Human Dignity and “I AM A MAN.”
“I AM A MAN.” This
was the simple statement on the signs sanitation workers and their supporters
carried during their 1968 strike here in Memphis. The assertion had to be made because Mayor
Henry Loeb and the white political and economic leadership in the city regarded
Memphis as their plantation. Though
slavery was over, Jim Crow segregation, economic exploitation, and violent
intimidation (often by the still mostly white police force) was the norm.
Two years before, in 1966, the 100th
anniversary of the Memphis Race Riot in which white rioters killed nearly 50
Blacks, raped Black women, and burned and looted Black owned homes, schools,
and churches, passed without any official civic recognition. 2016 will be the 150th anniversary
of this atrocity, and even now there is no historical marker anywhere in the
city indicating this race riot even took place. (Likewise there are no historical markers for Nathan Bedford Forrest's slave market which was near the current City Hall, or Isaac Bolton's slave market, which currently houses the Memphis Convention and Visitors Center).
Manna House
opened this morning with a prayer of thanksgiving for Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. who was killed while he was in Memphis supporting the sanitation workers’
strike. We also prayed in thanksgiving
for other leaders in the freedom struggle.
And we prayed that we might continue to work for justice and peace in
the spirit of Dr. King and all of those other leaders and people involved in
the Movement.
At our time
of reflection, at the end of the morning, Reggie shared about being a Black man
and standing out on the front yard with the mostly Black men who were gathered
there. “I listened,” Reggie said, “I
heard them planning their day. They were
making sure to take care of each other.
I didn’t have to say much. It’s
important for the men to be treated like men.”
“I AM A
MAN.” The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow,
and years of economic exploitation is visible each morning as most of the men
who come to Manna House for hospitality are African American. The legacy is also visible in the police
harassment of these men that is ongoing, and the ways in which criminal
records, even from years ago, continue to prevent these men from getting work
or access to government aid that could lift them from the streets. The legacy is undeniable in the poverty most
of these men have known for all or most of their lives.
“I AM A
MAN.” Basic to Christian faith is that each human being is made in the image of
God. This fundamental human dignity is
to be affirmed and enshrined in our personal, political, and economic lives
without regard for race, class, gender, or sexual orientation. It is a claim as
simple as the “I AM A MAN” sign, and it has been denied over and over again in
our society.
Race was created in the U.S. to
help justify the enslavement of African Americans, and it has continued to
justify the white supremacy system evident in our political and economic
systems. We need to move toward a society
that will come closer to embracing human dignity for all, and we cannot do that
as long as our society is structured by white supremacy. In the spirit of affirming human dignity and
rejecting white supremacy, I am suggesting a small starting point (especially important for white folks) on this Martin
Luther King, Jr. Holiday. Read and
prayerfully reflect on this article by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” which appeared in
the June 2014 edition of “The Atlantic”:
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