He Had a Dream. Amen

The world lost more than a widely respected actor and singer when it lost Jester Hairston on Jan. 18 at age 98. To the Hairston family, white and black, he was a great spiritual leader who brought us together to sing in harmony. I hope our nation can learn a few bars of Jester’s song.

I am a white man who, in 1995, decided to follow Martin Luther King’s dream of racial harmony because, in 1980, I heard Jester’s song. Jester made it fun to take the hand of the other side of our family, the side that had suffered in slavery. He didn’t focus on the suffering but was a master at bringing the music born out of the suffering to life for many generations.

When most people think of Jester Hairston, they think of his roles as Rolly Forbes in the 1980s sitcom “Amen,” as Jethro in “The Alamo” or as Spence Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” One could fill many pages with the honors from his long and rich career as an arranger, composer and traveling choir leader. I remember him being very proud of leading a large choir of Russians in singing his trademark song “Amen,” which he dubbed for Sidney Poitier in the 1963 film “Lilies of the Field.”

Yet, to me, his other legacy is even greater.

Like Martin Luther King Jr., Jester faced a world filled with racial prejudice. Like King, he overcame much to get an outstanding education. I don’t know how King and Jester could avoid the bitterness and reach out with such an overcoming love, but they did. King overcame hatred by preaching love with a powerful “soul force.” Jester overcame hatred by singing love with a powerful “soul force.”

In 1963, King challenged our nation with his powerful dream that someday the sons of slaves and the sons of slave owners would sit down together at the table of brotherhood. By the time King gave that speech, Jester had been doing that very thing for decades. As he traveled far and wide in his career, Jester would look up Hairstons in the phone book and call them. He sat down at the table of brotherhood with many black and white Hairston families all over this nation.

I know he made an impact because in 1980, at a meeting of the Hairston clan, I was among five “sons of a slave owner” who came to the table of brotherhood with hundreds of Hairston “sons of slaves.” As a white person, I felt awkward and guilty.

Jester rose and led the group in singing his trademark song “Amen.” When Jester sang, you smiled a smile that started on your face and spread to your whole being. It produced an infectious joy that made you feel very lucky to be there.

I let the fear and awkwardness get the better of me for the next 15 years. Then, in 1995, I remembered Jester’s song. I called him, and he told me many wonderful, often hilarious, stories of the white families that he had shared meals with on his travels. Around Jester, racial reconciliation wasn’t just a dream, it was a fun reality.

Since that conversation in 1995, I have been attending the Hairston clan reunions again. Before the last one, a white cousin of mine from Minneapolis called and said he wanted to come. While a student at the University of Minnesota, he got a call from Jester, who took him out to eat. Heaven only knows how many bridges Jester built in his lifetime.

Yes, Jester was a screen star, a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He even has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard. But our family, white and black, knows that he was also a great spiritual leader.