Throughout the Just Neighbors sermon series, we learned about God's call to bring justice where we live and how to use our property and land for his purposes to heal the spiritual and physical effects of redlining and racially restrictive covenants in Seattle and the Eastside.
As you think about how to put this into practice in your own life, take advantage of the following opportunities to learn more.
Juneteenth marks the day when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger read the proclamation declaring the end of slavery, "All slaves are free." Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed more than two years before, and the Civil War had ended on April 9, 1865, many enslavers in Texas had withheld this news from the humans they had enslaved.
Juneteenth is a day of both celebration and reflection. We celebrate the progress that has been made since the end of slavery. We also reflect on the work that still needs to be done to ensure that all people, made in God's image, are treated justly.
September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic American Heritage Month. This is a month celebrated nationwide to honor the history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans. Set aside some time this month to learn from and about this community.
Learn about History
Watch the 6-part documentary series Latino Americans from PBS to learn about the history of Latinos over the last 500 years.
In his book How the Word Is Passed, Clint Smith travels to Galveston Island, the origin of the Juneteenth holiday, to observe their annual celebration. He watches as a local man, dressed as Union General Gordon Granger, reads the proclamation from June 19, 1865, declaring the end of slavery. Smith writes,
"All slaves are free. The four words circled the room like birds that had been separated from their flock. I watched people's faces as Stephen said these words. Some closed their eyes. Some were physically shaking. Some clasped hands with the person next to them. Some simply smiled, soaking in the words that their ancestors may have heard more than a century and a half ago. Being in this place, standing on the same small island where the freedom of a quarter million people was proclaimed, I felt the history pulse through my body."
We invite you to explore the history, culture, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans in our region and our nation.
By William Starks
I've been hearing a lot of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or D.E.I., initiatives lately. Some people and organizations confuse or equate equity with equality. Equity and equality are two different things.
Equity is so much more than equality. Equality, diversity, and inclusion are all good pursuits and goals, but they only really treat the symptoms of the racial issues we face. Laws can be put in place to address equality (equal rights), diversity (desegregation), and inclusion (voting rights), but black Americans and other people of color are still treated like unwanted guests in someone else's house.
Celebrate Women's History Month by getting to know Civil Rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer.
Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917, in Mississippi, to a family of sharecroppers. She was the youngest of twenty children, and she started picking cotton at age 6. Fannie Lou loved reading and learning, but she had to leave school at age 12 to help support the family. Because of her academic skills, as an adult she worked as time and record keeper on the plantation where she sharecropped. In this position, she saw that the owner was using unfair scales to cheat her fellow workers. Whenever possible, she substituted her own fair scale to weigh the cotton brought in. She met and married her husband on this same plantation.
On February 4, 2022, beloved children's artist and writer Ashley Bryan died at the age of 98. As a child growing up in the Bronx, Ashley loved to draw, and his teachers encouraged his gift. When high school came to a close, his teachers helped him to assemble a portfolio and apply for a scholarship to an art school.
He was very discouraged when he was rejected for scholarships because he was black, despite an outstanding portfolio. Then he discovered that Cooper Union had a blind application process, and he was awarded a full scholarship.
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