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Steeped in a culture of division and domination, we at the Beloved Community Center have found that having a conversation can be one of the most transformative activities we can engage in. In this spirit, we offer up some of our latest thoughts, analysis and reflections. If you would like to respond or contribute to this ongoing dialogue, please email us at info@belovedcommunitycenter.org, or better yet, come and participate in our weekly Jubilee Institute Meeting on Wednesday afternoons from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and engage with others face-to-face.
Jul. 1, 2008
Sharing the table: Latin Kings work for peace and unity
by Kyle Lambelet
On Monday, June 30th the Beloved Community Center, Pulpit Forum, and area church and community leaders joined with Jorge Cornell and members of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) to call for peace in the streets and an end to racist policies and practices.
A connection made
Jorge Cornell, known as King J, is head Inca and leader of the ALKQN in North Carolina. Cornell and other members of the ALKQN participated in the BCC's weekly community...
Jun. 26, 2008
An open letter to Dr. Chafe
by Robert P. Foxworth
Dear Dr. Chafe:
Having read Civilities and Civil Rights, I came to your recent Greensboro presentation with great anticipation that you would apply the same power of analysis that you gave to Greensboro's history from 1940-1970 to subsequent events in Greensboro's more recent history. I was disappointed. Not only did you not speak with that power, your talk displayed a lack of knowledge, justifiable only because the program listed your subject as the period covered by your...
Jun. 11, 2008
African-American, Latino Perceptions
by Dr. Hollyce (Sherry) Giles
"How do we defy the logic that we [African-Americans and Latinos] are each other’s enemies? Until globalization itself goes, this is how it’s going to be. We can annihilate and cannibalize each other. Yet, there is no danger that doesn’t have a flip side—we can learn to understand each other’s language."
- Rev. Nelson Johnson, at the April 29th community meeting on the project’s findings
These sobering, yet hopeful reflections by...
Jun. 3, 2008
Vocabulary Lessons
by Jean Rodenbough
Sometimes other languages can supplement our thinking in concepts that English words cannot provide except through longer phrases. To borrow from other tongues is a way to stretch our own world views and understand what we may not have fully comprehended before. I’m thinking of two African expressions that meet this criteria.
When Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke at a Forum at the National Cathedral last November (in fact, on the day when a group of us were catching a plane to...
May. 30, 2008
GTCRP Local Task Force continues the work of T&R
by Kyle Lambelet
The Local Task Force of the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project met last Tuesday evening, May 27th. Since it's genesis in 2002, the group has given life and energy to the process of Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, surrounding the events of Nov. 3rd, 1979 (read more in the Final Report of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission).
Since the closing of the Commission in 2006, the group...
May. 22, 2008
Be Not Distracted: A statement to North Carolina Voters
by the North Carolina Coalition of Civil Rights Activists and Ministers
The people of North Carolina and the nation face massive social problems that must be addressed now. Election campaigns are the only time when political leaders must stand up and say how they will address these problems so we can intelligently choose between the candidates.
Unfortunately, the pattern just before many Southern elections has featured a well-financed last-minute effort to distract us from thoughtfully choosing the candidates best able to address our economic and moral...
May. 15, 2008
Labels: A prose poem
by Jean Rodenbough
First I was, by birthright, a conservative like the rest of my family,
active in politics of the Right during college and fearful of Communists,
then I moved leftward after marriage until I claimed with pride the label
of liberal. I loved the word and did all the things that would put me
into the liberal camp like make friends with the black community during those
dangerous civil rights times when to question prejudices was unacceptable
by the social crowd I ran...
May. 12, 2008
Building Black, Brown, and White Unity
by Arletha Jowers
On Tuesday April 29th, Guilford College students joined with the Beloved Community Center to initiate a dialogue with African American and Latino community members to discuss our cultural differences and likenesses. The students at Guilford conducted research on how the two groups feel toward each other with the guidance of their team leader, Dr. Sherri Giles. There were about 40 people there, Black, Latino, and White.
The research confirmed what a lot of us already know: that we...
May. 1, 2008
The End of Obama-Magic and the Return of Politics as Usual
by Ed Whitfield
Barack Obama's Winston Salem denunciation of Reverend Jeremiah Wright for the audacity of telling the truth eases us back down to the familiar from that magic world where one might be half-black and half-white and where the widening gap between America's increasingly wealthy and the dispossessed darker inner cities is celebrated as progress to be built upon.
Barack Obama calls upon his mixed parentage and success in spite of an unstable youth as signs of new possibilities growing...
Apr. 29, 2008
Morning: November 3rd, 1979
by Jean Rodenbough
How long does it take to forget?
How long before the wounds
of that day vanish from scarred
earth, hearts, memory?
November was a cruel month.
Martyrs' names engraved on stone:
Jim, César, Mike, Sandi, Bill.
Other witnesses survive to tell
how once upon a time
an angry force reinforced
by civic power
unleashed its terror.
Weeping lingers, present and solitary.
Time is not the ruler here
...
Apr. 23, 2008
Truth is the First Casualty of War and Presidential Campaigns!
by Dr. Claude Barnes
What did Obama say to deserve all the shrill attacks? Of course poor and working class whites are angry and bitter about their circumstances given the way they have been manipulated by their so called leaders and public officials over the last four decades. As more than one commentator observed, if they are not angry and bitter they should be or something is wrong with them (See
Apr. 22, 2008A Call to Break the Silence, to Stand for Peace and to Work for Social and Economic Justice
by Rev. Nelson Johnson and the Pulpit Forum of Greensboro and Vicinity
INTRODUCTION:
We come both as religious leaders and citizens of this nation to express our opposition to the culture of war with all its implications, now pervasive in our nation. We are persuaded that violence and war are not the solution to our current differences with Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, other nations and/or peoples. In fact, war with its call to uncritical patriotism tends to prevent us from coming to terms with the true underlying causes of the...
Apr. 22, 2008
Framing the Beloved Community Context and Approach
by Rev. Nelson Johnson
What is the essential core, the non-reducible essence of BCC’s work? This is a most important question for all of us. Without a relatively grounded sense of our core work, all else that we do will be more flawed and deficient than it has to be. Is our work to increase the quality of education for our children? We must insure that our children are properly educated, and this is certainly included in our work. Is our essential work to win more labor campaigns and advance the rights...
Apr. 15, 2008
Building Campaigns or Beloved Community? A Reflection on the 2008 Presidential Campaign and Its Implications
by SaToya Truss and Wesley Morris
The scene was ripe with anticipation, this Wednesday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum. There was a Town Hall Meeting with Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. As the diverse Crowd began to take its seat, my friends and I engaged in a conversation that would not have been possible during the previous Presidential election. We talked about the issues of race and gender and how this debate could have a truly meaningful discussion that has not taken place in this country for some...
Apr. 14, 2008
Greensboro's Two Wars
by Jean Rodenbough
“Greensboro is intimately associated with the close of two wars.” The first one was “the triumph of one rebellion against oppression and in behalf of the political rights of man.” Yet the second rebellion had as its object “to perpetuate the right of one man to deprive another of all rights.”
– Adrian Whicker. “Special Correspondence of the Inquirer. Greensboro, N.C. July 6, 1865.” Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer...
Apr. 11, 2008
King Plus 40 Years: A Proposal for 12 months of Study on the Use of Power in Greensboro with a focus on the Progressive Mystique
by Rev. Nelson Johnson
King-Plus 40 years: a critique of the use of power (the progressive mystique) and the struggle for beloved community in Greensboro. I have come to the point of believing that the capacity to confuse people, promote conflict, and hide the real working of power in Greensboro is a most urgent question. Chafe hit the nail on the head when he identified a kind of deceptive “civilities” that promotes a “progressive mystique” which conceals a very reactionary use of...
Apr. 7, 2008
Congratulations President Malveux
by the Beloved Community Center
The Beloved Community Center offers its heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Julianne Malveaux who was inagurated as the 15th president of Bennett College on March 28th, 2008. Dr. Malveaux brings both a sharp economic analysis and popular presence that will be a welcome addition to the rich tradition of scholarship and community involvement at Bennett College. Congratulations Dr....
Apr. 4, 2008
40 years later, we remember Dr. King
by the Beloved Community Center
Forty years ago, on April 4th, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee as he stood with sanitation workers fighting against dehumanizing and unjust conditions.
We join with brothers and sisters across the world who mourn the loss of this great leader and celebrate his life and dream. We particular remember his naming, on April 4, 1967, of the giant triplets of evil, "racism, extreme materialism, and militarism," and join with him in calling for...
Apr. 3, 2008
Town Hall Meeting engages the purpose of education
by Arletha Jowers
On Sunday, March 30th the Community Dialogue on Education, a project of the Beloved Community Center, hosted a Town Hall Meeting on education. This meeting was held in response to the transition that will occur following the exit of the current School Superintendent Terry Grier. The CDE saw this moment as an opportunity to engage the Guilford County community in a discussion of our goals for education in this county.
The CDE agreed together that any search for a new superintendent...
Mar. 31, 2008
Evoking King, Jesse Jackson presses on
by the News and Record
Nearly 40 years have passed since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. The memory remains fresh for the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
"It never gets far from my mind," Jackson said of the assassination, which he witnessed.
Friday will be the 40th anniversary of King's death.
Jackson, an A&T alumnus, spoke Sunday to a congregation that packed the pews at New Light Baptist Church. Jackson was in town for the weekend inauguration of Bennett ...
Mar. 28, 2008
Pulpit Forum letter to Rep. Mel Watt on behalf of Indian Workers
by Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen, and Nelson Johnson
The Honorable Melvin T. Watt
U. S. House of Representatives
2236 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Watt:
Representatives of the Pulpit Forum, an organization of more than 100 churches and pastors in Greensboro, NC, are writing you and copying other members of the Congressional Black Caucus on what we consider to be an urgent moral and human rights issue.
On Wednesday, March 26, we received and provided food, shelter and...
Mar. 27, 2008
Sincere Communication: Indian workers on pilgrimage from Gulf Coast to DC
by the Beloved Community Center
At 2 AM in the morning, New Light Baptist Church Trustee R. C. Shoffner and Rev. Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center greeted 68 exhausted workers fleeing what they called modern day slavery in Pasgalousa, Mississippi. Greensboro was a symbolic stop for these workers travelling from New Orleans to Washington D.C., a stop on an “underground railroad” of sorts as they make their winding way through the South with hopes of justice.
Leaving their homes in various...
Mar. 14, 2008
Profiles in Transformation: Vincent D. Sims
by Erica Mayo
EM: What has changed in your life in the past year?
Vincent: I have been a chronic substance abuser and I was homeless for numerous years. For the past five yrs I visited the Beloved Community Center Hospitality House which provided food, clothing, showers and encouragement. I was fortunate enough to be asked to commit myself to Preventing Chronic Illnesses Preventing Homelessness in Greensboro and High Point. I was asked to attend by the Chief Executive of Urban Ministries of...
Mar. 6, 2008
Different Stories But One Common Thread
by Demetria Ledbetter
On Sunday February 24, about 50 gathered at Faith Community Church to hear the stories of communities from the past - Sugartown, Persimmon Grove, Bass Chapel, Collin Grove and Raleigh Crossroads. Mildred Brown, John Hughes, Frank Miller, Theresa Meachum, James Raleigh and Mary Sapp all had different stories of communities that are lost, nearly extinct or being gentrified through urban re-development and suburban sprawl. At the end of the gathering many similarities held the pre-civil rights...
Mar. 4, 2008
BCC in UNCG's Carolinian: "Center hopes to keep community remembering"
by Rebekah Cansler
Greensboro has a very rich history, but are we familiar with it? The Beloved Community Center wants to make sure that the younger generation understands and remembers the hardships, joys, and triumphs of their black ancestors. The BCC calls their endeavors "The Grassroots History Project," and say the hope to help the Greensboro community realize what a unique and wonderful past it has.
Faith Community Church in downtown Greensboro held a panel discussion Sunday, Feb. 24...
Feb. 26, 2008
Statement regarding the destruction of 50 boxes of information by the GPD
by Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen, and Nelson Johnson
In September of 2007, the Rev. Nelson Johnson was contacted by an active duty Greensboro police officer who told Rev. Johnson that he had information that would be of interest to him. Rev. Johnson asked Mr. Randy Johnston to accompany him to a meeting with the active duty officer (hereafter referred to as “the Source”).
The Source shared that shortly after a request was received from Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Greensboro TRC), Sergeant Craig McMinn of...
Feb. 20, 2008
HKonJ 2008
by Rev. Nelson Johnson
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.
...Feb. 19, 2008
A Tribute to James Orange
by the Beloved Community Center
The Rev. Dr. James Orange, a grassroots leader in the movement for civil rights, economic justice, and beloved community, died at the age of 65 in Atlanta last Saturday. Dr. Orange worked along side Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in SCLC and was instrumental in the march from Selma to Montgomery, which culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act later in 1965. Orange also was significantly involved in the labor movement, as well as organizing a yearly march to remember Dr. King....
Feb. 12, 2008
My First Week at the BCC
by Wesley Morris
The Beloved Community Center is a place where community service is neither a tagline, nor an airy sentiment. Service at the BCC is an ingrained ethic, strengthened everyday by collective effort and training.
I have just completed my undergraduate History program at North Carolina A&T State University. Towards the end of my undergraduate career I had become, “weary of theory” as I joked with a friend of mine. Theory, it seems, is only valid if substantiated with...
Feb. 8, 2008
A Bit of History
by Jean Rodenbough
He walked into the Emergency Department under his own steam, refusing a stretcher despite the stab wound in his back. A proud man, he had seen trouble during his 58 years but he persisted. I don’t know what the current struggle was about, enough to reward him with a knifing, but as Adjunct Chaplain for the evening I didn’t ask. All I needed to know was that he was here and I was here and there was a story to tell.
Born near the center of town, as a boy he played down by the...
Feb. 5, 2008
Letter to Guilford County Board of Education
by Concerned Parents and Citizens of Warnersville/Hampton Homes
Dear Members of the Guilford County Board of Education:
This letter is a request for help. As you know, a fight occurred on the campus of Grimsley High School on December 14, 2007. Fourteen students were suspended, some for very long periods of time. Some were also criminally charged. Many of these students were our children from the Hampton Homes/ Warnesville Community. We are writing to ask your help in seeking an alternative to the suspension and criminal charges by working with us...
Jan. 29, 2008
BCC in Haverford's Bi-College News:Haverford Hosts MLK Symposium
by Daniel Kent
Smooth Cole Porter music was quickly drowned out by the laughter and conversation by upwards of 60 individuals who attended the Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium on Saturday, January 26 in Stokes Auditorium. A panel of three social justice activists discussed experiences combating the status quo and making a difference in communities worldwide.
The Panel
Joyce Johnson, the first speaker and co-founder of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North...
Jan. 22, 2008
King's economic dream remains unfulfilled
by Julianne Malveaux
Click here for the full-text...
Jan. 16, 2008
2007 End of Year Report
by the Beloved Community Center
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2007 was a year of great challenges and significant accomplishments at the Beloved Community Center. We were challenged to continue living out the vision of beloved community, seeking to transform ourselves, social structures and systems all along the way. A major accomplishment was the historic visit of a delegation of 23 people to South Africa in November, 2007.
Pictured above are two members of the BCC delegation, Joyce Johnson and Rev. Jean Rodenbough, with Mrs. Leah Tutu, wife of...
Jan. 8, 2008
The Fierce Urgency of Now
by the Beloved Communities Network
Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our...
Dec. 21, 2007
BCC in the Carolina Peacemaker
by the Beloved Community Center
[The BCC's trip to South Africa was featured in the below article in the Carolina Peacemaker. You can link to the article on the Peacemakers website here.]
Beloved Center members journey to South Africa
by Jeanna Covington, Carolina Peacemaker
A blanket of clouds gathers atop a mountain. The view from ground up resembles...
Dec. 12, 2007
Bridging Communities - Renewed Strength and Promise
by Rev. Nelson Johnson
[The speech following was the keynote address to the Low-Income Immigrant Rights Conference held by the the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and its partners in Arlington, Virginia. To watch online video of Rev....
Dec. 5, 2007
Beloved Community On Ice
by Kyle Lambelet
What do skating fish, community-based education, and Beloved Community have in common? An evening of celebration and community building for students and education organizers Arletha Jowers and Erica Mayo.
On Friday, November 30th, Arletha and Erica rewarded eight students from Gilespie Elementary and Jones Elementary with a trip to Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo. While it may seem a little out of place, within the context of the ongoing education organizing emerging from the Beloved...
Nov. 28, 2007
Recommendations to the Local Task Force from Participants in the Truth and Reconciliation Travel Consultancy to South Africa
by James Lamar Gibson
[These recommendations were compiled by James Lamar Gibson from the 23 member delegation that traveled to South Africa November 11th through 20th. These short reflections are but the beginning of their attempt to bring back their learnings to the Greensboro community.]
- Make full use of spirituality and the arts as a base for conversation.
- Find time to tell others that you love them. Use love as a base to conversation as well.
- The composition and unity of...
Nov. 8, 2007
Where do you want them to go?
by Kyle Lambelet
Every Friday morning my partner Nicole and I roll out of bed at 4:45 so that we can make it to the BCC’s Homeless Hospitality House by 5:00 to begin cooking hot grits in preparation for breakfast and to open up the house for warm showers. A couple of Friday’s ago, I was dismayed to hear of yet another way for the police to legitimately harass the folks who have so few places to go.
Recently the City of Greensboro passed a new ordinance stating: “It shall be unlawful...
Nov. 3, 2007
Toward an Inclusive Vision for Greensboro
by the Local Task Force, GTCRP
(11.3.07 Rough Draft for Discussion)
Introduction:
"There comes a time in the life of every community when it must look humbly and seriously into its past in order to provide the best possible foundation for moving into a future based on healing and hope. Many residents of Greensboro believe that for this city, the time is now" (From the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission's –GTRC- Mandate)
The view expressed in...
Oct. 26, 2007
Tentative Schedule for the GTCRP's Nov. 3rd Strategy Meeting
by Kyle Lambelet
11:00 A NEW VISION FOR GREENSBORO: Why a Truth and Community Reconciliation Process? Why must we continue this work?
12:30 WORKING LUNCH: What has changed in your life and in your community’s life because of the TRC Process?
1:15 CAUCUSING TOWARD OUR CAUSE: Concrete planning workshops toward implementation of specific recommendations.
2:00 ORGANIZING THE WORK: How will we carry the work of implementing the recommendations of the Final...
Oct. 19, 2007
Letter from the GTCRP Local Task Force Co-Chairs
by Carolyn Allen, Greg Headon, Kyle Lambelet and Z. Holler
Dear Friend,
Over six years ago, in January of 2001, a cross section of thirty-two Greensboro community leaders signed the Declaration of Intent of the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project stating their intention to, “to lead Greensboro into becoming a more just, understanding and compassionate community” by examining the events of Nov. 3rd, 1979. The declaration goes on to say:
“We believe that by helping to clear up lingering confusion,...
Oct. 19, 2007
Critical Democratic Education is Child Centered and Community Owned/Based/Controlled
by Ed Whitfield
(0) All children learn all the time unless there is a serious and rare neurological pathology (brain damage or deformity).
(0a) Education should foster the development of the whole child into a healthy, meaningful, engaged, informed, empowered/powerful and capable adult through being a healthy, meaningfully engaged, informed, and nurtured child.
(1) Standardized tests are not good means of assessing the full range of human development children are capable of and which is...
Sep. 17, 2007
SFLCA Letter
by Marilyn Baird and Rev. Nelson Johnson
Dear Friend:
This is a reminder that the Statewide Meeting of the Southern Faith, Labor and Community Alliance (SFLCA) is Saturday September 22nd from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm at Faith Community Church, 417 Arlington Street, Greensboro, NC.
The September 22nd meeting is a most important gathering regarding our continuing work together. There have been strong positive developments on several fronts since our gathering in Rockfish (which we detail below) but there is much work yet...