Seeking Social Justice

The Ojola Group met briefly on 1/10/2010 to review the 2009 annual report and to discuss finances, requests, and the projected budget for 2010.  In addition to the 3 secondary and 3 primary school children we are already sponsoring, the group was asked to consider sponsoring three additional boys  (2 secondary / 1 primary), one of whom is truly destitute.  Other requests included hiring a cook so that the children don’t have to cook for themselves during the school day; and paying fees so that Christine, Syprose’s adult daughter and manager of the Project, could enroll in Part II of a CPA course.  A fourth request (carried over from this past summer) was for support for Victor Ochieng to take a computer course.  (Victor was a beneficiary of Ojola Project funds and did very well on his end-of-high school exams).  This request is still pending, as the Ojola Group has not been given an estimate on course costs.

The group decided that it could meet the first three requests by adding them to the projected budget through grants and existing funding.  Also, the Ojola Group is awaiting a response from the Odero stakeholders on the feasibility of opening up a tailor shop now that funds are available.

At its meeting on September 17, the Sojourners Church Council voted to send the following letter to John O. Wynne, University Rector and chair of the search committee for the new president of the University of Virginia.

This letter grew out of the work of a group then called the University Community Racial Reconciliation Project, now renamed the University Community Action for Racial Equity.  This group had written a letter to Mr. Wynne asking for issues of racial justice to be part of the discussion in the search for a new president.  They welcomed signers from the community at large.  Sojourners, however, decided to write its own letter, which was approved by and sent on behalf of our church council.

Dear Mr. Wynne,

We are aware that the University of Virginia is beginning a search process for the person who will succeed John Casteen as president of the university.  We write not as members of the university community but of the larger community of which the university is a part.  We believe the university and the community live in a relationship of mutuality.  The health of each depends on the other.

We write particularly as the church council of Sojourners United Church of Christ, a faith community that is concerned about matters of racial equity in the Charlottesville region and committed to working for racial justice.  We want to affirm the enormous benefits the University of Virginia brings to the surrounding community.  We further affirm the positive steps the university has taken In acknowledging its role in past injustices as well as the resources it brings to helping improve the lives of Charlottesville residents. 

However, we are also acutely aware of how much remains to be done.  For all its positive contributions to the community, the university has also been deeply involved in a history of discrimination and racism.  Acknowledgment and apology will need to be accompanied by consistent and dedicated efforts to repair the past and build a different future.  This time of transition offers the university an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that it is serious about working toward racial justice both in its own institutional life and in the surrounding community.

We know that the university will be looking for financial and academic leadership.  We urge that it also consider moral leadership in relationship to racial justice to be of utmost importance.  We are aware of the questions put forward by the University Community Racial Reconciliation Project and have taken the liberty of attaching them for easy reference.  We believe they are good questions for discussion with candidates for the presidency of the University.  Indeed the issues raised are important points of discussion for all of us as we move forward.

Yours truly, 

Krissy Lasagna             Rebecca Garrity               Jim Bundy
Co-moderator              Co-moderator                Pastor Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, September 20th, the Prison Ministry Social Justice group will be leading the congregation in worship at 9:30 a.m. through prayers written by incarcerated individuals, along with songs and special music centered on the themes of freedom and peace.  Jennifer McBride will be our guest preacher.  She is the Director of the Atlanta Theological Association’s Certificate in Theological Studies at Metro State Women’s Prison and is a lecturer at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, GA. 

Following our service of worship, we hope that many will make plans to enjoy the art exhibit in the fellowship hall, From Inside Out.   The goal of the project is to take the creative process to an underserved community and to create a new vehicle of expression that builds a sense of self worth. The program also creates a bridge between the prison population and mainstream culture.

We also invite you to attend the adult forum after worship (approximate start time between 11 and 11:30 a.m) when we will host a panel of individuals from the community who will engage with us in a 45-minute panel discussion centered on the question, ”How may churches and individuals assist and support formerly incarcerated people as they re-enter society at large?”  The panelists will include Phyllis Back, Programs Coordinator at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail; Lisa Nelson, Reentry Specialist at Offender Aid and Restoration – Jefferson Area Community Corrections (OAR); and Tracy Tryall, Educator Re-entry Population, Aids Services Group (ASG).

The Ojola Social Justice Group met on Sunday August 30, 2009 and discussed a Strategic Plan that had been submitted by the founder of the Ojola Project, Syprose, and her adult children.  Things have changed in Kenya since the program began.  In this new plan the family stressed their desire to shift the focus of the project from supporting small children to addressing the needs of orphaned youth.  Now that ARVs are available, fewer children are being orphaned.  Yet those young people who lost their parents in the HIV/AIDs epidemic of the 1990s and early 2000s, are now teenagers growing up without authority figures or role models.  Without guidance, some run away, drop out of school, get into drugs, and turn to crime.

In order to be more effective, they propose the following steps:

• Reconstituting the Board of Governors so that it includes local leaders (women as well as men) who can be counted on to invest time and energy, thereby fostering greater community “ownership” of the project;
• Establishing a Grassroots Committee that will oversee the daily management of the project—Christine, another grown daughter, will serve as the administrator.  She has taken accounting courses and has moved back to Kisumu;
• Starting businesses such as a tailoring shop and a small cyber café in two of the rooms of the residential block.  Such income-generating efforts  would help move the project toward self-sufficiency, and enable single mothers, school drop-outs, and widows to earn a living;
• Finding ways to further subsidize the post-secondary education of project beneficiaries (like Victor) who successfully completed Form IV, but  would like to take a computer programming course to improve his chances of getting a job; and
• Organizing activities for youths such as a football (soccer) team that would “motivate idle boys and occupy their time, with an aim of bringing them together for capacity building.” 

The group discussed the proposal and focused on several points.  There was concern about the security of the compound, especially if they are to purchase valuable equipment for running a business.  They will need to consider whether a fence or security guard will be effective in protecting their assets.  We also discussed fundraising ideas.  We agreed that once we have a concrete, well-thought-out proposal from the family, it will be easier to solicit funds.  We wondered about the possibility of helping them find a micro-loan program, especially for the businesses they wish to develop.  That route might include some on-site support about running a business and how to succeed. 

We agreed that we would continue to support the educational needs of the 4 boys currently in school.  A local soccer organization here is eager to send used equipment, shoes and uniforms to help the Ojola program.  We agreed that having Syprose’s adult children involved and increased involvement of the local elders and villagers is a positive step.

Cindy will communicate to them our concern that the new organizational structure gets firmly established before we move forward.  Also, we would like to see a more detailed business plan and some steps toward securing the compound.

The Prison Ministry Social Justice group will meet August 2 after worship and Ojola Children’s Project will meet August 30 after worship.

All Sojourners Social Justice Groups are invited to meet after worship July 12.  If you’re new to the church and would like to learn more, or just haven’t had a chance to attend any meetings yet, please see the Sojourners News board for group descriptions and the facilitators’ contact information or contact the church office. Everyone is welcome.

For those who missed the recent symposium on race and the criminal justice system at the Carter G. Woodson Institute, here is a link to a podcast for some of what took place including the roundtable on Virginia featuring local leaders.  This link requires i-tunes, which can be downloaded for free: https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/virginia-public.2058928044.02058928051.2063283313?i=1951354405

Upcoming symposium sponsored by the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies - The Problem of Punishment:  Race, Inequality, and Justice on April 16 & 17, 2009.  Keynote address by Angela Y. Davis, all events free and open to the public.

click here for more information http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/woodson/symposium/index.html

Feb. 12, 2009,  Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the NAACP turned 100 years old — just a few weeks after Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States.  In the Spring of 2000 another milestone was celebrated with the publication of the book, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, edited by Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board of the NAACP and Sondra Kathryn Wilson, the executor of James Weldon Johnson’s literary estate in celebration of the 100^th birthday of the song of the same name.   The book is a collection of over 100 essays by prominent African Americans offering their thoughts about the songs’ impact on them.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”, adopted by the NAACP as “The Negro National Anthem” in 1919, was originally written as a poem.  It was publicly performed in 1900 by 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, FL where James Weldon Johnson — poet, songwriter, and lawyer — was the Principal.  The school was celebrating Lincoln’s birthday and Johnson wrote the words to introduce their honored guest speaker, Booker T. Washington.  Five years later, the poem was set to music by John Rosamond Johnson, James’ brother, and it became a way for African Americans to demonstrate their courage, patriotism, and hope for the future.

James Weldon Johnson’s face was very familiar  at the NY Headquarters of the NAACP in the 1920’s when he was the Executive Secretary.  He worked alongside other well-known African Americans:  W.E.B. DuBois, the editor of the organizations’ Crisis magazine and Langston Hughes, who wrote the first history of the NAACP.  Julian Bond, as a young student, was also a member of the NAACP and led the activist Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.   He returned to the organization in 1998 as the Chairman of the board.

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Sojourners - February 22, 2009

Questions: What does the election of Barack Obama mean to you personally, and how does it challenge our work in racial justice at Sojourners? Are we too “comfortable” at Sojourners, given the fact that we “love’ everybody?

The election of Barack Obama means this to me personally.

HOPE. One of the best-loved campaign pictures, and my favorite, is the one in black and red on which is written, “HOPE.”

Hope for many things-but especially hope for change for the injustices and inequalities experienced by African-Americans since they were first brought here in chains.

As a little girl in racist Alabama, I wondered why we called our maid, “Susie”, instead of Mrs. Kemp. All polite southern children referred to anyone older than they as Mr., Mrs. or Miss.

I wondered why my dad rebuked me for saying, “Yes, Sir” to an elderly dignified man riding by our country home on a mule. Dad said, “Never call an N—– sir.” 

I wondered why my black playmate called me Miss Dell but I referred to her without the “Miss”.

When I went to college in Chicago, I often wrote Susie, and I always addressed the envelopes, “Mrs. Susie Kemp.” Perhaps with the hope that someday she would be treated with the respect of her white peers.

 You can imagine my thrill at being able to say “President Barack Obama” to a partly African-American.

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