"IBA B. WELLS!"

IDA B. WELLS!

                        I have my 72^nd 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!

"A New Wave?"

A NEW WAVE?

            I was disappointed but not greatly surprised that Stacey Abrams barely lost the election for governor of Georgia.  When the primaries were held in Georgia last spring, the Democratic candidates got 50,000 less votes statewide than the Republican candidates.  Stacey had to make up 50,000 votes, and though she ran a fantastic campaign, she just could not do it.  Stacey did ramp it up, though – she received more votes that any state Democrat ever has, and her defeat is testimony to the racism and sexism and voter suppression of the old, white South.  In an ironic twist, the early returns show that more white women voted against Stacey than did white men.

            Stacey Abrams is an impressive candidate, so much so that an op-ed piece in the Washington Post last week suggested that the Democrats name her to be the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.  She brings to mind another African-American candidate who rose quickly on the national stage:  Barack Obama.  She does have an advantage over President Obama at this stage – she has great experience in using political power.   She may run for Senate in Georgia, but I’m hoping that she will run for President in 2020. 

            Whatever Stacey does, we must celebrate that she is part of a new wave of voters around the country.   I am hoping that this is part of a new wave in American electoral politics.  It’s not just that the Democrats took back the House of Representatives – a great relief to act as a check on Donald Trump and his dictatorial tendencies.  It is how they did it, and it is also that they brought along many states with them in seeking to build a party that reflects the need and the desire for justice and equity.   With Muslims and Native Americans and more women and Hispanic and African-Americans elected to Congress, it feels like we are witnessing a shift towards policies that will bring relief to so many of us.  And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is helping us to see that young people can and will vote and get involved.

            And, it’s not just on the federal level – great gains were made in many states and counties.  In Georgia, the suburbs went for Democrats for the first time in several decades.  That switch helped to elect an African-American Democratic woman in Newt Gingrich’s old seat.  In the Houston area of Texas, all judges elected in Harris County were Democrats for the first time in years and years.   The newly elected attorney general of New York, Letitia James, is the first woman and first African-American to be elected to that position, as well as the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in New York.  Perhaps more importantly, she emphasized that she wants to investigate the Trump Foundation, which has its charter in her state.  Our daughter-in-law Erin Graham is on the East Lansing school board in Michigan, and though she was not up for re-election, she was part of a coalition that helped the Democrats regain power in that state. 

            There are still very ugly realities – Trump seems able to hold his base, and the Senate, which will continue to confirm terrible federal judges, gained votes for Republicans.   Unless John Roberts is worried about being compared to Roger Taney, SCOTUS seems to be firmly entrenched in white, male supremacy.  And, being from the segregation days of white, Southern life, I don’t want to hope too much, because I know that the power of racism and sexism and materialism and militarism and homophobia is deep and wide.  To use Biblical language, we are captive to the power of the prince of the air (Ephesians 2:2), and we are wrestling with structures of power that are deeply entrenched, so that it seems that when we defeat one, many more pop up to contest our struggle for justice and equity.  It will be a long, hard journey. 

            And yet, in this week of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for this movement, for the women and Native Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans and Muslim and white folks who put so much energy into starting a new wave – may it grow stronger into a tsunami for justice and equity.  And, if you are in Georgia and Mississippi, don’t forget to go back to the polls for important run-offs!

"DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY"

DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY

            This month is Native American Month, but tomorrow is also the end of the election time in the USA.  If you voted early, thank you!  If you have not voted, please do so – your future and all of our futures depend upon it.  

            I attended our denomination’s consultation on anti-racism work in October.  This consultation was in response to an overture that our General Assembly passed earlier this year.  It endorsed the idea of the Decade of the Intercultural Church beginning in 2020.  Its central foci will be a celebration of all the cultures that comprise the Presbyterian Church USA and deliberate work on diminishing the power of racism in our 90% Anglo denomination.  We clearly have our work cut out for us. 

            At the October consultation we experienced a very powerful presentation by Native American representatives on the Doctrine of Discovery.  I had heard a bit about this previously, but it struck me very strongly on this occasion.   We began the consultation by noting the native peoples who had lived on the land prior to the Europeans’ arrival. We gave thanks for their witness and their continuing ministry.  We expressed our remorse that Anglo culture had led the way in removing them from their land, and we lamented that some native cultures had been obliterated by the European hunger for cheap land and labor.

            The Doctrine of Discovery was the “official” church and political doctrine that enabled Europeans to steal land and labor from indigenous people all around the world.  In America, it began in U.S. law in 1823 when the US Supreme Court decided in Johnson v. McIntosh that the native Illinois and Piankashaw tribes had no right to sell their land to speculators in Philadelphia and Baltimore, some 50 years after the purchase.  Justice John Marshall wrote for the majority that only the US government had the right to sell native lands, because the “doctrine of discovery” gave land title automatically to European, Christian nations when they “discovered” lands (and people) previously unknown to Europeans.  This was so, even though indigenous people had occupied and used the land for millennia.

            This doctrine did not originate with SCOTUS, however.  It began during the Crusades in 1245 when Pope Innocent IV wrote a paper, which indicated that Christians had property rights to lands occupied by non-Christians, when the Christians “discovered” the land.  This doctrine continued through the centuries, and indeed, Justice Marshall cited a patent case issued in 1497 by King Henry VII to John Cabot, articulating the doctrine of discovery.   This doctrine continues in effect to this day, with the struggle by the Standing Rock Lakota tribe against placing an oil pipeline under the Missouri River being the most famous recent example.   

            Our PCUSA denomination repudiated this doctrine at its General Assembly in St. Louis this summer, and as usual, we were one of the last mainline denominations to do this (Presbyterians were the last mainline denomination to re-unite after the Civil War, waiting until 1983 to do so).  That repudiation included a confession by Presbyterians that we were complicit in the doctrine of discovery, and it also included instructions to begin actions of repair, usually known as reparations.  It also included instructions for all General Assembly groups to begin their meetings with an acknowledgment of whose land the meeting is being held on and a welcome from the indigenous peoples currently living on the land.  If you’d like to read more on these actions, here is a link to the General Assembly action: 
https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Doctrine-of-Discovery-Report-to-the-223rd-GA-2018.pdf

            Those of us who are not indigenous peoples must begin our acknowledgment of Native American Month in this way.  I am not seeking guilt here – rather recognition and repentance, to use the first two steps of my list of Seven Steps that we must use to engage the power of racism in our individual and communal lives.  The entire list will be brought into use on this:  recognition, repentance, resistance, resilience, reparation, reconciliation, and recovery.  Especially in this month of November, when we celebrate Thanksgiving, let us recall the indigenous peoples who made European survival possible in the harsh conditions.   The peoples already here did not see the land as the enemy or as possession but rather as partner to be nurtured and celebrated and protected.  May we learn from them in the midst of our drive to get so much stuff that we are destroying the planet for us all.

            Let us non-indigenous people begin this month with recognition.  Our son David taught us about this in 1992, the 500^th anniversary of Columbus bringing the doctrine of discovery to the western hemisphere.  David was a 6^th grade student, and he was given the Good Citizenship Award by DAR (the Daughters of the American Revolution!)  On the day he received the award, he wore a shirt with a slogan, which repudiated the doctrine of discovery – “how could Columbus have discovered America when there were people already living here?”