (then a young Black minister) at a South Carolina bus station because of the color of Lewis’ skin, Wilson asked Lewis to forgive him.
Reflecting on his change over time, Wilson reported, “My daddy always said only a fool doesn’t change his mind.” Some learning is a very long time in coming.
A similar story reveals itself in this week’s Torah portion. Nearly forty years after the brothers of Joseph plot to kill him and actually sell him into slavery, they seek Joseph’s forgiveness. They even invoke their daddy, Jacob. (Genesis 50:15-18). It is the first time in Torah that someone seeks forgiveness for their bad behavior. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, this represents the birth of forgiveness in civilization. No other culture before Judaism identified or idealized forgiveness.
Had Joseph’s brothers finally come to recognize their errors? Were they merely afraid of Joseph’s revenge now that their father was dead? Or had they truly changed? The Torah text itself is not clear, but it is clear the brothers’ past bad behavior is not erased. Rather it is acknowledged and informs their present conduct. It seems that in acknowledging their past bad acts Joseph’s brothers are capable of growing from them, improving, becoming better. And Elwin Wilson? Once in Washington DC, I was chaperoning a group of high school students who listened in awe to Congressmember John Lewis of Georgia. Lewis was telling my students about the day in 1965 when he and Martin Luther King Jr. (whose life and legacy we celebrate this weekend) led 600 nonviolent protestors across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin the long march toward the capitol in Montgomery petitioning for voting rights.
A similar story reveals itself in this week’s Torah portion. Nearly forty years after the brothers of Joseph plot to kill him and actually sell him into slavery, they seek Joseph’s forgiveness. They even invoke their daddy, Jacob. (Genesis 50:15-18). It is the first time in Torah that someone seeks forgiveness for their bad behavior. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, this represents the birth of forgiveness in civilization. No other culture before Judaism identified or idealized forgiveness.
Had Joseph’s brothers finally come to recognize their errors? Were they merely afraid of Joseph’s revenge now that their father was dead? Or had they truly changed? The Torah text itself is not clear, but it is clear the brothers’ past bad behavior is not erased. Rather it is acknowledged and informs their present conduct. It seems that in acknowledging their past bad acts Joseph’s brothers are capable of growing from them, improving, becoming better. And Elwin Wilson? Once in Washington DC, I was chaperoning a group of high school students who listened in awe to Congressmember John Lewis of Georgia. Lewis was telling my students about the day in 1965 when he and Martin Luther King Jr. (whose life and legacy we celebrate this weekend) led 600 nonviolent protestors across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin the long march toward the capitol in Montgomery petitioning for voting rights.
As they crossed the bridge, however, these nonviolent protesters were violently attacked and tear-gassed by state police. The nationally televised images of this vicious attack, which became known as “Bloody Sunday,” contributed the momentum needed for Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lewis’ face still wears scars from that day when his skull was fractured.
At that time John Lewis was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and already a veteran of vicious attacks. For instance when Lewis was 21 he (Black) and another (White) civil rights organizer were at a South Carolina bus station. When they tried to enter a Whites Only waiting room, two attackers pounced on them -- beating and kicking. Lewis and his friend declined to press charges so they could get on with their nonviolent civil rights work.
Lewis’ attackers got away. Until decades later.
In 2009, a White man about John Lewis’s age walked into the congress member’s office on Capitol Hill. “Mr. Lewis,” he said, “my name is Elwin Wilson. I’m one of the men who beat you in that bus station back in 1961. I want to atone for the terrible thing I did, so I’ve come to seek your forgiveness. Will you forgive me?” Lewis replied, “I forgive you, my friend.” Later it was reported Lewis said of Elwin Wilson, “People can change . . . People can change.”
Elwin Wilson changed. It was a change a long time in coming. He could not change the past; he could not erase his past conduct. But he could seek forgiveness; he could take responsibility for his conduct. And so can we. We can do the hard work to change our present and future behaviors. Forgiveness entered the world through Judaism because we believe people can change.
May we be inspired this week by Elwin Wilson and John Lewis to reflect authentically on our past behaviors, to dedicate ourselves to changing, and to being capable of the forgiveness needed to bring hope and healing into our world.
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