I observed Juneteeneth (the anniversary of the end of slavery in the U.S. with the long-delayed announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galvestan, TX on June 19, 1865, 2 1/2 years after the Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1963) by participating via Zoom in a symposium on the life and work of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The symposium was offered by Chicago Theological Seminary, Jackson's
alma mater and mine as well (he was there about 7-8 years after I was)
. It featured Jackson himself (who is 78 years old), Dr. Obrey Hendricks, Rev. David Wallace, Rev Otis Moss, Jr., and Prof. Joanne Terrell of CTS. It was very interesting. Jackson mainly was remembering his earlier days as a student, and although he was at CTS later than I, I recognized many of the names he mentioned. My field work (1954-55) was in the West Side Christian Parish and Roberts Brooks Homes Housing Project (all African-American) - in a way I was helping to lay the foundation for Jackson's later work! Hendricks was arguing, convincingly, I feel, that Jackson is under-appreciated and worthy of study. His was an amazingly rich career: founder of
Operation Breadbasket (a.k.a.
Rainbow PUSH), a colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr., (he was at his side on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King was assassinated), a politician (he ran for President twice (1984 and 1988) and as someone pointed out, laid out Bernie Sanders' platform 30-35 years before Bernie (e.g., he advocated a single-payer government-run health-care system); and a successful international mediator, negotiating the release of scores of prisoners from many countries, including Syria, Iraq and Yugoslavia.
Joanne Terrell spoke passionately about little-known women civil-rights heroes, and David Wallace and Otis Moss (Jackson's contemporaries) filled in details around Jackson's life. It was a 3-hour symposium and it went by fast. A great way to celebrate Juneteenth!
No comments:
Post a Comment