By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
The number of people seated in the pews of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church more aptly reflected attendance on a first Sunday service than a gathering on Presidents Day. But hundreds of pastors, clergy, officers and laity of the Black Church, some from as far away as New Jersey and New York, attended a Feb. 17 press conference in response to executive orders that continue to be released by the 47th president of the United States.
The Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, presiding bishop of the AME’s Second Episcopal District, has long been recognized as a political activist and ardent freedom fighter. His district includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
Jackson said the convening on Presidents Day was intentional, not accidental.
“I chose today to show how much damage a president can do and to emphasize that because of questionable decisions and recent executive orders, we’ve got to do more than just make statements – we’ve got to do something,” Jackson said. “The Black Church must once again become the leaders – the moral conscience – of America.”
Jackson did not hold back his contempt of the current wave to “make America great again.”
“No. 47 says White males are angry. I want to know what they’re angry about,” Jackson said. “Clearly, he has an insecurity issue and is unwilling to have anyone around him who will say no to his plans.”
Jackson used evidence from the first 30 days as proof that the White House is in fact moving to implement key sections of the controversial Project 2025, which the U.S. president said he had no knowledge of when he campaigned for the office last year.
“He wants to get rid of Black education, the Civil Rights Act and anything else that supports and protects the rights of Blacks,” Jackson said. “But we’ve got to remind Americans that diversity has been essential to the nation’s success. America was once one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. How did it become the richest on the planet? On the backs of our ancestors’ free labor.”
Nationwide boycott to begin on Ash Wednesday, March 5
Jackson said corporations like Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and others who have yielded to the right-wing agenda must understand there will be consequences for turning their backs on Black people.
“If diversity isn’t good for them, then neither is our money,” he said. “Corporate America will have to decide if they stand with us or not. We’re in a fight against spiritual wickedness in high places and we’ve got to do more than talk – we’ve got to act.”
Barbara Williams-Skinner, a public policy strategist, faith and community leader, who routinely works with interfaith leaders on issues like health care, criminal justice reform and voting rights, also spoke.
“Some would say that we’re approaching a constitutional crisis. I say we’re amid one now,” Williams-Skinner said. “We’ve seen this and been here before. History shows us this cycle of advancement and resistance has occurred before, so I advise Blacks not to get weary.”
She further reminded those in the pews that prayer still works.
“Just imagine what would happen if we followed the example of Joshua and the Israelites and instead of the walls of Jericho, we marched around the Capitol or the White House with the trumpets sounding the people shouting. We have everything we need to fight back,” she said.
To save the next generation, we must acknowledge that they’re watching
When the Rev. William H. Lamar IV, senior pastor of Metropolitan, delivered his inaugural sermon, he spoke on the topic, “Divine Choreography.” In his comments to the AFRO, he seemed to harken back to that first message and its prophetic origins.
“Since Congress ratified the 14th Amendment, there have been forces throughout America who have been intent on eliminating any initiatives related DEI and regaining White supremacist rule,” Lamar said. “The president’s agenda is one that illustrates his insecurity, misunderstanding of humanity and hatred of others, while we are fighting out of love. Those who are benefiting the most today want to keep us divided so we can be defeated. But we cannot afford our imaginations to be colonized.”
Williams-Skinner, in acknowledging Lamar’s observations, said Blacks should not delude themselves into thinking that our youth are not paying attention.
“Our youth are not attending church in the numbers that we and our ancestors may have but they’re still very spiritual and they’re looking for authentic churches,” she said. “To be brutally honest, there are a lot of older adults who are not moving and are not saying a thing because they’ve grown too comfortable.”
Attorney Sherrilyn Ifill, law professor at Howard University and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, recalled sitting on a panel with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scholar Isabel Wilkerson, who in her provocative text, “Caste,” said there have been several historical low points – nadirs – which Blacks have been forced to face but have somehow survived.
“After Plessy v. Ferguson was struck down in 1954 by the Supreme Court, with its ruling on Brown v. Board of Education, Blacks began to live in the harvest. In fact, some of us grew so comfortable and witnessed such economic growth in our lives that we wanted to believe that the harvest would last forever,” said Ifill. “When we were farmers, closer to the land, we understood you must plant before you can celebrate the harvest. We are now in a low point– a nadir– and we’re going to have to do some planting if we want future generations to have a harvest to enjoy.”
