"THE HOUR COMETH"

“THE HOUR COMETH”

            In the longest continuous conversation that he has with anyone in the Bible, Jesus engages a Samaritan woman on matters of faith and gender and justice in the fourth chapter of John.  In that chapter, he indicates to the “other,” to the alien one, that the time is coming when God will be revealed as the God of many different kinds of people.  The unnamed (what else is new?) woman gives Jesus as good as she gets, but in the end, she is impressed by him and goes to tell all her neighbors, thereby becoming the first evangelist in John’s gospel.

            In August, 1974, Caroline and  were traveling in west Tennessee and Arkansas, meeting family and friends after our marriage in May, 1974 (Caroline did not want to be a June bride, so we got married during the middle of my final exams. 

We went to McKenzie, Tennessee where her grandmother Sophie lived.  Sophie was in her early 90’s, but she hosted an early afternoon tea for all her friends to come and meet Caroline’s new husband.  As I recall, it was a lot of older women, coming to see Caroline all grown-up and married.  We had a good visit, but at about 4 PM, Sophie made an announcement – she really appreciated all the friends coming over, but now the party was ending because she was going to turn on the TV to watch the Watergate proceedings.  She invited all guests to stay and watch, but she wanted it made clear that our energy would be focused on Watergate, not on the party.   It would only be a few days until Richard Nixon would resign as President.  The hour had come.

            Though I think that the outcome will be different, it feels as if the hour cometh now in the impeachment inquiry hearings on the presidency of Donald Trump.  If the Democratic House votes to impeach Trump, it will be the first time that the Democrats have ever impeached a president.  The other two impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton came at the hands of the Republicans.  The Democratic House had not voted on articles of impeachment when Nixon resigned, although they surely would have.  I do believe that the House will vote to impeach Donald Trump, and I do believe that they should.   At this point, it does not look like the Senate will convict him, but the House must go through this process.  It may be a bad political move for the Democrats (I do not think that it will be, however), but Trump’s presidency has been so full of deceit, contempt and egregious lawbreaking, that impeachment must take place to seek to save a shred of decency for the country and our democratic republic. 

            Trump seems to have such contempt for our democratic institutions that the shorter his term as president, the better.  I do not believe that the impeachment will be validated in the Senate, so registration and turnout for the 2020 election will be key.  Let us all commit ourselves to register at least 10 people to vote who are not currently registered.  The Trumpsters seem unlikely to change, so it will be a question of turning people out to the polls, if we are to defeat his desire for a second term as president.  I don’t want to be apocalyptic, but a Trump re-election may mean the end of the USA as we know it.  I don’t know if this election is more similar to 1860 (when Lincoln was elected), to 1876 (when Hayes was elected by a compromise to pull the federal troops out of the South), or to 1932 (when Franklin Roosevelt was elected to the first of his four terms).  I do know that it is an essential part of 2020 to make Donald Trump a one-term president.  And if he is defeated, the next question is whether he will step down or claim that the election was stolen from him.  In the end, the U.S. military may be the deciding factor – let’s hope that I am just paranoid about this, but nothing in Trump’s background or performance makes me think that he will accept losing the 2020 election.  The hour may indeed be coming.

"FINAL THOUGHTS (FOR NOW) ON GOING HOME"

“FINAL THOUGHTS (FOR NOW) ON GOING HOME”

            Three weekends ago Caroline and I were in my hometown of Helena, Arkansas.  We went there to attend the dedication of a memorial to the 235+ victims of a mass lynching in Phillips County.  It was initially called the Elaine Race Riot, which implied that people of both white and black racial classification were participants.  As it turned out, it was a white slaughter of black people in Phillips County, and it is now correctly called the Elaine Massacre, named after the closest town where it began. 

            There are many issues surrounding the Massacre and the Memorial, but for me this fact stands out most clearly:  the Memorial monument is huge, and it will stand as a daily reminder to all who see it of a new narrative of American history.  This Memorial is a marker of a different story of our history – we are not just a nation of self-driven, independent achievers.  Our national story also must include the genocide of those living here when the Europeans came.  It must include the labor and accomplishments of people from Africa, many of whom were brought here in chains as slaves.  This Memorial reminds us that slavery and racism and white supremacy are not unfortunate blots on our national character.  They are fundamental to our national character and must be acknowledged and resisted.

            The dedication was held in Helena at the new monument, and that brought up the first controversy:  why Helena and not Elaine?  The simplest answer is that Elaine is now almost non-existent, and Helena is the county seat where all the trials were – trials not of the white men who did the killing, but rather the black men and women who were the victims.  Yet there is no marker in Elaine, and there should at least be something there.

            The other controversy was the lack of black participation in the dedication.  The venue in Helena was filled with at least 400 people, but 85% of them were Anglos – where were the black people?  Helena is vast majority black demographically, but they were maybe 50-70 African-Americans there.  I learned later that there was an alternative service in Elaine at the same time with about 175 people in attendance there.  I’m guessing that the skin colors of the people at the Elaine gathering looked remarkably different.  That perception leads me to understand how complicated the Memorial is.  From my outsider perspective, it seems to be a white event that expresses white acknowledgment of a horrible crime 100 years ago and our sorrow for it.   Its development and funding suggests that the same dynamic that led to the slaughter still prevails:  people classified as “white” must be in control.  Even at this touchpoint where the violence and brutality of white supremacy are expressed and remembered in a powerful art piece, the power of white supremacy still prevails. 

            This Memorial is a reminder that there are several narratives intertwined in the story of American history.  We are currently engaged in a great struggle over whether the narrative of the power of white supremacy will be acknowledged in our story.  The Trumpster and his base see white supremacy as the natural order, even as God-given.  Many of the rest of us see it as sinful and an abomination that must have things like the Elaine Massacre in order to keep its power.  I am grateful that the Elaine Massacre at least led to a fundamental Supreme Court case, Moore v. Dempsey.  In that decision, SCOTUS decided to overturn the death verdicts of the black men convicted in the Elaine Massacre.  It was the first time since the Civil War that the Court had overturned a criminal case verdict in a state court decision.  It would be the harbinger of many other cases, as the Court began to assert the primary power of the federal government to regulate the states.   That decision echoes now 100 years later in our fundamental struggles today.

"COLUMBUS DAY IN ATLANTA"

“COLUMBUS DAY IN ATLANTA”

            Many people in Atlanta were shocked at the Atlantans’ humiliating demise in the baseball playoff loss to my boyhood team, the St. Louis Cardinals.  I no longer call them the Braves – I call them the “Atlantans” for now, even though they technically do not play in the city of Atlanta.  I’ve pretty much given up on college and pro football – college because they exploit the young adults so much, and pro because the obvious principle is to knock someone else’s brains out.  Yet, baseball still has a hold on my heart, though I do not give it nearly as much spiritual value as I used to.  Being an old guy, I like the slow pace of baseball. I like the fact that there is no clock to tell you when the game is over, but most of all I like that it is so much like life:  the best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time. 

            But, back to the Atlantans.  It is my prediction that the team known as the Braves will not win any titles until they drop their racist name and antics associated with that name.  There is a reason that teams known as the Redskins, Braves, Indians and others like them have not won big titles.  The sports gods are hearing the cries of Native Americans, and the curse is upon them.  Back in the early days of the Atlantans baseball team, columnist Lewis Grizzard once wrote that the reason that the great baseball teams of Atlanta had not won more titles was that an African-American woman had cursed the pitching mound when her home had been taken by the city authorities to build the Fulton County stadium (which has since been torn down).   For all their great baseball teams over almost 30 years, the Atlantans have one only one World Series title.  Since Fulton County Stadium is gone – and since the current stadium is in Cobb County, I’m now calling it the curse of Cherokee Chief John Ross.

            For those who don’t like or follow baseball (or sports), this approach may seem strange, but it is a segue into Columbus Day, or what should more appropriately be called “Indigenous Peoples Day.”  In 1992 when the culture was celebrating the 500^th anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas, our son David won a DAR award for best citizen at his elementary school.  On the day that he received the award, he wore a T-shirt that began with the saying “How could Columbus have discovered America when there were already people living here?”  I thought that it was a bit much for the DAR folk, but when I asked him about it, he replied: “Dad, where do you think that I learned this?”  No argument there!

            A growing number of communities are celebrating “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” rather than “Columbus Day,” and I give thanks for that.   The idea that Columbus discovered America is pernicious and evil, and many denominations have begun to ask our membership to recognize this evil.  For Presbyterians, here’s the link 

https://www.presbyterianmission.org/wp-content/uploads/Doctrine-of-Discovery-Report-to-the-223rd-GA-2018-FINALIZED-COPY_As-Approved.pdf

One of the great problems for those of us “classified as white” in American culture is that we have the idea of innocence in our cultural memory.  By “innocence,” I mean the idea that our privilege as white people has been earned, that we have worked hard and deserve it.  We cannot acknowledge our history of violence and racism and slaughter and slavery – put this way, who could?  But, it is essential in these days that we begin to come to terms with our real history.  I don’t say this to beat up on anyone or make anyone feel guilty.  I say it because it is the truth, and we must know the truth in order to find our humanity. 

            We are currently seeing the consequences of living out of the lies of our history.  We have a dictator-in-waiting and a 35-40% base of followers who would seem to follow him into hell.  I am hoping that our institutions of democracy - and the idea of equality at the heart of our national life – will prevail, but it seems up in the air right now.  One way to redeem the time is for us to acknowledge and come to terms with the fact that racism and slavery and white supremacy are not unfortunate blots on our national character – they are part of our national character.  So, on this day, let us turn to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and away from Columbus Day.

"PROCESSING HOME"

“PROCESSING HOME”

            A week ago we were in my hometown of Helena to participate in the dedication of a memorial to the 235+ victims of the Elaine Massacre lynching 100 years ago.  I didn’t write last week because I was still processing it all – I still am – but I need to start back writing.  I’m hoping to do a poem about it, but nothing has emerged so far.  There were two ceremonies involved, the first in Elaine on Saturday in the hot and humid delta of the Mississippi River.  One of the controversies of the whole process was that the memorial was placed in Helena, where there was plenty of killing, but nothing in Elaine near where the slaughter started.  I wasn’t part of the inner workings, so I don’t know the reasons for that placement, but the town of Elaine is on the verge of extinction (less than 500 people), so that was the likely reason.  Still, some art form to acknowledge Elaine as a central location for the slaughter would seem to be appropriate.

            On Sunday morning, Caroline and I attended the worship service at the Episcopal Church – the bishop of Arkansas was there to preach to the descendants of those who had perpetrated the massacre.  His sermon was disappointing, barely mentioning the massacre and then only in the context of loving as the answer.  And the loving that he stressed was not the harsh and dreadful kind of love mentioned by Dostoyevsky and Dorothy Day, but rather the sentimental feeling of everyone trying to get along.  He did not utter the word “justice” at all in his sermon.  It was what I had expected but still disappointing when he had such a potent context to talk about the need for justice, then and now. 

            The memorial is impressive – it is a three step process of granite and a map – and it is no small thing.  One piece weighs over 14,000 pounds, and it was designed and constructed by a local resident, Amoz Eckerson.  The ceremony to dedicate it was held under an open tent structure in Helena, just south of the memorial, between Walnut Street, which used to be the home of black businesses, and the main drag of Cherry Street, where the white businesses were located.  It is also right across the street from the very Phillips County courthouse where 122+ African-Americans were sentenced for defending themselves in the slaughter and where 12 African-Americans were sentenced to death because three white men had died in the slaughter, most likely killed by the “friendly” fire of those who did the slaughter.

            The venue for the dedication was filled, with likely 400 or so people there, and 85% of the attendees were Anglo, a striking contrast to me.  Where were the African-Americans?  I wish that I had taken time to find out, but that will be for a future trip.  Was this dedication seen as an easy way out for those classified as “white,” a way of salving our conscience without making any changes in the current structures?  Was it a sign of the lack of local African-American leadership in the development of the process?  Was it seen as a waste of money, money that could have been spent for education and job development in such a poor town as Helena?  I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I will be working on them.

            There were many speakers at the ceremony, but my colleague and friend Catherine Meeks was the main one, and as usual, she was right on target.  Most of the speakers had lamented the past, as well they should, but most all had implied that while this slaughter was a terrible thing, we were moving past that now.  Catherine did not go there.  She indicated that the same veins that carried the perpetrators to such a slaughter still flowed in all of our consciousness.  The idea of reconciliation was needed, she indicated, but there were many steps needed before that.  Recognition and repentance and resistance were essential.  As Minister Malcolm once put it:  Make it plain.  And she did – in times like these in 2019, we all have to make choices.  We can either stay in league with the spiritual forces that led white people to slaughter the African-Americans because they wanted equitable pay for the cotton that they had grown, or we can resist that spirit and move towards the spirit of justice and equity and difficult loving. 

            Though she did not mention him, I will:  Donald Trump and his base are harking us back to the slaughter fields of Elaine, and it is our time to resist him and that movement.  Trump’s call for civil war if he is removed from office resonate so deeply in these killing fields of the Mississippi River Delta.  Many of the issues that seem such a core for Trump were boiling over in the hot and humid Delta:  equity for workers, voting rights for those disenfranchised, seeing the “other” as enemy rather than as sibling. 

            There were many issues with this process, but yet for me, a child of white supremacy, it is still astonishing that the memorial to the Elaine Massacre was even built and its sordid history acknowledged.  In a scary and difficult and dangerous time such as ours,  I’ll sit with that for awhile and draw strength from it. 

"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!