AFRO 298: Day 2 at Ebenezer Baptist Church and Emory Candler School of Theology (Atlanta, GA)

            On Sunday, March 21, 2014, our next destination was to travel to Atlanta, Georgia to visit and experience a church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Sitting on the right side of the bus, I noticed we were approaching the same Ebenezer Church that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. attended when he was still alive. The old blue Ebenezer Baptist Church sign with white lettering and a white cross-stood out to me and I was amazed how beautiful the building still was despite the last time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has visited for a service before his assassination in 1963. Getting off the bus and being directed to cross the street so that we would not be late for service, I was fairly confused. I thought service still took place in the original Ebenezer Baptist Church building, but when I saw a newly, constructed Ebenezer Baptist Church across the street from the original church, I was pretty amazed.

            Entering the doors of the new Ebenezer Baptist Church, my breath was taken away at how large the inside of the church was as it was not portrayed this way from the outside. There were at least four different sections of pews on the main floor and even a balcony filled with tons of people. I was happier to breathe the air and feed off the vibe I received from the members of this church community than to assess what we had just walked into. The choir left me speechless as they sounded amazing and this church seemed different than many mega churches in Illinois and back in my home community of Proviso Township, Illinois. Despite the large number of members that were present, I could tell that each one knew one another and had somewhat of a relationship with each other. Walking into the church when 9 members were being baptized, officially joining as a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church was also a defining moment of the service.

            The line up of the service was somewhat different as many Baptist churches wait until the end of service to baptize members and there normally is not much singing and more of the church community receiving, analyzing, and attempting to apply the week’s sermon, or main message, to their lives. Also, with there being a short sermon I was a bit confused as to if that was the short version of the service and if this was what occurred every week as I felt as though I missed the sermon and that it was fairly short. The sermon was more about political issues occurring in the Greater Atlanta community and the Moral Monday Georgia protest. The Moral Monday Georgia protest took place just last week on March 18^th at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta where 39 protesters including Reverend Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, protested a bill that would deny the governor’s ability to participate in the Affordable Care Act’s, or “Obamacare’s,” expansion of Medicaid. “Obamacare” provides healthcare to the lower class socioeconomic status, which many African-Americans are in the state of Georgia. This was something new to me especially not hearing about it on Good Morning America, and I felt that media on this protest should have been covered so that the world could be informed and gain dignity to stand up for what they believe in – having a voice in our society.

            After church service, I was able to tour the old Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s father and grandfather preached in favor of segregation, voting rights, and equal pay, which were all huge social issues at the time. Walking into the older church, I was connected immediately to many of the black and white photos of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presenting different speeches behind podiums with different faces standing behind him – supporting the change he wanted to see in the South. The art also connected me to vision that Dr. Martin Luther King had for society at the time with other influential leaders that high schools in Chicago are named after such as Whitney Young, one of the most prestigious and well known magnet high schools in the Chicago School District. I then visited the MLK Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change Inc. where I was able to take a picture looking at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s burial in the center of a fluorescent blue fountain/pond. Another touching and reflective moment was being able to see the wagon that carried Dr. Martin Luther King’s body in the precession after his funeral.

            Listening to Dr. Bernard Lafayette’s, a Freedom Rider, story gave me more insight to what I could recall in the textbook about African-American history during the Civil Rights era. Textbooks say that Rosa Parks refused to get out of her seat because she was tired that day of all the injustice and unfair treatment, but Dr. Lafayette gave me another perspective that helped me put the pieces together. Anyone can be fed up, tired, upset, or beg for equality for African-Americans by not offering their seat to another human being, but being tired that day isn’t a good and valid excuse for being arrested. Dr. Lafayette shared that Rosa Parks refused to get up from her seat because in the back of her mind, she was thinking about Emmett Till and how badly beaten up and bruised his body was portrayed across all news sources across the nation. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat because she herself wanted to illustrate a picture that would be shared nationwide of what was occurring in the South. The picture of Rosa Parks looking out of a window symbolizes hope that segregation in the South will someday come to an end, that she was indeed thinking about the body of Emmett Till, and that it was time to fight, respectfully for her First Amendment Rights.

Day 2 was learning how to be an encourager and providing support to those that have the heart and drive to make a difference in society. The world has plenty of critics already as we could see the obstacles (people, rules, and State of Alabama government) that Dr. King Jr. had to face.

AFRO 298: Day 1 at the National Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, NC

            Day 1 was a pretty reflective day. It gave me so much new insight to the Civil Rights era that I do not recall running across or learning in the classroom. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is one place that I have enjoyed on our journey during the trip. There was so much information on the walls and reenactments that made me feel as though I was apart of the Civil Rights era. Being able to experience walking through a reenactment of the F.W. Woolworth Diner where the Lunch Counter Sit-In was very powerful. Four Black male students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College came into the diner one day and wanted to be served by White servers. The White servers did not serve the Black students from North Carolina A&T and continued sitting at the counter day after day doing homework and preoccupying space to bring awareness to the community of what was occurring. When I first thought of them doing this, I asked myself, “Well, what about the summer?” It turns out they already had that planned. During the summer, Black students from the community’s high school would come to F.W. Woolworth Diner to take the place of the North Carolina A&T students mocking them by doing schoolwork and demanding to be served. This movement grew larger and larger until one day, White people became fed up and stopped giving their service to F.W. Woolworth ending in the victory going for the 4 Black male students from North Carolina A&T eventually being served and bringing the awareness they wanted in the Greensboro, North Carolina community, which is where the original diner was located. It felt great being able to walk through the diner and watching the scenario of what occurred during this time period. It was like a determination booster to continue making a difference within my college community at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign being a STRONG African-American male on a Predominately White Institution (PWI).

            I was more touched by the image of the inside of a bus in the south that segregated Blacks and Whites. It was the first time I was able to truly interpret anything in the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. When asked to look at this image the first time, I had a look of “this man is asking me to look for something that I didn’t know existed on a bus back then.” It wasn't until I looked up to see two different types of straps that were used to support bus passengers that had to stand up if there were not enough seats. The ones towards the front appeared to be white from the black and white blown up image on the wall that was in the shape of a circle or a ring that gymnastics members use to perform flips. These white rings would provide support to bus passengers that were White at the time. Looking towards the back of the bus, I noticed there was a huge difference in supporting Black passengers.  From what I could see, there were black or dark straps like book bag straps that hand down to adjust the length of the book bag – very thin than the straps that go over one’s shoulders. There was not much support and I would assume this would make Blacks wrap straps around their risks portraying them as being enslaved on the bus and humiliating them to a certain extent because I am sure they were embarrassed to even be on the bus falling and tripping everywhere with every turn and stop of the white driver.

            A bright red with white letters that read, “Coca Cola” on a vending machine was pointed out to me as well as we moved through the exhibit. I was asked what stood out to me and I noticed that one soda at the time was $0.10 cents. When I was asked what else I noticed about the machine, I gave the same response as I did previously to the bus standing support. Someone pointed out that on the other side of the Coca Cola Machine, the soda cost $0.05 cent, $0.05 cent cheaper than it did on the other side. Analyzing the machine before the tour guide could even get words out, I predicted that the machine with the lesser value Coca Cola was for Whites at the time, and the greater value Coca Cola was for Black which was VERY NEW to me. This is something I felt should have been expressed in history textbooks during this time. This would have given me more of a sense of how petty, unequal, and unfair it was to charge someone for the same beverage, in the same machine for different prices. It somewhat defeats the purpose. I was more disgusted at the fact that Coca Cola would even sell soda from a two-door machine with different prices. What does this say about their company’s values, how they value their customers at the time, equality, and segregation? I could not believe that Coca Cola, a major food and beverage company in today’s society promoted the advancement of segregation as if White’s money was different from Black’s money as if it all wasn’t going to the same coin dispenser tray in the machine.

            Between the two experiences that I shared previously in addition to seeing the Ku Klux Klan outfit and hearing about all that they did to Blacks back during the late 1950s and early 1960s, I was pretty upset from the first site, on the first day. I would not say I was upset, but more so uncomfortable. Two scenarios that were very new to me that were not published in textbooks that would have helped me obtain a better sense of this era failed me to some degree, but helped me see 12 years later (from the second grade to my second year of college at The University of Illinois) how small actions such as food or beverage for survival, materials for protection, and other objects that add value of security and survival in people’s lives at the time promoted segregation and hit many Black people’s pockets hard as they already were uneducated and did not have an abundant estimated gross income. These scenarios have refreshed my memory as to why it is important to give up my seat for senior citizens disabled persons on a bus and hold on to the strap to support myself standing up and why it is important to work hard to when investing in beverage vending machines in today’s society without having to worry about there being different prices based one the color of my skin or risking my life because food is a necessity that should be convenient, price-wise, for everyone. It’s a sad feeling that my ancestors, grandparents, and heck even my parents as my father was born in 1959 in Alabama had to experience this but it is a reminder to always have a voice and be an ally as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say himself, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Day 1…was insightful and a huge bite to digest.