Police Corruption in Greensboro, NC

Ongoing discrimination within the Greensboro Police Department has community activists and local clergy speaking out for reform. To find out more please watch this press conference held at St. Barnabas Episcopal church:

White Clergy Holds Press Conference To Stand Against Corruption and Double Standards in the Greensboro Police Department from Beloved Community Center on Vimeo.

New information regarding corruption in the Greensboro Police Department 9/22/2010

ICE Castles

Did you know there were secret ICE-sponsored detention centers for undocumented immigrants in North Carolina? Yes, today, this week, this month. Things are particularly stringent on this issue in Alamance County, apparently. Those of us who were together for the tour of the new Civil Rights Museum yesterday heard about it --not from the tour, but from one of our committee members--. It turns out that The Nation had an article about this very phenomenon about four months ago. As you will see, it mentions Cary, North Carolina. You can read it here. Read and weep.

Blood Done Sign My Name, the movie, opens this weekend

Many of you probably remember the 2004 book by Timothy Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name, a true and all too recent (1970) story about a racially motivated murder of a Black man named Henry Marrow in Oxford, North Carolina. Marrow's White killers were acquitted by an all-White jury. More violence ensued.

The book has now been made into a movie, in consultation with Tyson (who moved back to NC some years ago and lives and works in the Triangle area, teaching at both Duke and UNCG), and it opens nationwide this weekend around the country. In North Carolina, it will show in theaters in Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, and other cities.

You can see the trailer here, or go to the movie's website here. See the website for cities where the movie is showing around the U.S. and check local listings for times.

Further distribution depends largely on opening weekend ticket sales, so do help spread the word.

Bishop Gene Robinson to speak in Greensboro

As many of you already know, the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, will speak at New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro tomorrow, Thursday January 28, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. His visit is part of Guilford College's Religious Emphasis Week, as was the visit of Vanessa Julye a few days ago.

The visit was initiated and organized by Guilford students. Bishop Robinson will speak on "Is tolerance possible? Is tolerance enough?", responding to the hate incident that occurred at the college earlier this academic year.

Bishop Robinson was elected and consecrated as the first openly gay and partnered Episcopal and Anglican bishop in 2003. He had been a priest in the Diocese of New Hampshire for many years. Much of his ministry has focused on helping congregations and clergy, especially in times of conflict, utilizing his skills in congregational dynamics, conflict resolution, and mediation.

Quakers and Race: Speaker Monday, January 25, Greensboro

Guilford College, where your friendly blog-keeper teaches, has a glorious history of being a stop on the Underground Railroad, but did you know that it did not integrate until well into the 1960s? Quakers (who founded Guilford and are numerous and varied in this part of North Carolina) have a mixed history regarding race and racism.

This evening, Monday, January 25, at 7:30 p.m., a distinguished and dynamic speaker will address the racial history and present racial practices of Quakers. Vanessa Julye is co-author with Donna McDaniel of the book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African-Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice.

The lecture is at New Garden Friends Meeting, New Garden Road at Friendly Avenue, Greensboro. Conversation will follow.

Vanessa Julye is Coordinator for the Ministry on Racism for the Friends General Conference. A member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and a graduate of Westtown School and Temple University, she travels in the ministry with a special concern for helping the Religious Society of Friends become a whole blessed community.

Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship reveals that racial segregation has been as pervasive among Friends as among others of European descent.

For more information about Vanessa Julye’s lecture and other Religious Emphasis Week activities, contact Guilford College's Friends Center at 336-316-2445.

"Fear of a Black President" - article by Jonathan Walton on Religion Dispatches

If you haven't discovered Religion Dispatches yet, you might want to explore it. It is an online publication with timely, thoughtful, challenging analysis.

One of the current essays at Religion Dispatches is this one, "Fear of a Black President." The author, Jonathan Walton, teaches at the University of California at Riverside.

(Civil) comments welcome here, as always.

Latin@ Theologies and Spiritualities - Bibliographic Resources

Here is a great resource. In its own words:

This is a project and service of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the U.S. (ACHTUS), designed for its members and for scholars and students anywhere who need accurate, complete and frequently updated bibliographical information on and by U.S. Latino/a Catholics and Episcopalians.

Click here to see the bibliographies. Latin@ theology is a rich and lively enterprise!

Not sure where to start? If you have never read anything in Latin@ spirituality or theology, I have a couple of ideas of simple articles or small books. I can bring them to our next RJ&R meeting and will also post references to them here. If you have ideas as well, or questions or comments, please write them in the Comments section below.

African Americans and Latin@s join in immigration initiative

Yesterday, on Juneteenth, the community organization ACORN launched a new initiative involving African Americans and Latin@s together in the movement for comprehensive immigration reform.

Click here to read the full story.

Note: The spelling Latin@ is not a typo. It is a written word some Latinas and Latinos are using in order to avoid using a longer gender-inclusive phrase such as Latina/Latino or Latino/a.

P.S. "Latin@" or "Hispanic"? Is there a difference? Who uses what term? Here's one person's fairly accurate reflection and comparison. Note also that The Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology (published under the auspices of ACHTUS) uses both names because there is no full consensus on the issue -- though most of the writers for the journal probably use "Latino" or "Latina."

Happy Juneteenth!

Juneteenth, once celebrated only in Texas, has spread all around the country. 31 states currently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. It is the oldest known commemoration celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. For more on the history and celebration of Juneteenth, see here. For a historian's perspective that nuances and comments on the way the story of Juneteenth is usually told, see this short essay by Professor Thavolia Glymph of Duke University.

What are your memories and experiences, if any, of Juneteenth celebrations? What is your reaction to Professor Glymph's essay? Feel free to share them in the comments below. Blogs are meant for conversation, not just for one-way reading.

Elizabeth Catlett, "Sharecropper"

We're back! Updates coming soon - watch for Juneteenth

Sorry for the long gap in communication, friends. We'll be blogging again on a regular basis over the summer. Once we are back, tell your colleagues, friends, family, and congregation-mates. And do participate by leaving comments.

Our next post will probably be on Juneteenth. For those of you who don't know, that's June 19th and there is a story behind this, one that many people commemorate around the U.S. Stay tuned...