In an effort to bring racial equality and stop violence during the 1960s, the National Council of Negro Women invited interracial, interfaith teams of northern women to participate in a project called "Wednesdays in Mississippi." Every Wednesday, teams of northern women visited freedom schools, watched voter registration and quietly reached out to wives of Mississippi businessmen with tea parties and luncheons in an effort to build behind-the-scenes lines of communication.
Some local people, however, resented the presence of these northern women, and responded with violence. One night Fay Honey Knopp, a Wednesdays in Mississippi team member from Connecticut, was driving a carload of black and white women along a lonely back road when a pickup truck began harassing them in a way that was clearly meant to be threatening. The tension in the car rose as the women became aware of the likelihood of serious violence. But Honey was determined to confront this threat nonviolently. She stopped the car in the middle of the road, rolled down her window, waved to the men in the truck in a friendly way, and called our warmly:"Are you lost? Can we help you?" The men, disconcerted and deflated by her open, friendly manner, hesitated for a few moments , and then drove away.
Honey's inspired response rose out of her nonviolence training and her willingness to rely on God's transforming power. Her proactive, nonviolent approach involved trusting the Spirit, recognizing the potential good in the aggressor, and reaching out in a creative, unexpected, and loving way. By engaging in nonviolence, Fay Honey Knopp not only kept herself safe, but she also restrained her would-be attackers from degrading themselves through an act of violence.
Of course, nonviolent action cannot always protect us from harm, any more than violence can. However, by choosing nonviolent means, we not only create new possibilities for reconciliation, but we also open pathways for God's spirit to leave its indelible mark of healing and love on the world.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit... Zechariah 4:6
Practicing Peace by Catherine Whitmire p. 210