Black History – Apprentice 2 Jesus

The education and transformation we need in conversations about race

These are not for your listening or reading “enjoyment.” Rather, I read and listen to learn, be challenged, and hopefully grow. I am grateful of these voices. Esau McCaulley writes about how we like to cherry pick our favorite parts of MLK. We don’t want to recognize King the Radical. McCaulley then cuts loose onContinue reading “The education and transformation we need in conversations about race”

Why we need more than a month for “black history”

Every February, Black History Month, Americans engage in a futile attempt to squeeze into 28 days the history of a people whose tribulations, contributions and successes are on every page of the American narrative. For African Americans, at least, the struggle to tell our story and make sense of our place in the American sagaContinue reading “Why we need more than a month for “black history””

The Pilgrimage, Part 3

Part 1 Part 2 There are inadequate words. It is the model heads put on posts to remember the 1811 German Coast Rebellion. The leaders of the slave rebellion were immediately convicted and sent back to their owners where they would be executed and their heads cut off and impaled so everyone on the plantationContinue reading “The Pilgrimage, Part 3”

The Pilgrimage, Part 2

Part 1 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Ps. 84:5, NIV) We will journey to the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. Our hearts are being set on pilgrimage. I want this way set in my heart.

The Pilgrimage, Part 1

In his book, How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith tells the stories of 8 different places in the U.S. that have been touched deeply by slavery and how those places tell the story. One place he visited was the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. It is the only plantation open for tours that takes theContinue reading “The Pilgrimage, Part 1”

The education we need

We need to move past defending needless monuments erected in eras that sent specific messages to formerly enslaved people. We need to understand our history more, not less. That means we deal with the power of Thomas Jefferson’s words as well as his slaveholding mentality and brutality. We need a more full education as weContinue reading “The education we need”

Tell the stories

Four books I have worked through in the past few weeks give me the same theme: tell the stories. Don’t just work on the stats. Hear the stories. Walk the places where they happened.

Real history right where I live

Monuments and the “Lost Cause”

“The myth of the Lost Cause does not begin or end with the Confederate monuments. The myth seeps into many other facets of state-sanctioned life. In eleven states there are a total of twenty-three Confederate holidays and observances. As of 2020, in both Alabama and Mississippi there is a Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate MemorialContinue reading “Monuments and the “Lost Cause””

The 13th Amendment

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith tells the story of how we have handled race, slavery, and racism in America through several locations in our nation. Those places tell us how we’ve done and how we’re doing… and why too many white Americans think Black Americans should “get over it” when it comesContinue reading “The 13th Amendment”