IDA B. WELLS!
I
have my 72nd birthday tomorrow, and I am grateful to be alive and to
be in relatively good health – thank you!
I am working with Dr. Catherine Meeks to complete the manuscript for our
book “Passionate for Justice,” which is a book about the importance of the life
and witness of Ida Wells for our time.
We are meeting this week and rushing to complete the manuscript, which
is due to the publisher January 1. We’d
like to get it done before the Christmas holidays really begin, so lift us up
in that endeavor. Catherine was born in
Arkansas, as was I, and we grew up in neo-slavery about 50 miles from one
another. We bring a unique perspective
to this work on Ida B. Wells – Catherine was raised in a racist atmosphere that
sought to tell her that she was inferior because of the color of her skin. She was also taught that women were inferior,
so she received the double curse. I was
raised in that same atmosphere, telling me that I was superior because I was
classified as “white” and because I was gendered as male. Fortunately for her (and for us all), she
did not inhale the poisonous air of racism and sexism, though she obviously had
to breathe it in. She was taught to
believe it, but she never did.
Unfortunately for me, I not only breathed in these poisons, but I also
inhaled them and believed them. It has
taken me so many years to come to terms with this captivity, and indeed, I am
still wrestling with it.
I first
encountered Ida B. Wells in 1986, as I was preparing to begin a series of
sermons on Black History Month at Oakhurst Presbyterian. That series was so powerful that we continued
it until my retirement in 2017 – we would preach about different people in
American history who had been witnesses for racial justice and against the
oh-so-powerful current of racism that runs through American history, like the
powerful currents that drive the Missisissippi River down from the small
overflow stream of Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico below New
Orleans. I first read about Ida Wells in
Dorothy Sterling’s fine book “Black Foremothers: Three Lives.”
Wells was born in Marshall County, Mississippi, where all my forebears
were also born, so I had an instant connection.
And the breadth and depth and richness of her witness was so stunning,
from 1878-1931. I could not believe that
she was so little known at that time.
She has since been rediscovered, and that is great news. A banner at the Belmont-Paul National
Women’s Monument in DC put it so well:
“You can’t spell formidable without Ida B!”
We’ll be
looking at her witness in our book, and I am so grateful to Catherine for being
willing to take on this project in the midst of her busy schedule, while working
with the Episcopal Church to help them acknowledge and begin to fight the power
of racism in their midst. Ida Wells was fearless,
ferocious, formidable, and feminist. I
like this alliteration, but today Wells would likely respond that she was
“womanist,” not “feminist,” in order to note the differences and tensions
between white women and women of color, especially women classified as
“black”. Of course she knew fear, but
she did not allow herself to be dominated by anxiety. She took herself into places that were scary
and dangerous, but “nevertheless, she persisted.” Such a witness is important for herself and
for others. It was a vision and a power
that made her a powerful witness in whatever area she worked.
Her witness
reminds us that in this time, and indeed in any time, we are always called to
be to be fearless, ferocious, formidable, and feminist. “Fearless” because the powers of racism and
sexism and materialism and others want us to be dominated by fear, to have
anxiety at our core, so that we will be afraid to speak and act on behalf of
justice and equity. “Ferocious” because
the powers will roar at us and seek to make us timid in the face of its
power. The witness of Ida Wells echoes
to us to remain steadfast in our consciousness and in our work, and whether we
will feel as if we are ferocious or not, the world will see us as such.
“Formidable”
because our keeping our integrity and persistence in the face of race and other
powers will make us seem much more powerful than we actually may be. Our culture of white supremacy is not
accustomed to people of any racial category standing up and proclaiming a
different way. “Feminist” because Ida
Wells’ witness reminds us of the importance of “intersectionality,” the reality
that many categories overlap and inform one another in the areas of oppression
and liberation. Wells knew well that it
was just as important to free women of all racial categories from male dominance
as it was to free those classified as “black” from racial oppression – all
included, no one left behind. This
affirmation of women’s rights cost Wells dearly in the work for justice, but
she would not yield on this.
So, thank
you, Ida B. Wells – we look forward to wrestling with you and learning from
you!
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