CIRCLE OF DAYS: MR. ROGERS TAKES OFF HIS SHOES
GUEST WRITER: PAULA FRANCK
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” — Jn 13:14-15.
With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation was no longer the law of the land. However, Black citizens were still not embraced as equal participants in public life. Along with buses and lunch counters, community swimming pools were places of protest where Black people were not allowed.
Fred Rogers, creator and host of the popular National Public Broadcasting program for children, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, was aware that pools continued to refuse entry to Black people and that racial tensions were escalating—especially after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Thus, on the May 9, 1969, episode of his program, Mr. Rogers asked Officer Clemmons, a Black police officer played by Francois Clemmons, if he would like to cool his feet with him in a children’s wading pool. Officer Clemmons initially declined the invitation because he didn’t have a towel; but Mr. Rogers said he would be glad to share his towel.
So the two men took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their pant legs, and swished their feet together in the shallow pool. As Clemmons placed his feet in the water, right next to Mr. Rogers’, the two men broke a well-known color barrier and demonstrated that a black man and a white man could peacefully share the water. When Clemmons rose to leave, he used Mr. Rogers’ towel to dry his feet. Mr. Rogers used the same towel to dry his own feet.
Both Clemmons and Rogers understood the implications of their pool scene. Their casual shared act exposed the bigotry of denying Black citizens access to pools, or any other place in society. In an interview for the Vermont News website in 2018, Clemmons recalled: “It was a definite call to social action on Fred’s part. That was his way of speaking about race relations in America.”
In 1993, when Clemmons made a last appearance on the television show, he and Rogers recreated the pool scene during which Clemmons sang, “Many Ways to Say I Love You,” a song written by Rogers. But this time, Clemmons didn’t use Rogers’ towel. Mr. Rogers took the towel and dried Clemmons’ feet himself. Clemmons recognized the connection to Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and was very moved by Rogers’ actions. Later he said, “I am a gay Black man, and Fred washed my feet.”
“Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.” —John 13:34b.
This interaction is emblematic of the messages of love, kindness and acceptance that Fred Rogers shared with his audience—children and adults alike. In Life’s Journeys According to Mr. Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way (New York: Hachette Books, 2019), Fred Rogers is quoted: “I believe that at the center of the universe there dwells a loving spirit who longs for all that’s best in all of creation, a spirit who knows the great potential of each planet as well as each person, and little by little will love us into being more than ever dreamed possible. That loving spirit would rather die than give up on any one of us.”
Paula Franck is the co-author with Isabel Anders of Circle of Days: A Church Year Primer — Years B and C. Year A will be released in fall 2022.
www.amazon.com/Circle-Days-Church-celebration-Christian/dp/B09GQR7X2S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=538ALOQC2V67&keywords=circle+of+days+a+church+year+primer+year+c&qid=1649010485&sprefix=circle+of+days%2Caps%2C841&sr=8-1