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“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

– Mother Teresa

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I’ve been eyeing the Nashville Public Library for a long time, and a few weeks ago, I finally got to go. I’d heard amazing things about the Civil Rights Room there and had to get my hands on some of their primary sources (which are so rare that they can’t leave the room)! 

Once inside, I picked up a stunning photography book called: “I Am A Man: Photographs of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike” (It’s the book that actually inspired the very first Everyday Advocate newsletter issue “When Solidarity Means Standing Alone). As I flipped through the book, one photo immediately sparked my curiosity.

It was a photo of Wonder Bread.  

The caption said:

“Bologna sandwiches were made for the strikers and supporters at a sit in city council chambers while they waited for the council committee to reconvene. Nelson Jones, T.O. Jones, John Blair, Joe Paisley, Jerry Wurf and Taylor Blair (left to right).”

This photo making the cut for the book piqued my interest for so many reasons. First of all, this strike made history. For months, thousands of people marched, boycotted, and protested for higher wages and better working conditions for the city’s majority-Black sanitation worker community. Those are the pictures we remember: the “I Am a Man” signs and the hundreds of people taking to the streets.

This photo got me thinking about the contributors who don’t always make it into the history books. The volunteers cleaning up after the March on Washington. The medical teams trailing behind civil rights activists throughout the south in the ’60s and providing aid to the injured. The caring hearts holding space for others to process the mental and emotional toil of the struggle. 

The bologna sandwich-makers. 

Although I talk about it often, this isn’t a piece about why little things matter. The actions I’ve described here aren’t actually “little things” at all. Mental and physical health care, hope, community support, and full bellies are what movements need in order to thrive.

All across the country, as we speak, there are students camping out in protest on college campuses, friends vulnerably sharing about their hardships, and cities that still don’t have access to clean water. 

And then, there’s you, friend, with a heart for others and a mind that may wonder every now and then if there’s anything you can do in this life that could meaningfully impact the world around you. 

Remember this: we all need shoulders to cry on, listening ears, protest partners, resource suggestions, and open hands. 

And, I’m willing to bet that right now, someone nearby could probably use a sandwich.