Julie Delegal: A civil rights leader you probably never have heard of

Never can I recall having so much information about the civil rights giant you probably never heard of: Jacksonville’s Asa Philip Randolph.

Last week, the dreams of iconic peacemakers like Randolph were fulfilled — but not in a public march, nor in a young-peoples’ sit-in, nor through any Supreme Court decision.

Instead, peace emerged between an office worker in a Decatur, Georgia school and the armed gunman she talked into surrendering.

After the shooting-that-wasn’t, Antoinette Tuff admitted to being terrified, but while confronted by the potential mass-murderer, she courageously reached out to him in the spirit of men like Asa Philip Randolph and his compatriot, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Mr. President, this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest,” said Randolph to then-President John F. Kennedy, when he told Kennedy about the upcoming March for Jobs and Freedom, which the nation remembers today on the 50^th Anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Keep in mind that Randolph said these words in 1963 — a year filled with violence, hatred, chaos, and murder. Keep in mind, too, though, that on Aug. 28, 1963, no violence — not a single act — occurred at the March on Washington.

The struggle for civil rights continues — yes. The struggle for better economic opportunities for all Americans continues — yes. But it does the day no slight to remember the miracle that occurred among the multitudes: it was the day that peace reigned supreme.

We will never completely understand why no such peace was forthcoming at Columbine, or Sandy Hook, or Jacksonville’s Episcopal High School.

And it didn’t emerge in the North Florida town of Lake Butler last week, either, when a 72-year-old man visited with his former coworkers, shooting four of them and killing two of them, before committing suicide.

When the fruit of the world is plucked away too soon by gun-greased hands, we want to think we have control. We respond by moving to make a policy, or stage a protest, or write a column.

But we have so much more to look to in America.

We have a miraculous time, an August day from an August century that lives with those of us who will remember: the day the Dream was made Real, by the faith and determination of men like Jacksonville’s Asa Philip Randolph and his friend, the preacher from Atlanta.

It was the day that peace reigned supreme. Let this, our uniquely American Gospel, be the legacy we leave to our children.