After they sat back down, the Reverend Portor, a huge man with a voice that filled the church, rose from his chair and began his sermon, entitled “The Joy of a Loving God.” And he meant it. Evelyn felt it all through the church. As he preached, he would throw his massive head back and shout and laugh with happiness. And the congregation and the organ that accompanied him would answer back with the same.
She had been wrong; this was not just like the white churches, certainly not the dried-up, bloodless sermons she was used to.
His enthusiasm for the Lord was contagious and spread like wildfire throughout the room. He assured them, with a great and mighty authority, that his God was not a vengeful God, but one of goodness … love … forgiveness … and joy. And he began to dance and strut and sing out his sermon to the rafters, sweat sparkling on his shining face, which he would mop off occasionally with the white handkerchief he kept in his right hand.
As he sang out, he was answered from all over the church:
“YOU CANNOT HAVE JOY UNLESS YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR …”
“That’s right, sir.”
“LOVE YOUR ENEMIES …”
“Yes sir.”
“LET GO OF THOSE OLD GRUDGES …”
“Yes sir, let go.”
“SHAKE LOOSE OF THAT OLD DEVIL, ENVY …”
“Yes sir.”
“GOD CAN FORGIVE …”
“Yes He can.”
“WHY CAN’T YOU? …”
“You’re right, sir.”
“TO ERR IS HUMAN … TO FORGIVE, DIVINE …”
“Yes sir.”
“THERE IS NO RESURRECTION FOR BODIES GNAWED BY THE MAGGOTS OF SIN …
“No sir.”
“BUT GOD CAN LIFT YOU UP …”
“Yes He can.”
“OH! GOD IS GOOD …”
“Yes sir.”
“OH! HOW GOOD IS OUR GOD …”
“You’re right, sir.”
“WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS …”
“Oh yes sir.”
“YOU CAN BE BAPTIZED, CIRCUMCISED, GALVANIZED, AND SIMONIZED, BUT IT DONT MEAN A THING IF YOU AIN’T A CITIZEN OF GLORY …”
“No sir.”
“THANK YOU, JESUS! THANK YOU, JESUS! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! WE PRAISE YOUR NAME THIS MORNING AND THANK YOU, JESUS! HALLELUIAH! HALLELUIAH JESUS!”
When he had finished, the whole church exploded in “Amens!” and “Halleluiahs!” and the choir started again, until the room began to throb with …
“ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD … THE SOUL-CLEANSING BLOOD OF THE LAMB … OH TELL ME, SWEET CHILDREN … ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD …”
Evelyn had never been a religious person, but this day she was lifted from her seat and rose high above the fear that had been holding her down.
She felt her heart open and fill with the pure wonder of being alive and making it through.
She floated up to the altar, where a white Jesus, wan and thin, wearing a crown of thorns, looked down from the crucifix at her and said, “Forgive them, my child, they know not what they do …”
Mrs. Threadgoode had been right. She had taken her troubles to the Lord, and she had been relieved of them.
Evelyn took a deep breath and the heavy burden of resentment and hate released itself into thin air, taking Towanda along with them. She was free! And in that moment she forgave the boy at the supermarket, her mother’s doctor, and the girls in the parking lot … and she forgave herself. She was free. Free; just like these people here today, who had come through all that suffering and had not let hate and fear kill their spirit of love.
At which point Reverend Portor called for the congregation to shake hands with their neighbors. The beautiful young woman sitting next to her shook her hand and said, “God bless you.” Evelyn squeezed the woman’s hand and said, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
As she left the church, she turned at the door and looked back one last time. Maybe she had come today hoping she could find out what it was like to be black. Now she realized she could never know, any more than her friends here could know what it felt like to be white. She knew she would never come back. This was their place. But for the first time in her life, she had felt joy. Real joy. It had been joy that she had seen in Mrs. Threadgoode’s eyes, but she hadn’t recognized it at the time. She knew that she might never feel it again. But she had felt it once, and now she would never forget the sensation as long as she lived. It would have been wonderful if she could have told everyone in the church how much that day had meant to her.
It would have been wonderful, too, if Evelyn had known that the young woman who shook her hand had been the eldest daughter of Jasper Peavey, pullman porter, who, like herself, had made it through.
JUNE 1, 1950
Railroad Employee of the Month
“His only aim is to see people happy and to make their trip more pleasant. Please don’t overlook this outstanding railroad man when passing out the pats on the back to the Railroad Man of the Month.”
That’s how Silver Crescent passenger Cecil Laney described pullman porter Jasper Q. Peavey.
This genial porter has been receiving commendations since he started working for the railways at age 17, as a red-cap at the Terminal station in Birmingham, Alabama. Since then, he has been cook, freight trucker, station porter, dining car waiter, parlor car porter, and was promoted to pullman porter in 1935. He became president of the Birmingham branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1947.
Mr. Laney goes on to say, “Jasper’s little courtesies begin the minute a passenger boards the train. He makes a special effort to see that all the passengers have their luggage properly boarded, and through the trip, he looks for those little unexpected things he can do to make the ride more comfortable, with his big, always-present smile and happy laugh.
“A few minutes before arrival at the station, he always announces, ‘In about five minutes we will be arriving at … If I can help you with your baggage, it will be a pleasure to do so.’
“To us, he is a trusted friend, an attentive host, a watchful guardian, a dispenser of comforts, and a doer of favors. He chaperones the children and helps mothers in distress; he is most courteous, helpful and efficient, for which the passengers are deeply grateful. It is unusual to find such a man in the times through we which we are now passing.”
Jasper is a lay pastor at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and is the father of four daughters: Two of them are teachers, one of them is studying to be a nurse, and the youngest is planning to go to New York and study music.
Congratulations to Jasper Q. Peavey, our Outstanding Railroad Employee of the Month.
AUGUST 27, 1955
Railroad Yard Closing