Beginning a Journey

As a part of my response to our pastor's series which began Sunday on Race, I have begun reading Michael Emerson's book “Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America.” The second book arrived today. “The Warmth of Another Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.”

All you pastors on my FB feed, should be encouraged that a member of any church is challenged to read beyond the time in Bible Study and Worship.

I have become slowly aware of a truism: “those who write the history, control the history.” Many folks today in America are skeptical of the “mainstream” media, primarily because, in my opinion,” of the assault on mainstream media over the last twenty years because folk don't like how their viewpoints are portrayed in the mainsteam media. As a retired pastor, I know I was sometimes frustrated with the lack of understanding of our particular faith and polity. However, in the broad scheme of things, my quibbles were few.

However, delving into some of the biographies of our early presidents—particularly US Grant, I jumped off into a body of information/history I believe I was never exposed to. That body of information and history was what actually happened in the South after the war between the states. Reconstruction in my education consisted of how the “North” oppressed the Southern States with rules and regulations which were seen as mean or harsh. What I did not learn, was the extraordinary ways Southern States went to in attempts to minimize and oppress the former slaves who had been newly freed. I was shocked at many how Blacks were killed at the hands of Whites during this time. Ron Chernow in his biography of US Grant, perhaps for the first time, exposed me to the Southern efforts to contain the influence and freedom of the newly freed slaves.

With that experience in my sails, I come to some more information to which I was never exposed. Isabel Wilkerson writes about a great migration that honestly I do not remember ever having heard about or read about. From 1915-1970 almost 6 million people fled the South to the Northern and Western cities hoping for a better life. What I do remember are the “Dust Bowl” years but never this particular migration. I guess in a nation of 100M, the movement of Blacks out of the South could escape notice. More than that, I believe it is that maxim: “Those who write the history control the history.”

There are a couple of reasons why this maxim is important. First, writers always write with a bias. They may strive to be neutral and “unbiased” but I believe that is impossible. It just is not possible. Even before we speak or write, what we have seen or heard is processed/filtered through our eyes, our values, our faith, our bedrock principles. That is why we cannot just depend on one source for our news.

The migration of 6 million African American from the South was not a newsworthy story to be written. It was not something the “mainstream” might be interested in, or for that matter anyone but Black Americans.

As I delve into these two books, I expect to be confronted with my own prejudice, and my own racial bias which I did not see or care to see what was happening all around me.

However, with that said I have always been one who wanted to know the rest of the story. So this journey will be enlightening and uncomfortable.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind.