Tag Archives: Black History

UK Marks Black History Month

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October 22, 2024

We first learned of the United Kingdom’s Black History Month, which is celebrated in October, from the Episcopal News Service article, “Church of England prepares to mark October as Black History Month.”

In addition to the musical offerings mentioned in the above article, one of the several lectures hosted by cathedrals and churches will be given by David Olusoga, OBE, professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and author of Black and British: A Forgotten History (London: Macmillan, 2016). A BBC documentary of the same name is also posted on YouTube.

This year’s theme for the month is “Reclaiming Narratives,” and the Church of England has a rich page of resources for additional prayer, contemplation, and reflection. Study days, lectures, services, and other events have been planned, listed here:

We were happy to see that a film that we viewed a few months ago is now widely available on YouTube: “After the Flood: The Church, Slavery, and Reconciliation.”

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church October 22, 2024

Old North Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery

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September 4, 2024

Several years ago, the Episcopal News Service reported on Old North Church’s deepening its research into its connections with the slave trade, “Iconic Boston
Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery.”

Our curiosity about what has been learned since, and how the church tells its stories, led to tour Old North, Boston’s oldest surviving church. Guides lead visitors to the gallery where they narrate the history of individuals and families who were not able to purchase pews and who sat in the balcony of the church. Parishioners’ children sat on the right side facing the altar while free blacks, enslaved persons, indentured servants, and Indigenous peoples were assigned to the left side. After combing through pew records and other materials, the church has been able to piece together stories of community support and relationships that developed in the gallery. The stories are incomplete–many with questions remain–yet some patterns of social interactions are discernable. The results of their inquiries are well-presented in signage placed in certain pews, as well as on their web page, “The People in the Pews.” Continue reading →

Remembering Jonathan Myrick Daniels

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August 18, 2024

This week we pause to remember Jonathan Myrick Daniels, civil rights activist and Episcopal seminarian at the Episcopal Divinity School, who sacrificed his life in the service of voting rights marchers in Selma. He defended Ruby Sales, shielding her from death in an altercation with law enforcement on August 20, 1965.

Daniels was responding to Martin Luther King’s call for clergy of all faiths to support voting rights and the integration of churches. He first attended the Selma to Montgomery March and returned to Selma to assist in a voter-registration project in Lowndes County. Daniels explained his return to Selma in this way: “something had happened to me in Selma, which meant I had to come back. I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question…I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here.”

The Episcopal Church honors Daniels on August 14th. He is recognized as a martyr and was added to the observances of Lesser Feasts and Fasts in 1999. August 14, 1965, was the day he and the other activists were arrested in Fort Deposit, Alabama for protests calling for the integration of public places and voting rights (six days before his assassination). Continue reading →

James Baldwin’s Relevance for Our Time

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August 4, 2024

August 2, 2024 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth in New York City in 1924. Provocative and controversial during his own time and beyond, Baldwin is being remembered in tributes highlighting his artistry, influences, and the relevance of his work to today’s world.

The BBC released several broadcasts in this vein last month. Among them is the “Front Row” podcast of July 29, 2024, which hosted Colm Tóibín, author of On James Baldwin (Brandeis University Press, 2024). Tóibín noted that Baldwin was a careful reader, a masterful writer, and one who drew upon the ritual of religion to craft soaring and serious prose. Another contributor, Bonnie Greer, noted that Baldwin’s rhythmic sensibility had roots in the craft of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, one of Baldwin’s at DeWitt High School. Continue reading →

The African Meeting House

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June 25, 2024

“The simple brick building nestled in Smith Court on Boston’s Beacon Hill reveals little to the passerby to indicate its grand place in history. Yet, not only is the African Meeting House the only extant church building for blacks in America; for nearly a century it was also the political, social, educational, and religious epicenter of the black community in Boston and throughout New England.”
–Robert C. Hayden, “The African Meeting House in Boston,” 1987.

The Chapel Camp tour of the African Meeting House took place last Sunday. The stories of community building, witness, and activism are told there in the letters, articles, books, historical photos, and cultural artifacts as well as by welcoming guides. We took the regular tour of the building that served as schoolhouse, community meeting space, churches of various denominations, and public meeting hall in which speakers communicated their passion for freedom and equality, justice and education. Continue reading →

Bearing Witness

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May 6, 2024

“Bearing Witness: Museums and Places Amplifying Black History”

On May 1, 2024 , the Boston Athenaeum invited all to join in a conversation about museums as “trusted spaces of memory and education.” The panel, moderated by historian Byron Rushing, included Kyera Singleton, Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, and Christian Walkes, Director of Education at the Museum of African American History.

Hosted at the African Meeting House (Boston), the discussion focused on “the intersection of collective memory and museums, delving into the profound role and responsibility of being stewards of historic sites…[navigating] the intricate dynamics of preserving and presenting history to diverse audiences.” At a time when museums are rethinking their educational roles, we learned about these two local sites, and how they are focused on the “history and legacy of slavery and racial injustice and how we might imagine a more just world.”

In greeting and thanking Byron after the talks, we brought him an artifact from our Emmanuel history, a copy of the article about our 1995 series, “Power Shifts,” in which he spoke about wielding power for the betterment of all concerned. (Emmanuel News 1995: v. 1, no. 1) We had a moment to remember his ongoing engagement with racial justice over the years and it was wonderful to share some time with him.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church May 6, 2024

The Harriet Hayden Albums

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April 2, 2024

“Poets, prophets, and reformers are all picture-makers and this ability is the secret of their power and of their achievements. They see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction.”
–Frederick Douglass (Boston Tremont Temple lecture, 1861)

A remarkable exhibit of materials, inspired by two photograph albums owned by Harriet Hayden is now on display at the Boston Athenaeum. Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums brings to life the network of abolitionists and activists who participated in the network of assistance for freedom seekers who traveled to Boston from the 1840s onward. The Beacon Hill home of Harriet and Lewis Hayden was called “a temple of refuge” by fellow abolitionists. About one-fourth of the freedom seekers from the South found support and solace there.

We know of a connection that the Haydens had with Emmanuel’s Beecher Stowe family. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose daughter Catharine was confirmed at Emmanuel Church in 1862, visited the Hayden’s home in 1853. Stowe referenced Lewis Hayden’s “real life stories” in her response to critics of her books. (See “Lewis and Harriet Hayden House”)

–Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Mary Blocher, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church April 3 & 9, 2024

Black History Month

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March 10, 2024

“African Americans and the Arts” is the theme of Black History Month 2024. Celebrations of Black History Month at the Washington National Cathedral included its Annual HBCU Welcome Sunday and a spoken word, dance, and music event.

In addition, the Cathedral is highlighting its “Now and Forever Windows” (those replacing the 1953 Lee-Jackson windows), which were dedicated and blessed this past fall. The public event was held on September 23, 2023. The windows, designed by artist Kerry James Marshall, depict the struggle for justice as a religious struggle. It was important for the windows to, in Marshall’s words, “capture both darkness and light, both the pain of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow, as well as the quiet and exemplary dignity of the African American struggle for justice and equality and the indelible and progressive impact it has had on American society.”

As noted by Cathedral staff, the windows project prompted a wider community discussion of “What exactly is sacred art?” For a closer look at the effort to broaden the understanding of history at our nation’s cathedral, and for more about the creation and symbolism of the windows, the following resources are online:

  • Now and Forever: A Story of Freedom on the Move (video, 22 minutes)
  • Smart History’s conversation with artist Kerry James Marshall and poet Elizabeth Alexander (video, 9 minutes)

—Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin, Mary Blocher

–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church February 21, 28 & March 7, 2024

Celebrating Absalom Jones

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Black History Month begins with commemorations in the Episcopal Church honoring Absalom Jones, the first black Episcopal priest in the U.S. whose feast day is February 13th . The Episcopal News Service gives a full listing of dioceses across the country that are holding special programs.

Our diocese has rescheduled its commemoration of Absalom Jones from February 11th to April 7th, at which time Bishop Alan Gates will preside at St. Cyprian’s, Roxbury, and the Reverend James Hairston will preach. For more about Absalom Jones (1746-1818), see the history page hosted by the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia.

Or listen to the sermon preached by The Reverend Yejide Peters Pietersen (Yale Divinity School) at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on February 4, 2024. The Reverend Pietersen talks about how “saint becomes symbol” of faithful resistance and insistence in a post-Reconstruction era. She also honors Pauli Murray and Barbara Harris.

—Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church February 7 & 14, 2024

Pauli Murray’s Legacy

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Following Emmanuel’s July 2023 dedication of the Pauli Murray statue that graces our pulpit, we have some related news from her niece, Rosita Stevens-Holsey, and officially, from the U.S. Mint. The Reverend Dr, Pauli Murray Quarter was released on January 2, 2024 as one of the new set of American Women Quarters. The design and significance of the coin are described here.

We have also learned that Pauli Murray scholarship is continuing apace. A recent
collection has been published, To Speak a Defiant Word: Sermons and Speeches on Justice and Transformation. Edited by Anthony B. Pinn, this work builds on Pinn’s previous research and includes sermons, lectures, and speeches.

Lastly, of interest to us is the growing list of recipients of the annual Pauli Murray Book Prize for the best book in Black intellectual history. Sponsored by the African American Intellectual History Society, and first awarded in 2018, the list of recipients includes authors writing on Black history, Black internationalism and environmental Justice, and Black politics and activism. The winners also write a series of posts on the Society’s blog, Black Perspectives which is a global forum for news and public scholarship.

–Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church Jan. 3, 2024