"COFFEE COUNTY, GEORGIA"

 “COFFEE COUNTY, GEORGIA”

There are many smoking guns in the massive indictment issued by Fulton County, Georgia over Donald Trump and others attempting to interfere in the 2020 election results.  Nineteen people, including Trump, were indicted in the news conference announced by DA Fani Willis on August 16.  Not only were there many smoking guns seen in those indictments – there were also at least two blazing guns seen.  One was the infamous phone call that Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, “asking” him to find 11,870 more votes for Trump.  When Raffensberger told him that the votes were not there, Trump began to make all kinds of veiled threats to Raffensberger.  Trump later described it as a “perfect phone call.”

The other blazing gun was seen in a video from the elections office of Coffee County, Georgia, which is in rural south Georgia, about 200 miles south of Atlanta.  On January 7, 2021, the day after the violent and murderous insurrection of January 6, a team from Sullivan/Strickler showed up in broad daylight at the Coffee County elections office in Douglas, Georgia.  Their mission was to commit the obvious crime of copying all election data and the inner workings of the voting machine systems used by Coffee County and the state of Georgia.  Sullivan/Strickler had been hired by attorney Sidney Powell’s company to do this work.  I’d like to say that the elections supervisor blocked them at the door, telling them that their request for such information was not only irregular but also illegal under Georgia law.  

The video shows something different, however.  It shows Republican Party county chair Cathy Latham waving them in, and elections supervisor Missy Hampton welcoming them in and assisting them in their efforts to commit an elections crime in Georgia.  All of the participants in this process were white, and the information taken on January 7 was shared all around the country.  None of this was known until the video was released as part of the evidence in another case.  This happened in a county that voted 70% in favor of Trump in the 2020 election, so it was not a case of seeking to discover voter fraud in the county.  It came technically on the same day that the US House of Representatives had voted to certify the 2020 election results, a vote that had been delayed until 3 AM because of the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, seeking to overturn the election results at Trump’s urging.

I’d like to say that Coffee County was a very isolated case, but as we are coming to learn, Trump and his team of Powell, Eastman, Giuliani, and others were pressuring several states in the same way.  Coffee County also has a long history of voter intimidation and suppression, and that 70% vote for Trump mirrors the white population of Coffee County. The county was named for Maj. John Coffee, known as a famous fighter in the “Indian Wars” of 1833-36, which led to the removal of Muskogee and Cherokee tribes, who lived on the land prior to the European invasion.  This removal came to be known as “The Trail of Tears.”

Coffee County was part of the voter suppression in post-Reconstruction days and maintained that stance throughout the days of neo-slavery, until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 began to end that era.  It is the county where segregationist governor Lester Maddox gave many speeches in the neo-slavery days, because he thought that it was safe territory.  Progress was made late in the 20th century because of courageous Black leaders like Gladys Coley, but the election of Barack Obama as president brought out the neo-slavery voices and efforts.  Olivia Coley-Pearson, a Black Douglas city commissioner and daughter of Glady Coley, knows that oppression first hand.  She was arrested in 2011 on elections interference charges because she assisted people at the polls, but the state of Georgia declined to prosecute her.  Coffee County brought the charges forward and tried her twice in 2012, one trial ending in a hung jury and the second in an acquittal.

Coley-Pearson had these comments about the current situation in Coffee County (and throughout the rural South, for that matter):  “In terms of voting rights, I’ve definitely seen regress,” Coley-Pearson said. “Back in the 1960s, we had to  count the jelly beans; this, that and the other. We aren’t still there, but where we are is a more sophisticated means of voter suppression. We might have progressed some at one point in time, but we are currently moving backwards.”

We are definitely at a crucial point in our democracy, and the events of 2023 and 2024 will determine our future.  Keep your eyes and ears open – the forces of white supremacy have given us notice that they intend to take us back to neo-slavery.  It will be up to us to prevent that.  

"BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY"

 “BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY”

Sixty years ago, I was a senior in high school in the fall of 1963, and I had listened to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington on August 28.  That speech and that March had moved the dial a little bit for me.  I was not converted yet from my captivity to white supremacy and its interpretation of life, but that day had opened the window just a tad.  I was beginning to think that there was more to the story of race and white superiority, which I had been taught from infancy, and which I believed.

Almost 3 weeks later came the white supremacist answer to the March on Washington, to the Birmingham campaign in the spring, and to the growing calls from the civil rights movement to put the idea of equality back on to the map of American history and landscape.  On Sunday, September 15, 1963, many Black families in Birmingham headed to church, including Pastor John Cross and his family at Sixteenth Avenue Baptist.  They were not aware that a splinter group of the KKK had planted 19 sticks of dynamite underneath the stairs on the east side of the church, wired to a timer set to go off on Sunday morning.  

At 10:22 AM on Sunday, September 15, the dynamite went off, injuring over 20 people and killing 4 young Black girls getting ready for worship:  Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair.  It was a heinous act, designed to terrorize the Black people who led the civil rights movement in Birmingham.  Sixteenth Street Church was a hub of that movement, and later I would meet Reverend Cross in our work at Oakhurst Presbyterian.  He was a member of nearby Oakhurst Baptist, and his wife, Mrs. Cross, was a leader at the Girls Club, housed at our church.  He had many stories to tell of that fateful day and of the cost that the bombing extracted in his heart and in the hearts of many others.  Filled with grief and anger, they remained determined to be witnesses to the necessity of moving towards the great uncashed check of equality in American history.  Rhiannon Giddens recorded  a very moving song about this time – a song called “Birmingham Sunday,” written by Richard Farina.  Here’s a link to it: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_T5KlTpvoM

The four cowards were white men named  Thomas Edwin Blanton, Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry.  The FBI investigated the bombing, and they determined the identities of the men who did the bombing.  But FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover would never allow them to be prosecuted, and the case was closed.  The first one prosecuted was Chambliss in 1977.  Alabama Attorney General William Baxley had reopened the case in 1971 and led the prosecution.  Chambliss was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1985.  Blanton and Cherry were later convicted in 2001 and 2002 and died in prison.  In his closing argument, prosecuting attorney and future U.S. Senator Doug Jones said that although the trial was conducted 38 years after the bombing, it was no less important, adding: "It's never too late for the truth to be told ... It's never too late for a man to be held accountable for his crimes." The fourth coward, Herman Cash died before the cases were ever reopened.  

I remember hearing about the Birmingham Sunday bombing soon after it happened in 1963, and I had a split reaction to it.  I was horrified at the violence, at the violation of a church itself, and by the cowards who did it.  Yet, I also felt that if Black people would only leave things alone and let equality come gradually to the South, then heinous acts like this would not happen.  I could understand the horrible loss of life, but I was still held in deep captivity to the power of white supremacy.  Since the people who died were children in church, I could not say that they deserved it, but I did feel like Black people had brought this upon themselves.  I had a long way to go until I could find my true center, not as a racist, white supremacist but as a child of God, called to live and fight for equality and equal dignity for all, no matter one’s racial or gender or economic classification.

We are now in a time when white supremacy is regaining strength – in some states, this history about Birmingham Sunday would not be allowed to be taught in schools.  Racial violence is growing, and Trumpism is calling forth the spirits of the cowards who slinked into Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to plant the explosives.  Don’t recall their names – recall Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair.  Don’t be of a split mind like I was in 1963.  Find your place to work for justice and equality.  Pray about the craziness in which we now find ourselves – and practice what you pray.

"SUSAN STROUPE!"

 “SUSAN STROUPE!”

This Tuesday is our daughter Susan Stroupe’s birthday – we give thanks for her!  She has been such a gift to us over these many years, from her quick delivery at birth to her recent navigation of our summer trip to New York state to see human rights sites.  She traveled in David’s shadow for awhile, being almost 3 years younger than him.  Having different gender identities cut down some of the rivalry between them also, but soon Susan began to develop her own identity and path.  She was born in Nashville, but we moved to Decatur when she was 6 months old, and she found her place here.

When she was in the first grade, she had the magnificent Debbie Miller as her teacher, and they quickly bonded.  Ms. Miller contacted us to see if we would allow Susan to star in the school play (grades 1-5 at that time).  We were flattered, but we replied, “Are you sure Susan can do this?  She’s so shy, and she would have so many lines to memorize.”  Ms. Miller answered:  “I don’t think that you have to worry about that – she comes alive on the stage, and she not only has all her lines already memorized;  she has memorized everybody else’s lines as well.  She is already acting like an assistant director.”  We agreed, and of course, Susan was wonderful in the play.  Her love for all things theater was born and nurtured there.  

She surprised us many times, including her driving test, which she took as soon as she was eligible.  I had taught her to drive, using the lower parking lot at the church to teach her parallel parking with two plastic garbage cans as the markers.  When we went for the test, she aced the parallel parking, and indeed the tester told her to go ahead and finish up after that.  I was fearful at the rapid conclusion, thinking that she had somehow failed, but the instructor was so impressed (and so hot – the ac in our car was not working), that she gave her a 93 on the test.  She has shared her skills of parallel parking with many friends in Baltimore, where it is a necessity. 

At her high school graduation, she earned salutatorian, and she won the Atlanta Journal Constitution Cup as the Outstanding Senior of Decatur High, considered the crowning achievement of the class.  She wanted to get out of the South for weather reasons (too hot) and for spiritual reasons – she was tired of the blatant white supremacy, the acceptance of patriarchy, and the lack of sensitivity to gender identity, so she went off to cold Minnesota to attend Macalester College in St. Paul/Minneapolis.  It would be one of several places where she would move which gave us opportunities to visit and experience new locales – later there would be Albuquerque, Westfield New York, and Baltimore, with internships in Los Angeles and Vermont in between.   During one of our visits to Minnesota, we went up to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which began with a little overflowing from Lake Itasca to become the mighty River in American history.  I was amazed to walk across the beginnings of the Mississippi, since it is a mile wide in my hometown of Helena, Arkansas.  

She has been in Baltimore for 14 years now – wow, I had not counted those up before.  She has acted and directed in many plays there, has helped to form a cooperative for an immersive theater company (Submersive Productions), and she has been blessed so far to find day jobs that are related to the theater.  She joined Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, sings in the great choir there (along with Taylor Branch, among others), taught several confirmation classes for the youth, was elected to be an elder on the Session and now serves as co-clerk of the Session. She teaches part-time at University of Maryland in Baltimore County, and she is working on expanding the theater canon from an all-white men’s club to include many other varieties of playwrights.

She has blessed our lives in so many ways, including our trip this summer to central and upstate New York to see human rights sites that included Harriet Tubman’s home, Susan B. Anthony’s home, Gerritt Smith’s home in tiny Peterboro, the Shaker Heritage Society, and John Brown’s Farm in the Adirondack Mountains.  We also took a side jaunt to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown – quite a trip.

    So, in this week, we give thanks for the great Mary Susan Stroupe!  She is a powerful gift to us and to many others – Happy Birthday, Susan!

"WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM"

 “WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM”

“We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes…” those are words spoken by Ella Baker in the 1960’s as part of the struggle for human rights for African-Americans.  I first encountered them in a song called “Ella’s Song,” written by Bernice Johnson Reagon for Sweet Honey in the Rock.  If you haven’t heard that song or heard of Ella Baker either, please take time on this Labor Day to engage them.

And, yes, Labor Day is a time of rest to honor the workers of America.  It has been a national holiday for almost 130 years, being signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894.  Workers had been agitating for unions and rights in the mid to late 1800’s in response to the rapid industrialization, the growing exploitations of workers (see my blog last year on the Atlanta Washerwoman’s Strike of 1881 https://nibsnotes.blogspot.com/2022/09/washerwomans-strike-1881.html), 

and the yawning pay gap between the super-wealthy and the workers. The first celebration of Labor Day was in New York City in September, 1882, but the crux came in 1894 when Eugene V. Debs led the Pullman Railroad Strike, which paralyzed much of the railroad traffic.  President Cleveland sent in US Army troops to stop the strike, and there were violent confrontations, resulting in the deaths of dozens of workers.  Debs ended up being prosecuted for his leadership in the strike, and he served time in federal prison, despite being represented by Clarence Darrow and others.  

In order to placate the workers’ anger and movement, Cleveland persuaded Congress to pass a law establishing a national holiday for workers, known as Labor Day.   They chose the first Monday in September rather than May 1 because they did not want it to be associated with the International Workers Day.   Their desire to tame it seemed to work well.  Labor Day is largely seen as the day to mark the end of summer and to have the last of the sales before the Christmas rush of sales begins.  And, membership in labor unions has been diminishing over the last 50 years, down from 35% of workers to 6% of workers today.  Indeed, the marking of Labor Day did not establish the foundation for unions – that would not come until 1935 with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.

Yet this year there seem to be some parallels between the roots of Labor Day and the current atmosphere.  Writers and actors are on a national strike, UPS just concluded tough negotiations with the Teamsters Union drivers and workers, and airline and auto workers have given signals that they expect to call for strikes if working conditions and pay are not upgraded.  The early roots of the labor movement had its Carnegies and Rockefellers to contend with, and now it’s the Musks and the Bezoses who are the bosses in another period of rapid change and exploitation and resistance.  Plus, we’ve had a recent president who wanted to send out the Army for many domestic situations, so Grover Cleveland is being channeled by the Trumpster.

So, on this Labor Day, as you relax or shop or meditate, take time to give thanks to the workers and organizers, who over the decades have labored and fought to develop rights for those who labor.  Though union membership has dropped considerably and is especially low in the ironically named “right to work” states of the South, let us renew our commitment to justice for the workers.  The success of the union movement has been so great that they have almost put themselves out of business, but the need for them remains deep and great.  Let us acknowledge their legacy but also the need for continuing work.  We who believe in freedom cannot rest, except for perhaps on Labor Day.