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HKonJ 2008
by Rev. Nelson Johnson
Feb. 20, 2008
[HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) was a march and rally led by the NC NAACP and several partner organizations to present a 14 point agenda to the NC Legislature. The following comments were made by Rev. Nelson Johnson to the over 7,000 gathered on Feb. 9th in Raleigh.]
Today is a great day! I know that many of you are long distance runners. You are the veterans of many years of creative struggle and unearned suffering. But today as we span the generations, young and old mingling together, I know that no matter how long you have been on the battle field, you can join with me in saying “I ain’t no ways tired yet.”
Discuss HKonJ on the BCC's Discussion Board.
Beloved—sisters and brothers—I want to pose several questions with you and rush on to suggest answers. What does it mean to violently overthrow in 1898 the duly elected bi-racial government of Wilmington, North Carolina—an overthrow instigated and led by white racist including the Governor and the leader of Raleigh’s News and Observer?
What does it mean that over 25 black men were viciously gunned down on that day in Wilmington as their wives and children, in panic and fear, were sent fleeing into the woods down by the Cape Fear River on a cold rainy November night? Can you see the babies shivering in the cold among wet leaves becoming sick as black fathers, brothers, and sons lay dead in the streets of Wilmington?
What does it mean that the property of black folk was stolen as they were scattered across the state and the nation? Can you see the cornerstone of Jim Crowism—that rule by terror and lynch law—being put firmly into place in North Carolina? Can you see it serving as the basis for a long reign of violence, exploitation and abuse that has never been redressed?
Beloved, what does it mean that for over 30 years, from 1947 until 1977, poor women, mainly black women, were forcibly sterilized, using the same racist mentality that over threw the bi-racial Wilmington government? Many of these women had grandmothers and great grandmothers who were raped at the end of a cotton row under the vicious system of slavery. Can you see our sisters and mothers being devalued, humiliated and made scapegoats once again?
What does it mean that in 1979 five labor and community organizers—a rainbow of God’s children including two Jewish men, one Latino, one white man, and one beautiful black woman—were gunned down in the streets of Greensboro in broad daylight by Klan and Nazi members at the beginning of a legally planned march? What does it mean that they were building black-white unity in the textile industry? What does it mean that the Greensboro Police consciously aided the Klan and Nazi members, giving them the parade permit, knowing that they had guns and that they planned to attack the march, and then withdrawing from the area for an early lunch as the gunmen carried out their mission unimpeded by the police? What does it mean that a poor black public housing community was terrorized on that day? What does it mean that two all white juries found no one guilty of a criminal act?
It means that the same racist mentality that overthrew an interracial Wilmington government was at work in 1947 when poor and black women were sterilized and humiliated; it means that this racist mentality was at work in 1979 when five interracial labor and community organizers were murdered. It means that in its mutating forms this same mentality is at work today. What we have described is simply the top of a massive racist and brutal iceberg. It means that those three crimes, along with thousands of others, have not been redressed.
So we have come today to demand redress for these and other ugly, racist crimes.
- We demand that this year the North Carolina State Legislature reconstitute the commission on the overthrow of the 1898 Wilmington government; and that all 15 of the commission’s recommendations, including financial compensation (reparations), be carried out.
- Never again must our women or any women be humiliated and abused as they were by the state of North Carolina from 1947 until 1977. We demand that the North Carolina Legislature enact the Sterilization Compensation Act and do it this year.
- We demand, in light of brutal, negative and racist history which continues until this day, that the State Legislature authorize, support and fund a North Carolina Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine and set right North Carolina’s long, winding, “Jericho Road” that is littered with ugly, racist, brutal and degrading history. This NC TRC must help our state come to terms with its racist history and to carry forth measures of restorative justice, promoting reconciliation and healing. This will equip all of God’s children—black, brown, red, yellow, and white—to live into the great potential to which God is calling all of us.
On this HKonJ and every day, we are on our way to redress, to justice, and indeed toward the beloved community. Let God be glorified!
[This is the full text of the presentation prepared by Rev. Johnson for HKonJ on February 9, 2008. Due to time limitations some portions of it were given in abbreviated form.]