Black History

Inspired by MLK to make difference through love: Clara Ester

NASHVILLE PRIDE — That day at the Lorraine Motel shaped her ministry.

Published

6 years ago

February 13, 2019

By Joe Lovino

“I have come to grips many, many, many years ago that only through love can we make a difference,” said United Methodist deaconess Clara Ester.

“We can actually change things if we love.”

Ester learned this important lesson from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

“Love takes a lot of effort and work,” Ester said, “but that’s the way God wants us to go, and that was the life that Dr. King led.”

“Being clergy he knew the importance of love,” Ester said, “and he wanted to deal with major issues and concerns that people were going through in a justice way. But he did it through love and nonviolence. That was his life.”

Growing up in Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, then pastored by civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson, Ester saw a connection between King and her faith.

“He led the life and stood up for things like Jesus did when he was on earth,” she said. “The marginalized people were the people Jesus hung out with. People that were not your favorite folks to be around were folks you found Jesus with. Dr. King stood up and spoke out for the same marginalized people. He tried to change structures that would make that world better.”

Ester hadn’t always seen things that way. “I had a lot of hate within me when I saw how people could be treated,” she said. Love and nonviolence seemed a slow way to affect change.

“I was a junior in college,” Ester said. “I heard both sides. But being young, 19 or 20 years old, I wanted everything to end as rapidly as possible.”

On the evening of April 4, 1968, things changed. Ester had just arrived at the Lorraine Motel when King came out of his room and started talking to people in the parking lot. A shot rang out. King’s assassination was a turning point for Ester.

“Witnessing his death, seeing him on that balcony, hearing him the night before say: ‘I may not get there with you, but we as a people will make it to the Promised Land.’ Recognizing more and more about his commitment to the nonviolent process. There was something about being over his body that said, ‘You need to change your hate. You need to love.’”

Reflecting on the call to love our neighbors, Ester references Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan where a man is mugged and left by the side of the road (Luke 10:25-37). Two religious leaders approach, and Jesus’ first listeners would have expected them to be the people to do something—but they each cross the street to avoid the injured man. The third person who comes down the road is a Samaritan.

This is not the person anyone would have expected to help out. The gospel of John tells us “Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other” (John 4:9). Yet in Jesus’ story the Samaritan goes to extraordinary lengths to care for this stranger.

After concluding the parable, Jesus tells those who’ve head the story, “Go and do likewise.” On the balcony that day, Ester heard that same call.

“Witnessing his death made me recognize that I had a responsibility not to ever step over anybody, or walk on the other side of the road. If there were people that I was aware of on the path that I was going, I had a God-assigned responsibility to reach out and try to help make their world better.

“That’s where we all should be. If we all did that through love and compassion, we would be living in a greater society than we live in today.”

Immediately following King’s assassination, Ester left college. She went to Marks, Mississippi to work on the second Poor People’s Campaign, a march from Mississippi to Washington, D.C. planned by King. Marks was chosen because it was considered “the poorest town in the poorest county of the poorest state in the nation” (Mississippi Stories).

Later, Ester would return to school and finish her degree. She served as a deaconess in The United Methodist Church, working for people in need throughout her career. In 2006, she retired as executive director of Dumas Wesley Community Center, a mission institution in Mobile, Alabama supported by the United Methodist Women. Today Ester serves as national vice president of the United Methodist Women.

That day at the Lorraine Motel shaped her ministry.

“This man was willing to love until this moment when a bullet took his life. He was willing to work and stand up and fight in a nonviolent way,” she said. “That was the least that I could do.

“After that, it was strictly nothing but, ‘What can I do to help somebody else? What can I do to make life better? What can I do or what can I give to change the narrative of what’s taking place in this person’s life today?’ It was a turning point in my personal life for me to reflect on the direction I could have been in, and the direction I needed to go.”

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Pride.

Joe Iovino courtesy of UMC.org

Posts by Joe Iovino courtesy of UMC.org

Up Next

COMMENTARY: Are we forgetting 400 years?

Don't Miss

Creator of Kwanzaa to Present Lecture at SBVC

Joe Iovino courtesy of UMC.org

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of March 28 – April 1, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 28 – April 1, 2025

Published

18 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Report Offers Policies, Ideas to Improve the Workplace Experiences of Black Women in California

The “Invisible Labor, Visible Struggles: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Workplace Equity for Black Women in California” report by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CBWCEI), unveiled the findings of a December 2024 survey of 452 employed Black women across the Golden State. Three-fifths of the participants said they experienced racism or discrimination last year and 57% of the unfair treatment was related to incidents at work.

Published

5 days ago

March 24, 2025

Oakland Post

Shutterstock

By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Backed by data, a report released last month details the numerous hurdles Black women in the Golden State must overcome to effectively contribute and succeed in the workplace.

The “Invisible Labor, Visible Struggles: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Workplace Equity for Black Women in California” report by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CBWCEI), unveiled the findings of a December 2024 survey of 452 employed Black women across the Golden State. Three-fifths of the participants said they experienced racism or discrimination last year and 57% of the unfair treatment was related to incidents at work.

CBWCEI President and CEO Kellie Todd Griffin said Black women have been the backbone of communities, industries, and movements but are still overlooked, underpaid, and undervalued at work.

“The data is clear,” she explained. “Systemic racism and sexism are not just historical injustices. They are active forces shaping the workplace experiences of Black women today. This report is a call to action. it demands intentional polices, corporate accountability, and systemic changes.”

The 16-page study, conducted by the public opinion research and strategic consulting firm EVITARUS, showcases the lived workplace experiences of Black women, many who say they are stuck in the crosshairs of discrimination based on gender and race which hinders their work opportunities, advancements, and aspirations, according to the report’s authors, Todd Griffin and CBWCEI researcher Dr. Sharon Uche.

“We wanted to look at how Black women are experiencing the workplace where there are systematic barriers,” Todd Griffin told the media during a press conference co-hosted by Ethnic Media Services and California Black Media. “This report is focused on the invisible labor struggles of Black women throughout California.”

The aspects of the workplace most important to Black women, according to those surveyed, are salary or wage, benefits, and job security.

However, only 21% of the survey’s respondents felt they had strong chances for career advancement into the executive or senior leadership ranks in California’s job market; 49% felt passed over, excluded from, or marginalized at work; and 48% felt their accomplishments at work were undervalued. Thirty-eight percent said they had been thought of as the stereotypical “angry Black woman” at work, and 42% said workplace racism or discrimination effected their physical or mental health.

“These sentiments play a factor in contributing to a workplace that is unsafe and not equitable for Black women in California,” the report reads.

Most Black women said providing for their families and personal fulfillment motivated them to show up to work daily, while 38% said they were dissatisfied in their current job with salary, supervisors, and work environment being the top sources of their discontent.

When asked if they agree or disagree with a statement about their workplace 58% of Black women said they feel supported at work, while 52% said their contributions are acknowledged. Forty-nine percent said they felt empowered.

Uche said Black women are paid $54,000 annually on average — including Black single mothers, who averaged $50,000 — while White men earn an average of $90,000 each year.

“More than half of Black families in California are led by single Black women,” said Uche, who added that the pay gap between Black women and White men isn’t forecasted to close until 2121.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Alameda County

Trump Order Slashes Federal Agencies Supporting Minority Business and Neighborhood Development

The latest executive order targeted several federal agencies, including the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, ordering that their programs and staff be reduced “to the minimum presence and function required by law.” The executive order targeted more agencies that Trump “has determined are unnecessary,” the order stated.

Published

5 days ago

March 24, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Brandon Patterson

On March 14, President Trump signed an executive order slashing the operations of two federal agencies supporting growth in minority business and neighborhoods as he continued his attacks on programs supporting people of color and on the size of the federal bureaucracy.

The MBDA’s mission is to “promote the growth and global competitiveness” of minority business enterprises, or MBEs. In 2023, according to its website, the agency helped MBEs access $1.5 billion in capital and facilitated nearly $3.8 billion in contracts awarded to minority business enterprises. It also helped MBEs create or sustain more than 19,000 jobs nationwide. Similarly, the CDFI Fund supports economic growth in under-invested communities by providing funding and technical assistance to local CDFIs, including banks, loan funds, and credit unions, that support community development projects in cities across the country. In 2023, the fund supported more than 1,400 local CDFIs across the country, including more than 80 in California — among the highest number for any state in the country.

The MBDA has local satellite business centers operated by organizations that support minority clients with services such as business consulting, contract bid preparation, loan packaging, and accessing capital funding. The San Francisco Bay Area business center is San Jose, operated by San Francisco-based organization Asian, Inc. Meanwhile, local Oakland CDFIs supported by the federal CDFI fund since 2021 include Habitat Community Capital, TMC Community Capital, Gateway Bank Federal Savings Bank, Beneficial State Bancorp, Inc., and Main Street Launch.

“It is clear that the hollowing out of the CDFI Fund and MBDA is not being ordered because those programs have failed in their mission,” the CEO of Small Business Majority John Arensmeyer, a national organization that advocates for small businesses, said in a statement on Saturday. “Instead, it is yet another case of President Trump using DEI as a club to eviscerate programs that seek to level our economic playing field.”

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon also slammed the decision in a statement to the Oakland Post. “As a member of the House Small Business Committee who represents multiple CDFIs in CA-12, I believe Trump’s gutting of operations at the Minority Business Development Agency and at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund is a direct attack on small businesses, communities of color and other underserved communities,” Rep. Simon said. “Both the MBDA and the CDFI Fund were created with bipartisan support to help historically underserved communities and small businesses — and both programs have helped to dramatically change the material realities of people and bolster entrepreneurship in the U.S. There is no logic to this decision. The point is discrimination and cruelty.”