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Parren James Mitchell - A Legacy of Compassion
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The Eulogy
Mass of
Resurrection
St. James Episcopal Church
Baltimore, Maryland
Congressman
Elijah Cummings
of
Maryland
As Prepared for Delivery
June
5, 2007
Giving
all glory to God. We gather here in God's
House to remember and honor an exceptional man
– and a good friend.
Congressman Parren
James Mitchell devoted his life to uplifting
the lives of others. There can be no
greater calling. So, even as we mourn the
passing of this great man – and even as we
testify to our faith that God has called him
home – we also come together to celebrate
Parren Mitchell's humanity.
To the
entire Mitchell Family, our thoughts and
prayers are with you. You have done so
much for our community and our country.
Please know that we share your loss and your
justifiable pride in this great man.
***
Brothers and Sisters, I doubt
whether it is possible to fully due justice to
the life of Parren Mitchell in these few
moments. Rather, what we can do is hope
to capture something of what made Parren an
exemplary teacher and advocate for those of our
neighbors whom Scripture calls "the least of
these."
In this way, we may become
better prepared to carry on the vision of a
better world to which Parren Mitchell devoted
his life.
***
Parren Mitchell was a moral
leader of this nation, as well as a political
giant. There was no one more determined to
pursue the justice and opportunity which Parren
believed is every person's birthright.
And he never failed to express the sense of
urgency that we, ourselves, need to bring to
the continuing struggle for human
rights.
Brothers and Sisters, let our
few moments together this afternoon be a
renewed beginning – not an end. For, when
we, too, are called upon to lift up one of
God's children who is in need, then we, truly,
will have the opportunity to honor Parren
Mitchell's memory.
***
I. THE COMPASSION OF A GOOD
SAMARITAN
For our lesson from Scripture, I
recall for you the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. At Luke 10: 25-37, in the Message
Bible, we are told:
25 Just then a
religion scholar stood up with a question to
test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to
get eternal life?"
26 He answered, "What's
written in God's Law? How do you interpret
it?"
27 He said, "That you love the Lord
your God with all your passion and prayer and
muscle and intelligence—and that you love your
neighbor as well as you do yourself."
28
"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll
live."
29 Looking for a loophole, he
asked, "And just how would you define
‘neighbor'?"
30-32 Jesus answered [the
scholar] by telling a story.
"There was
once a man traveling from
33-35 "A Samaritan
traveling the road came on him. When he saw the
man's condition, his heart went out to him. He
gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging
his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey,
led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In
the morning he took out two silver coins and
gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good
care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my
bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
36 "What
do you think? Which of the three became a
neighbor to the man attacked by
robbers?"
37 "The one who treated him
kindly," the religion scholar
responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the
same."
***
Brothers and Sisters, when I think of my
teacher and my friend, I am first reminded that
Parren Mitchell was a man of unshakable
integrity.
In the words of Dr. Stephen
L. Carter, a person of integrity – knowing the
difference between what is right and what is
wrong – acts upon that knowledge. He must
persevere in his cause until the rest of the
world catches on and catches up. And he
must do so even when that calling may place him
in personal jeopardy.
Time and time
again, Parren Mitchell demonstrated that
integrity and courage.
They are
essential elements of his legacy.
Yet,
keep in mind that the priest and the Levite in
the Parable were also men of
integrity.
To fully understand what
Parren Mitchell was so committed and determined
in the struggles of his life, we must look for
something more. In the Parable of the
Good Samaritan, we find a clue.
When the
people around us are injured and suffering, the
everyday, legalistic morality of the status quo
is not enough.
If we are truly to go
beyond righteous adherence to the letter of the
law, we must act upon the spirit of compassion
and justice that the Good Samaritan
exemplified.
This, I think, was the
foundation of Parren Mitchell's moral
compass.
He was a man driven by his
abiding compassion for other human beings.
And he dedicated his life to those whom
our Scripture calls "the least of these."
****
We need to have lawmakers who will enact
rules that support justice and
inclusion.
Congressman Mitchell worked
to make the laws and policies of our nation
more just – and more inclusive.
But, as
Parren also taught us, creating what Dr. King
once called the "Beloved Society requires that
we act upon a vision that is far more
transforming than law alone.
As Parren
Mitchell always reminded us: Good intentions
and good laws are not
enough.
This, I believe, is a lesson that
Parren would want us to take away from this
service today.
***
II. COMPASSIONATE
WARRIOR
This driving compassion for others helps
to explain how Parren Mitchell – such a gentle
man in his personal dealings – could be such a
warrior in public life.
In his public
response to the injustice and immorality that
pervade our society, Parren could be like Moses
smashing the tablets of God on the forge of
false idols.
His passion and dedication
to justice were not hard to understand.
His confrontational public oratory was fired by
a compelling sense of urgency for those in
need.
Parren was born into a very
different
As a child, he
learned from his older brother, Clarence, about
the violence and oppression that tormented a
racist society. And he experienced, first
hand, the hatred that was hurled at Black
people who had the courage to protest outside
These
childhood experiences would help to create a
warrior in Parren Mitchell, a man who was
unafraid to struggle and sacrifice for what is
right.
Now, despite the indignities that
he had witnessed and suffered himself as a
child, Parren Mitchell loved this
country. He fought for
Yet, after Parren returned
from Europe and earned his Bachelor's Degree at
Segregation
still trumped justice and compassion in the
Parren Mitchell changed that
unjust equation.
He became the first
Black student to earn a Master's Degree at
He became a
Master Teacher of Sociology at
This nation needed to
create the institutions that could create
opportunity for all Americans.
The War
on Poverty in which he served so well was a
down payment on economic justice in this
society. But there remained a sizable
balance as yet unpaid – as it still is
today.
***
Parren Mitchell took on the job of
beginning to correct that balance
sheet.
We remember how it was Parren who
was the essential mediator limiting the damage
to our city after the assassination of Dr.
King.
That experience would call Parren
to the rigors of public life.
The
political challenge in 1968 was great.
Parren Mitchell lost that first 1968
congressional race.
Remember Dr.
Carter's insight that a man of integrity must
have the courage to persevere in the face of
adversity.
Parren Mitchell was man with
a deep calling – a man determined to persevere
in the pursuit of his vision of a just
society.
Two years later, he won a
"38-vote landslide."
He became the first
African American to represent
***
I will not speak at length of Parren's
congressional record today.
Yet, this
much, I think, is worth recalling.
When
Parren Mitchell helped to create the
Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, only 13
African Americans served in the House of
Representatives.
It is a testament to
Parren Mitchell's leadership that he helped to
build a congressional organization that now
includes 43 members – representing tens of
millions of Americans of every faith tradition
and race.
When he entered the Congress,
Parren took his own party to task for its
failure to give Black congressional staffers a
fair chance. He wasted no time
challenging job bias on the
Yet, few would doubt that it
was Parren Mitchell's principled and
unrelenting efforts to expand economic
opportunity to all Americans that was his
greatest congressional legacy.
Parren
Mitchell considered expanded economic
empowerment to be the centerpiece of
And there are many successful
minority and women entrepreneurs here today who
have been uplifted in life by the legislation
that Parren Mitchell sponsored.
It is a
struggle in which all Americans have a
stake. And those of us who are advocates
of Parren Mitchell's vision will carry
on.
***
III. A SENSE OF
URGENCY
I am almost finished now. But,
with your permission, I will share just one
lesson that I learned from the man who was my
teacher, my role model and my
friend.
Many here today will recall that
Congressman Mitchell never abandoned politics
or his principles after leaving office.
He would regularly offer advice or
guidance.
Back in 2004, while I was
serving as Chairman of the Congressional Black
Caucus, I was receiving a lot of pressure and
criticism for refusing to schedule a meeting
with President Bush.
The Administration
wanted to exclude the other members of the
Caucus.
I ran into Parren Mitchell at an
event, and he thanked me.
"I just want
to thank you for doing the right thing," Parren
told me. "You shouldn't have met with the
President. He apparently has no respect for the
Caucus."
Parren Mitchell understood that
the public life of our nation will always be a
struggle.
"I'm a small piece of
leather," he would often remind us, "but
I'm well put-together."
***
Now, Brothers and Sisters, young people
are dying – on the streets of
And
people of all ages are dying before their time
here in
We
must remain unafraid to shout out: "All of this
dying is unacceptable."
Like Parren
Mitchell, we must reassert our public integrity
and once again become a compassionate
people.
And we must have the courage to
act with a heightened sense of
urgency.
There is a phrase that captures
all that Parren Mitchell taught me by his
life: "A great ship is most safe in a
storm when it is moored in port; but that is
not what great ships are
for."
***
CLOSING
Parren Mitchell was beloved by all who
were privileged to know him.
He earned
the trust of people throughout the country and
the world because he was constantly building
bridges for others to cross, while tearing down
the walls that had excluded them.
Our
thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Their loss is our loss as well.
Whether
the challenge was economic empowerment, the
evil of apartheid, a counter-productive and
unjust war, or the abuse of power, Parren
Mitchell always remained a man of compassion
and conscience.
He never failed to
remind those who have been given the public's
trust: We were elected to serve.
We will
remember Parren Mitchell and his impact upon
our lives.
We will continue to be a
people of integrity, courage and
compassion.
And we will carry
on.
***
I recall for you the words
that Congressman Mitchell adopted as the theme
for his public life – the words of Dr. Benjamin
Mays:
I only have a minute -
sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me I did
not choose it,
But I know that I must use
it...,
Suffer if I lose it...,
Give
account if I abuse it.
Only a tiny little
minute...but eternity is in
it....
***
Thank you.