Keenon Mann

"Two things to talk about today: One relates to the other, and vice versa, loosely… very loosely…

(1) Reflections:
A few days ago, while touring the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama some of my classmates and I were engaged in an interesting conversation. I was reminded of this conversation because of some of our experiences in church this afternoon. Well anyway, we talked about (1) why religion seemed to be such an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, (2) why majority of the civil rights leadership were members of clergy, and (3) why crosses, of all available objects, were burned in the yards of Blacks and those protesting the treatment of Blacks in the United States.

I feel that on the whole, Black people’s dependence on religion was such a great part of the Civil Rights Movement because of its roots in the institution of slavery. As Africans and African-Americans were enslaved in the United States, everything, including their very identity, was stripped from them gradually but deliberately. Christianity, which ironically was the religion of those who enslaved Blacks, offered a possible life and definite afterlife full of endless rewards. Particularly in the Old Testament, there were accounts about the deliverance of Moses and the Egyptians; becoming familiar with these Biblical anecdotes, slaves finally experienced the chance to be free and prosperous. This reliance on religion as a means of escape was maintained throughout slavery and into the Civil Rights era.

Alone, the aforementioned confidence in Christianity explains the prosperity of religious leaders in the Black community. Also, because Blacks in general were not given many chances to advance outside of the socioeconomic world provided within their own communities, clergymen were among the highest paid Blacks.

Burning crosses… The dual symbolism of fires and crosses seems quite oxymoronic to me. When I think of fires, quite frankly, one of the first things I think about is hell, fire and brimstone. When I think of crosses, I think of Christianity. The burning cross to me is a metaphor for the paradoxical actions of Klansmen and other hate groups, especially those professing to be motivated by some kinds of twisted Christian principles. I will not at this time devote brain power attempting to analyze how someone can rationalize the poor treatment of human beings while simultaneously proclaiming to serve a God who supposedly opens His arms of love, protection, guidance, mercy, etc. to all people. I strongly believe that Klansmen subscribed to the same theories I just proposed about Blacks and religion in America and that they were intimidated by the way religion unified Black communities, served as a constant in so many of their lives, and kept them grounded in spite of the torment with which they were afflicted. We have watched a number of movies and videos in which we saw burning crosses, talked to people who were tormented by numerous intimidation tactics, and walked on ground once littered by personified hatred. My personal research in this class has certainly reiterated in my mind that the act of burning crosses may have temporarily negatively impacted victims, but the only long term effect is that the perpetrators helped illuminate the ignorance which is the basis for hate crimes.

(2) “Do you need a change?”
Most people in the congregation asked this question to people they had seen Sunday after Sunday sitting in the same pews they had occupied every week for months, years, even decades before. You see, this was a kind of call-and-response portion of the pastor’s sermon in which he asked members of the congregation to pose this loaded question to those adjacent to them. He had explained, through the example of a person who once ate “garbage” because of his socioeconomic position and was now allowed to partake of food from a restaurateur not because of the person’s merit but because of the grace of the restaurateur, that the change he spoke of was a change from a sinful lifestyle to a life under the leadership of an omnipotent God.

A new group of people, “The Real World: Deep South” (as I affectionately refer to us), sat in the audience of this same church, which was led by a nationally known bishop. Our group was/is integrated on a level the members of this congregation would not understand, for their church experience had not thoroughly prepared them for interaction in the church with people thinking outside of the spiritual realm that was in large part a basis for their reality. Our group is composed of a diverse group of people, on so many levels, but on this day, the difference that became apparent was religious experience. (By the way, I am in no way creating any kind of negative stratification that would give significance to those with more or less of any experience.)

I realized midway into the service that I had quite the advantage as a person who has spent over twenty-one years encompassed by the institution of Christianity, particularly Christianity within a majority Black community. Much of the sermon and the church service were catered to people, who, like me, are well accustomed to the traditions, and very character of the African-American Christian experience. As I reflect on this experience today, I really wish that some of the people I have met aboard the RW: DS were either better prepared for the church service this afternoon or that the church’s leaders had taken into account that people unfamiliar with the experience may be in attendance. Actually, now that I think about it, no amount of preparation would have been as adequate as was necessary.

The fact remains that everyone can not be satiated in every one of life’s experiences, which, as one of my classmates stated during our class discussion, is one reason why there are many different types of churches, schools, organizations, etc. However, the fact that there are different kinds of groups for each individual to become a part of is no excuse for members of any particular group to intentionally exclude others. (This is in no way an indictment of the church we attended or the people in attendance… just me going off on a tangent.) This same dilemma lies at the root of the racial, gender and class disparities in America, which of course we have been studying."

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