Cured: The Power of Forgiveness

"Cured" is truly a story about the power of forgiveness. In 1962 in Choctaw County, Alabama, Carl Ray an 18-year-old black man was questioned by an older white man; but when responding, he failed to address the man as "sir" as was then customary when speaking to white men. The man severely beat him for being disrespectful. Still enraged, the man later showed up at Ray's home, and shot his father eight times on his front porch steps; murdered him in cold blood as the terrified youth looked on helplessly. During the farce of a murder trial that followed, the white man's lawyers blamed Ray for causing his own father's death because he had failed to be respectful. The man was charged with second degree manslaughter. However, he never served a day in prison for the murder.

Ray was burdened with the guilt of causing his father's murder; his life would never be the same. In 1984, he was released from his self made prison of guilt when he forgave his father's murderer. Ray attributes the act of forgiving the man to have been his own life saver.