From Cynthia Tucker's OpEd in the AJC: April 2004

"It is disappointing to see black ministers -- several of whom are old enough to remember the lash of Jim Crow -- brandishing the Bible against gays the same way Bull Connor wielded a billy club against civil rights marchers. Of course, they adamantly resist comparisons of the crusade for gay rights to the movement for civil rights. In a statement opposing same-sex unions, several black ministers wrote: "To equate a lifestyle choice to racism demeans the work of the entire civil rights movement."

But U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who faced down billy clubs and firehoses, begs to differ. Supporting gay rights before a U.S. Senate committee, Lewis said, "We have been down this road before in this country. The right to liberty and happiness belongs to each of us and on the same terms, without regard to either skin color or sexual orientation."

So does Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at a gay pride rally in Atlanta several years ago, she said, "I wanted . . . to reaffirm my wholehearted support of freedom from discrimination for lesbian and gay people. I do so because I believe that all forms of persecution are wrong.

"As my husband said, 'I have fought too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concerns. Justice is indivisible.' "