“When you pray, move your feet.”
The late civil rights leader John Lewis would invoke that African proverb in reference to the marches that changed American history.
“I felt my feet were praying.”
The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said that about participating in one of those marches with Lewis, from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
Fifty-five years later, a local musical group committed to carrying on that civil rights tradition has taken those two sayings to heart.
The group, the Afro-Semitic Experience, has a new song inspired by those words. It’s called “My Feet Began To Pray.” The ensemble — which consists of Will Bartlett on saxophone, Warren Byrd on keyboards and vocals, Alvin Benjamin Carter, Jr. on drums, David Chevan on bass, Jocelyn Pleasant on congas and percussion, and Saskia Laroo on trumpet — released the song and video in conjunction with Black Jewish Unity Week.
Watch the group perform the song in the above video.
The lyrics follow:
My Feet Began to Pray
It was on the Sabbath day,
I stared at come what may
I stood on the bridge that day and
My feet began to pray
Black, white, yellow, and brown
Our world turned upside down
We stood on the bridge that day and
Our feet began to pray
Chorus
My feet began to pray
My feet began to pray
On that warm and sunny day
My feet began to pray
A thousand voices strong
Were added to the song
We stood on the bridge that day and
Our feet began to pray
We’re allies one and all
Answering to the call
When we stand on the highway (Merritt Parkway)
And our feet begin to pray
Chorus
My feet began to pray
My feet began to pray
On that warm and sunny day
My feet began to pray
Bridge
This is the hour of change
Shall I walk away or cross over
I stand here on the border of darkness and light
I cannot know what lies ahead
You’ve heard this all before
But it’s happening once more
Don’t turn and walk away
Let our feet begin to pray
Chorus
Our feet began to pray
Our feet began to pray
On that warm and sunny day
Our feet began to pray
May the words of my mouth
And the meditations of my feet
Be acceptable
Be acceptable