Pittsburgh Rally Recalls Sacrifices Families Make for Each Other

Writer: Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune, National Council of Churches

Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune, Senior Associate General Secretary and Director of Advocacy, National Council of Churches, speaks at the rally to Vote Our Future at historic Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh.

I don’t do buses. Call it the remnants of trauma from having ridden buses from my home in Mt. Vernon, NY, to my undergraduate school in Syracuse, NY. The last time I voluntarily boarded a bus was when I moved from New York to Washington, D.C., and I never planned to get on one again.

But when I was invited to be one of the “friends” on the Nuns on the Bus & Friends “Vote Our Future” tour, I couldn’t say no. The opportunity to visit several states to encourage and perhaps even inspire people to use the power of the vote to improve our communities and, dare I say, strengthen our democracy, was a chance I could not pass up.

My first stop on the tour was at a rally at the historic Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I was asked to talk about why I’m on the bus and the importance of voting. Reflecting on this became a “Sankofa moment” that made me think about the many sacrifices that have been made on my behalf. Sankofa is a Ghanaian saying that means to look back even as we go forward (my interpretation).

As I remembered the sacrifices of my grandparents, Willie B. and Margaret Dunbar Walker, I thought about how only sickness (or death) would stop them from exercising their right to vote, a right they fought to secure and to keep. They were sharecroppers with a middle school education who not only made sure their nine children attended college or trade school, but they also courageously went into the backcountry of South Carolina to show others how to fill out voter registration forms. They did this at a dangerous time – so much so that the KKK burned a cross in front of their yard.  

My parents, John Copeland and Evelyn Walker Copeland, taught my sister and me to be good citizens, to be actively involved in our community, to know the important issues at stake, and to vote. My mother also sat in at lunch counters in Columbia, S.C. as an Allen University student, and was an activist for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She was trained in nonviolent civil disobedience in the 1960s, taught preschoolers through the mid-1980s, trained childcare workers through the 2000s, taught Sunday School to children through 2022. Now in her 80s, she’s a deacon in her church, and until 2019, she was a poll worker.  

J.C. Clay, a student at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, PA and fellow in NETWORK’s Young Advocates Leadership Lab (Y.A.L.L.) program, speaks at the Pittsburgh rally.

My mother’s commitment to civic engagement was on my mind at the rally when one of the speakers, J.C. Clay, a student at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and fellow in NETWORK’s Young Advocates Leadership Lab (Y.A.L.L.) program, lifted up one of the six freedoms amplified as part of the bus tour: the freedom to care for ourselves and our families.  

J.C. talked about his mother’s top-rated daycare center and the importance of childcare for families and our communities. My mother was a trained, certified teacher who for many years worked at a daycare center a few blocks from where we lived. She could have taught anywhere but she felt it important to be close to home to make sure my sister and I had what we needed.  

Consequently, my sister and I, who are 11 months apart, could read by the time we were four years old, because she taught us how. We skipped two grade levels in Montessori School and tested two grades ahead when we went to public school. We were only allowed to be one grade ahead because of our age, but we both graduated high school with honors at 16 years of age.  

Our democracy is not perfect and quite frankly needs a lot of work. America is not perfect. As a Black woman, I know how imperfect our country is. However, it will only get better when each of us is committed to do our part, to participate in our democracy, to lift our voices on behalf of all of our neighbors, because fighting only for ourselves doesn’t make our country the best it can be.  

I vote because of the dedication and commitment my family modeled for me, and I’ve passed on this legacy to my children. The promise of America is worth fighting for, and it propelled me to join nuns, faith leaders and advocates from various walks of life to push others to vote for a future where everyone thrives, no exceptions. 

This reflection is from the 2024 Nuns on the Bus & Friends bus rider blog.