I referred to the man in the photo as “The guy with the thousand-yard stare.” The old black-and-white photo depicted a protest march on the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse in April 1964. The man with the “stare” stood out as the only white guy in a large group of protesters. The look of fear on his face told a story.

Law enforcement snapped the man’s photo during the march. Believing he was an “outside agitator,” they treated him roughly. Cops knocked him to the ground, shocked him with a cattle prod, and escorted him to jail. His photo remained undiscovered in a file at the Sheriff’s Office for the next sixty years.

The 1964 protest occurred due to betrayal by county officials. Civil Rights leaders in Tuscaloosa were promised the newly opened County Courthouse would be integrated. No more segregated restrooms and drinking fountains. That didn’t happen. When the doors opened, visitors saw the same old segregation signs and separate facilities.

Six decades after the protest, we identified the man in the photo. Dr. William Chace is President Emeritus of Emory University and former President of Wesleyan University, which are just two of his many accomplishments. In 1964, Chace was a 25-year-old professor from California who taught English at Stillman College. His students asked him to march with them on April 23, 1964. He agreed but had no idea what awaited him.

Last weekend, Chace flew from California with his wife Joann to receive the “Call to Conscience Award” at the “Realizing the Dream” banquet in Tuscaloosa. Once considered an agitator, Chace now holds hero status. History has vindicated those who society once demonized.

I often wonder how history will judge the things I deem important. On which side of history will I land? I can’t read the future, but I am convinced that a life considered well-lived depends on the two greatest commandments: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

I can claim to love God, but the test comes with how I treat others. The Bible says, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”(1 John 4:20) It’s important to live on the right side of history. It’s more important to land on the right side of eternity. Without love for our fellow man, that will never happen.

“When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.” – Bono