After hearing iconic civil rights leader reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. speak, Aurora College student John A. Boryk became a warrior for integration.
Boryk, a retired United Methodist minister, preached Sunday at Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist in Oswego. His topic: “Listening to God’s Call: How Meeting MLK Changed My Life.”
Boryk was guest preacher at 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. worship services.
He explained that he was educated in schools in North Carolina, Kosciusko, Miss.; and Ardmore, Okla., where he graduated from high school. He noted that his father, while a pastor, was also a racist.
Boryk said, “I was raised in Jim Crow south segregated schools and carried bigoted feelings of white superiority” he said. At the urging of his college religion professors, he attended a March 1965 appearance by Dr. King in Chicago. Thinking King was a troublemaker, Boryk took with him “30 Biblical Reasons for Segregation” to confront Dr. King.
“Instead,” he said, “I experienced an upsetting cathartic experience. A week later the theology/psychology major was in Selma, Ala., crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge led by Dr. King and civil rights leaders on the way to Montgomery, the state capitol. This led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.”
Boryk went on to graduate from Aurora College in 1967. The school transitioned to Aurora University in 1985. Before retiring, Boryk served Methodist congregations in Dolton, Harvey, Rockford Aldersgate, Belvidere, Duran and Park Ridge.
The pastor led the congregation in singing “I Shall Overcome” to close the service.
Call 630-554-3269 or visit Goodshepherdoswego.org for more information.
—Al Benson