"GOING BACK HOME - STEP 2"

“GOING BACK HOME – STEP 2”

            We’re heading for Helena, Arkansas on Friday, stopping in Elvis’ hometown of Tupelo for the night.  Then we’ll participate in the dedication of the memorial for the victims of the Elaine Massacre in Helena on the 100^th anniversary of the slaughter.  It was part of the Red Summer of 1919, when white people all over the country intimidated, tortured and killed black people.  Part of it was the return of black soldiers who had fought for the USA in Europe and now came back determined not to fall back into neo-slavery.  The main impetus, however, was what it has always been in American history:  the desire to maintain white supremacy.   The Elaine Massacre and the Red Summer of 1919 re-emphasized a main theme of American history.  Slavery and racism and white supremacy are not unfortunate blots on the American character – they are at the heart of the American character, and they must be acknowledged and deeply resisted. 

            Ida Wells was one of those resisters.     She did early work on the Elaine Massacre, and her booklet “The Arkansas Race Riot” is a primary source for information on it.  She broke her exile from the South in 1920 and traveled to the prison in Arkansas where the African-American men who were given the death penalty in the Elaine Massacre were being held.   When she got into Arkansas, she went in disguise, since she still had a price on her head.  Though she undoubtedly was scared, she showed great courage.   Part of that courage was in her nature, and part of it was learned from her previous experience. 

            In 1917, there was a race riot in Houston.  It resulted from the neo-slavery treatment of black soldiers stationed in nearby Camp Logan.  The soldiers marched defiantly into Houston, daring white folks to mess with them, and eventually the shooting began.  Several white persons, including police officers, were killed.  Twelve African-American soldiers were tried and hung for their part in the riot.  Ida Wells wanted to hold a memorial service for these soldiers in Chicago, and she felt certain that she could find a black church which would host it.  Yet, all the male pastors declined.  Having no place to hold the service, she decided to have buttons made, protesting the injustice.  It did not take long for the Secret Service to show up and inquire about the buttons and to ask her to cease and desist distributing them, lest she be arrested for treason.  Here is her account about it in her “Crusade for Justice:”

            “Well, said the shorter of the two men, “ the rest of your people do not agree

            with you.”  I said, “Maybe not.  They don’t know any better, or they are afraid

            of losing their whole skins.  As for myself,  I don’t care.  I’d rather go down in

            history as one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it had done

            a dastardly thing than to save my skin by taking back what I have said.  I

            would consider it an honor to spend whatever years are necessary in prison

            as the one member of the race who protested, rather than to be with the

            11,999,999 Negroes who didn’t have to go to prison because they kept their

            mouths shut.  Lay on, Macduff, and damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold,

            enough!”  (From “Crusade for Justice”)

            They did not arrest her, and she kept distributing the buttons.  It was this kind of passion and persistence that enabled her to go into places like Arkansas to interview the men held unjustly in the prisons.  Thanks to her and Scipio Africanus Jones (the primary attorney for the men), and the NAACP, the men were eventually all freed.  A powerful work, but always in the context of the 237+ people who were slaughtered.  I wrote a couple of weeks ago that federal troops were sent in to Phillips County to put down the rioting, but their interpretation was that it was the black folk who were rioting, and they joined in the slaughter of the black people.

            So, as a white boy raised in and on this stuff of white supremacy, it will be quite intriguing to go back into the belly of the beast and see where we are, and where I am.  I’ll keep you posted. 

"PASSIONATE FOR JUSTICE"

“PASSIONATE FOR JUSTICE”

            Our book “Passionate for Justice:  Ida Wells as Prophet for Our Times” comes out this week – yay!!!!!  Thanks to Catherine for taking the time in her busy schedule to do this great work!  Thanks to all who made it possible, including my spouse Caroline Leach, and editor Nancy Bryan at Church Publishing Incorporated.  Thanks to those of you who have pre-ordered copies!  If you have not gotten your copy yet, you can order it from the publisher www.churchpublishing.org/passionateforjustice, or from your local bookstore, from Amazon, or if you’d like a signed copy, you can order it from me.  Also, Catherine and I will be talking about the book in various places, and you are welcomed to come hear that and buy the book there.  Coming up are Tuesday, September 24 by the Georgia Center For the Book at First Baptist in Decatur at 7 PM, and the official book launch is Tuesday, October 8 at 7 PM at Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta.  There will be others, too, and we’ll let you know about those.

In the meantime, here are some of the endorsements of the book.  You can find more at the website listed above. 

"In Passionate for Justice, we find a compass that points us to the future, where we can each give voice and action to justice, equity, and life-giving community. Ida Wells would have had it no other way."
—From the Foreword by Stacey Abrams

“As our country experiences efforts to divide and oppress people based on race, religion, gender, or economic class, the life and witness of Ida B. Wells can be a guide and inspiration for those who are committed to equality and justice.  “Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time” will help people reflect on her principles, struggles, and unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power.”  Michelle Duster, author, speaker, educator, great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells

"In Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time, Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe embark upon a brave and hopeful mission. Having come by separate life paths, this African-American woman and this white American man seek to stand together upon common ground, the revolutionary witness of an extraordinary, and too-little recalled black journalist and churchwoman. This would be an important book at any time, but it is critical for such a time as this."
—Leonard Pitts, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, novelist and columnist

"Our nation needs this kind of wisdom now more than anything in a time of crisis and national moral failure. The progress of the past 50 years is so fragile. Here are two brave and honest southern voices—one black, one white—drawing wisdom from their own histories in a segregated society, seeking guidance in the words and deeds of a legendary defender of justice."
—Douglas A. Blackmon, winner of the Pulitzer Prize book Slavery By Another Name

"Ida B. Wells was a courageous truth-teller, and so too is this book. As Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe tell the story of Wells, they deftly expose the truth about our nation, which our nation has long avoided—to its peril. This is the prescient truth of racial, gender and class privilege fueling the violence of lynching. Meeks and Stroupe have given us a book for all time. For those who seek the truth of who we are as a nation—Ida B. Wells: A Prophet for Our Time is a must read."
—The Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, Ph.D., Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary

"The authors take a unique and daring approach to narrating the life of Ida B. Wells. They draw parallels, lessons, and inspiration from Wells' encounters with injustice to illuminate and better understand their own struggles and encounters with racism and sexism. What makes this book so different from all earlier tributes to Wells is the fact that Meeks (a black woman) and Stroupe (a white man) are able to independently weave threads of insights from nearly a century earlier into accounts of their own very personal journeys. The approach is novel, the challenge is considerable – and the read is well worth it."
—Troy Duster, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, grandson of Ida B. Wells

"We see the name Ida B. Wells in the title of this most special book, and, immediately, we think the book will be written in the third person point of view, traditionally required for biographical writing. Meeks and Stroupe, however, choose otherwise, and for reason. They are writing not only about Ida B. Wells, activist of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, but also about Ida B. Wells, the "messenger" we need "for this present moment." Her courage and vision for justice are central to the dialogue, the prayers, and the confessions that bring Meeks and Stroupe together in free and inspired conversation on the guiding question of the book: 'What does it mean to be a liberated person?'
—Gloria Wade Gayles, Ph.D., Founding Director, The SIS Oral History Project
and RESONANCE in LEADS, The Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, Spelman College

"Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe are two excellent writers, historians, and astute cultural observers who have each published numerous books. That they have collaborated to write this book on Ida B. Wells is good news for all of us. Wells is one of our most important forbears whose life offers critical lessons for how to live with courage and determination in this particularly toxic era of a resurgence of violent white supremacy. Through these chapters, may Wells’ life and witness gain a wider audience and may her stunning witness move us to radical action on behalf of justice and the building of the Beloved Community."
—Murphy Davis and Ed Loring, Open Door Community, Baltimore, and Editors, Hospitality Newspaper

"This is a remarkable story of two overlapping worlds rooted in rural Arkansas—the world of an African American female and the world of a white male. These two Arkansans, standing side-by-side, look in the mirror of the life of Civil Rights leader Ida B. Wells and see themselves reflected in all their own distinctiveness. And what they see are the ways racism has and continues to distort us and how Wells'
life invites us to see not only our own stories but also our common humanity.
—Erskine Clarke, recipient of Columbia University's Bancroft Prize for his book Dwelling Place

"At the center of this book is the powerful legacy of Ida B. Wells and her relentless fight against racism and injustice. Through their reflections on her story, Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe illuminate aspects of their own personal histories and contemporary struggles for racial equality. They offer something remarkable in today's political climate: an African-American woman and a white man with the ability to hear each other's stories with grace even as they press toward justice. Their frank dialogue is a model for others seeking interracial community and social change."
—Susan E. Hylen, associate professor of New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

 “Sobering, searing and ultimately uplifting, this look at the life of Ida B Wells offers insight into not only one of America’s most ferocious social justice warriors but the authors own biographical recollections show how Wells’ witness is just as important today as it was yesterday.  The astonishing courage of Ida B. Wells comes through in this deeply insightful look at a woman that more people should know. The authors, Nibs Stroupe and Catherine Meeks, show how Wells’s battles against racism, sexism and balancing her life as a mom and an activist offers lessons for us today as well as insights into the past.
—John Blake, author of Children of the Movement and senior writer at CNN.com

"This thoughtful, moving book is much more than a biography. Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe offer deeply personal reflections on the meaning of Ida B. Wells for their lives—and ours. They remember Wells's witness and extend it with their own. And they offer a powerful call to join the struggle."
—Ted A. Smith, Professor of Preaching and Ethics, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

"GOING BACK HOME"

“GOING BACK HOME”

            In a couple of weeks, Caroline and I will drive over to my hometown of Helena, Arkansas, to participate in the dedication there of a memorial to the victims of the Elaine Massacre, who were lynched in the last days of September and early October, 1919. It is called the “Elaine” massacre, because it began in the Elaine area but spread throughout Phillips County.  It was a massive massacre – over 235 African-Americans murdered by roving white lynch mobs.  It was finally stopped when U.S. Army troops arrived by train to end the violence.  The exact count will never be known, but it was large enough to be among the biggest mass murders in American history.  The stated motivation for the slaughter was the alleged discovery of a plot by African-Americans to kill white planters and take their land.   The real reason was that the African-American tenant farmers were seeking to organize to get better prices for the cotton that they were growing, seeking to take a step out of the neo-slavery in which they were held. 

            There was an organizing meeting occurring at a black church in Ratio, Arkansas, and white deputies and allies fired on the people.  In self defense, the black workers returned the fire, and the fight was on.  No uprising planned, except for the whites – white mobs poured in from east Arkansas, west Tennessee, and north Mississippi.  Many African-Americans were arrested, and twelve men were eventually tried and convicted of murder and were sentenced to death.  That is where a connection to Ida Wells comes in.  She heard about this case and was an early publicist of it in the Chicago Defender, and she was an early fund-raiser for it.  The NAACP and a black advocacy group in Arkansas and Phillips County became the main legal defenders of these 12 men.

            I heard whispers of this slaughter when I was growing up in Helena, but it was always framed in the idea that it needed to be done to keep Black people in their places.  Being totally captured by the power of race, I believed this version of the story.  I had always thought that only a few African-American people were killed, all men.  If I had known the magnitude of the slaughter, I would hope that I would have questioned it more.  Indeed, I did not learn of its magnitude until 2015, when I heard from my long-time friend David Billings.  He sent me a New York Times article based on a comprehensive study of lynching by the Equal Justice Institute.  David sent me the article and indicated that we were at the top of the list – Phillips County was infamously #1.    

            Ida Wells did the first comprehensive study of lynching in 1892, and her approach was followed by EJI in 2015.  She later visited the men sentenced to death in this case, and she urged them to keep their spirits up and to believe in the God of Paul and Silas, who freed them from their cells.  She came in disguise to Arkansas to see these men, because it was her first trip back to the South since she was exiled in 1892, after her study on lynching was published.  Her study had indicated that the cause for the lynchings was not the alleged sexual promiscuity of black men but rather the desire to re-establish slavery by the white supremacists of the South.  Her offices in Memphis were fire-bombed, and a price was put on her head.  She was in New York when this occurred, and she remained in exile until she returned to visit these men in an Arkansas prison.

            Ida Wells proved to be prophetic in this case.  Thanks to the stellar work of a black attorney, Scipio Jones, born in slavery in Arkansas, and a white attorney, an ex-Confederate officer named George Murphy, and the powerful and persistent support and work of the NAACP, the case of these men made it to the US Supreme Court in Moore v. Dempsey.  In 1923 SCOTUS overturned their convictions, and it was the first time that this assertion of federal authority over state court decisions had been affirmed in relation to the South, since the Civil War.  All twelve were eventually freed.

            I will have many mixed emotions as I return to my home of Helena – in many ways, this will be a surreal event.  I don’t know much about its development.  I was invited into it this summer by my colleague and co-author, Catherine Meeks, who will speak at this mostly Episcopal event.  There is conflict over placing the memorial in Helena rather than in Elaine, and most of the decision makers are white.   So, it will be interesting to witness and experience, and I will report on it later.  For now, I want to lift it up and to lift up the great news that next week, Catherine’s and my book “Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time” will be released.  You can get your copy from the publisher www.churchpublishing.org/passionateforjustice, or from your local bookstore, or from Amazon, or from me (if you want a signed copy!)  More on all of that next week!