You can see complete photos of the trip from other RCA attendees on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30613780@N03/sets/72157617600065827/

A Multicultural Future.... Free from Racism

Synod Coordinator, John Sikkink, and Gary Ross will be making a groundbreaking and most certainly a life-changing trip together. John and Gary will be on the Sankofa experience together during the last few days of April.

The trip starts as they leave Minneapolis together at noon on April 22, then get on a bus in Chicago with a number of other RCA people. The current destination and itinerary is unknown, but the direction is to the deep South. The purpose is to become more intentional about racial diversity and to eliminate racism in our churches and our communities.

Gary was born in Mississippi and has 8 siblings. He moved with his widowedmother to Minneapolis when he was 11. He is married to Brenda, has 2 teenage boys, and is presently a mentor at Urban Ventures to many young people in the Lake Street area of Minneapolis.

John will be learning first hand how he himself, his church, our country has been prejudiced agains non-Anglo people.

Each day during the trip, Gary and John will be sending updates to this website and sharing their experiences as they make this journey together. We will have the updated posted each morning.

Sankofa Journal 1

3 Foundations of the Trip
1.  Biblical peace
2.  Racism destroys it.
3.  How do we restore it?

Wednesday: 

We flew to Chicago and met our group at 3 p.m  at the Lutheran Center.  The 14 partners (black and white) climbed on the bus and rode to our first stop.

First stop:    South Chicago, Lawndale Church, on the west side of Chicago.

Lawndale Church has made a transformational difference in their community.  This church is a good example of being missional.    Their church offers: health care, fitness center, dental care, recovery ministry, summer programs, tutoring.  The whole community is different because of Lawndale Church.  They also have a restaurant where we ate supper.

We were asked to process the question:
     "When did you first experience racism personally?
    
John:  First when Jackie Robinson broke into major league baseball.  I was an avid baseball fan.
     Second, when my dad took me to a Chicago White Sox baseball game at Comisky Park in South Chicago.

Gary:  Growing up in Missippi I remember going to the Dr's office as a small child and the blacks sat on a different side of the room than the whites. 

John and I are building a good relationship and I am enjoying the experience.

On  the road again by 9 p.m. and  watching the movie, **"A Time to Kill" while we are riding.

We are to arrive in Selma AL by morning.  We will also be in Montgomery and Birmingham AL tomorrow.

**"A Time to Kill" - A young, attractive and highly-skilled attorney is faced with the toughest case of his life, one that on many occasions may also threaten it. In the southern Mississippi town of Clanton, the K.K.K. is active and the tension is high when the black majority is angered at the rape and beating of a black man's 10-year-old daughter. Against Jake's advice, the distraught father takes revenge, gunning down the two criminals in the local courthouse. Racial hatred heightens with the suspense and conflict threatens to break out regardless of the verdict. Jake must decide, along with his new, eager assistant whether he and his family can run the risk of defending the man. Written by Paul Chard {tox@msn.com} .

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Sankofa Journal 2

Day Two  -
We drove through the night.  The bus broke down at 6 a.m. just short of the Alabama border.  We were to have breakfast in Selma, but we ate at the truck stop in Gilbert, TN while the bus was being fixed.  We were on the road by 9:30.

Morning devotions were from 1 Cor. 9:19-23.  Talking about reconciliation. 
?  “I am called to reconcile.  What is my story of reconciliation?  What is yours?

We watched the movie, “Race: The Power of Illusion.”   What do we notice about other races?  Skin, hair, eyes, physical appearance?   We can say we are not racist but these are indicators that we are.

?   Do you feel comfortable sharing power with people of color? 

The assumption that the white are fully aware of what citizenship means, but that same value of citizenship has not been given to other cultures. (e.g. housing)

?  Do you have a close relationship with an African American?  If not, would you be willing to develop that?

We arrived in Selma, AL and walked across the Alabama River where the 1965 Massacre occurred.  It was the beginning of the 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery.  March 1965 – where were you?

? As I walked over the bridge I felt confused and angry. I didn’t understand why in 1965 I did nothing.  What did you do?

I asked Gary how he survives racism?  Gary’s answer is:  I try to educate and not get upset.  People just don’t understand.

Gary asked me how come I can’t admit the rewards I receive because I am white?  I was able to get an education, buy a house that appreciated, able to get a good job.
 
From Selma we drove to Montgomery, AL and the Civil Rights Memorial Center.  It sits at the base of the capital where they still fly the Confederate flag.   There we watched stories of the 40 people who were killed between 1955-1967 during the racial tensions.

 

I signed a covenant: “By placing my name on the Wall of Tolerance, I pledge to take a stand against hate, injustice, and intolerance.  I will work in my daily life for justice, equality, and human rights – the ideals for which the Civil Rights martyrs died.”  
 
?  Will you sign this agreement with me?  Don’t just remember.  Will you be proactive?  There are still 900 active white supremacy groups in the US.  There is at least one in every state. 
We’re staying in Birmingham tonight and after visiting here tomorrow we will travel to Atlanta GA tomorrow night.

Gary’s thoughts on today:  Walking across the bridge today was very meaningful.  My relatives marched on the bridge and did not make it across – they were turned back.  Today there were people fishing below the bridge and they yelled and cheered- glad that we were crossing the bridge. 

 

The Memorial is awesome.  I learned so much from it.  There was so much great information.  It was a good day!  

P.S.  I’m enjoying John.  He’s a riot!

 

 

 

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Sankofa Journal 3

The day started with a breakfast in Birmingham with Carolyn Mc Kinstry - a good friend of the four girls killed in the bombing at the 16th Street Baptism Church on September 15, 1963.  On that Sunday she had earned the right to be the treasurer of the Sunday School and she was passing out envelopes during the bombing.  She saw the girls 3 minutes before the bombing.  She recalled her upbringing in Birmingham as a black.  She said that terrorism didn't start on 9/11 for Blacks.

We asked her how she handled forgiveness? 

? How would you handle forgiveness in that situation?

We went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institution.  We saw a film on Birmingham from the middle 1850 to 1920. 

Then we were introduced to the live museum - the first thing we saw was a drinking fountain for white and one for black.    Then the front and back of the bus.

In 1950 the Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education made segregation unconstitutional.  Birmingham didn't honor that until 1963.

We saw an enactment of Dr. King writing in the jail to the 8 black pastors who were telling Dr King to wait and him telling them why they couldn't wait.

August 28, 1963 - The Great March to Washington and Dr. King's speech, "I Have a Dream". 

? We then processed "Why do I remain silent to white privilege?"  How would you answer that?

Gary introduced me to a new term - BWD - Black While Driving.  (Police harassment!)

Then we drove to Atlanta to Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King was pastor while leading marches.  The church is still very active today in social justice.

We left Atlanta to go to Chattanooga TN to visit an inner city ministry, "Hope for the Inner City".  We watched the move, "Color of Fear."   Racism is essentially a white man's problem.

We are now back on the bus driving all night to arrive in Chicago Saturday morning. 

Thoughts from Gary:   
Carolyn McKinstrey made a big impression on me.  Interracial marriage in Alabama was not allowed until 2000.  I was married to my white wife in 1986!! 

The museum artifacts of Negroes being hung from trees, black and white fountains, - things I either experienced or heard about but too young to realize what it meant.  
The "I had a dream speech" and realizing that dream came true for me.

 

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Sankofa Journal 4

On the bus driving to Chicago from Chattanooga we watched the movie "David Wilson."  It is a story of a young African American tracing his roots back to slavery in North Carolina.   He works one day on a tobacco farm where his ancestors had worked as slaves.  He meets the plantation owner and they discuss what it must have been like to be the plantation owner and to be a slave.  He visits with a 97 year old relative and asks her if this plantation owner has any compensation responsibility to him?  She asks him what he means by that and she says, "If you mean financial, that's history."  This reminds me that we are on a Sankofa Journey.  Gary and I reviewed our past together.  Clearly I have been raised with white privilege.  Gary came from a  racial southern background, but now the journey continues as we move forward.  
 
We arrived back at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago before 9 a.m. and were on a plane back to Minneapolis and back home in Minneapolis by 12:30.  
 
What do we do next?

Gary and I are going to continue our relationship.  I will be meeting his mother, his boys, going to his home, he will come to our home.  We have discussed how we bring this story to young people at Urban Ventures.  I will always look at how my role as a white privileged impacts people of color.  I pray that each of you will also agree to be aware of your racism as an individual and corporately in your churches.  
 
Now that I am home I will be documenting my journey in a more relaxed setting than doing it on the bus.  We will be asking each of you personally and each of your churches corporately, "How do we address Our Call - A Multicultural Call - Free from Racism?  I do know it will not happen if we are not intentional about it.  Let's all of us make that a high priority as we carry out Our Call together.  

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