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.

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

·         The proportion of service/maintenance staff that is African American is about 50 per cent. There are members of the staff who were hired when African Americans were being tracked into hourly wage positions while working full time, even as whites performing similar jobs were hired with full-time benefits. This legacy means that even today we have employees, eventually placed into full-time positions, who have reduced retirement benefits. What would you do to address this inequity?

·         Along similar lines, there have been alumni willing to pledge substantial funds to support a living wage for all UVA employees. That offer has been denied to date. Given that such arrangements of supplemental funding are commonly made for other positions, such as recruited faculty and athletics coaches, how would you respond to similar offers today? What would you do to ensure equity in working conditions?

·         The proportion of African American faculty ranges between 3 and 4 per cent. How can you learn of factors causing African American faculty to leave or not to apply at all? What would you do to recruit, support, and retain such faculty? How should success or failure in doing so be evaluated for those with responsibility for hiring and firing?

·         In the mid-1900s UVA harbored a number of leading proponents of the eugenics movement, including the Dean responsible for admissions and the Dean of the Medical School. The name of the medical school auditorium, Jordan Hall, continues to honor that former dean, yet few people who work or visit there realize that. What is the responsibility of a University to address such incongruities? What would you do with Jordan Hall and other buildings and places that may reflect histories that have been hidden or ignored?

·         A common saying among African American community members is, “our youth are more likely to see the University through the emergency room than through the admissions office.” How would you address that issue?

·         Many people in the community, from wage laborers to City Council, believe that the University actively discriminates against them and does not want their presence other than as workers. What would you do to make the University a place that was known for welcoming, rather than for excluding, the local community?

·         Visitors as well as employees may never hear of the history of slavery, segregation and discrimination. Several other universities have memorialized the painful aspects of their history with significant public recognition. What are your views of those efforts occurring at places such as Brown University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill? What role would you play in understanding and memorializing that history at UVA?

·         What concrete actions would you take to support the recommendations of the Presidential Diversity Commission, including a Chief Office for Diversity & Equity who reports to the President; the “Day in the Life” Program, which matches UVA students with local at-risk youth and brings them to Grounds to participate together in academic, cultural, social and athletic events; and other recommendations which may not have yet been implemented?

·         The region surrounding the University continues to have severe racial disparities in health care, housing, employment, education, and criminal justice, to name some of the most significant. What is the responsibility of a public University to address those issues specifically, as well as public problems in general?

·         What other ideas do you have to support relationships between the University and adjacent communities, in particular in ways that address the legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination, as well as efforts that challenged those wrongs? What ways would you commit to supporting these principles identified by the W. K. Kellogg foundation for working towards racial equity:

·         Principles of fairness and justice

·         Actions designed to address historic burdens

·         Ways to remove present-day barriers to equal opportunities

·         How to identify and eliminate systemic discriminatory policies and practices

·         Specific remedial strategies, policies and practices

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).

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.

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

“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.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”— The Negro National Anthem — was so powerful and so meaningful that by the 1920’s, copies of it could be found printed or pasted in the hymnals of black churches all across the country.  You may remember that at the inaugural, Rev. Lowery began his Benediction with the words of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.  He did this as a reminder of the struggle during the Civil Rights years.  This sacred song was part of the growing up experience of nearly every Black American.  I myself can remember singing it as a first grader at Public School 157 in Harlem, NY.   Dressed in the traditional garb for auditorium day:  Navy blue pleated skirt, white middy blouse and red tie — we would first recite the Pledge of Allegiance, then we would sing the National Anthem…and then we would sing the Negro National Anthem.  We didn’t understand fully what the words meant (we didn’t understand our national anthem, either), but we knew that when we got to the part —“Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us — Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us”….we had to sing out loud…with feeling and with pride.   

“ Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a very appropriate hymn for Sojourners because it  demonstrates our unity and solidarity.  It is a reminder…and a motivator…. because in spite of how far we’ve come as a people…as a nation…even with the election of the first African American president…we are STILL on that journey toward justice and equality.  So…as we continue to harvest the diversity of ALL people for the good of our community, let’s stand up and “ Lift Every Voice and Sing”.

Enid Krieger

 Feb. 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.

Many people my age, in their 70’s, particularly African-Americans, never even hoped that a black man would be elected president in their lifetime. Yet, it happened. Largely because millions of people like me and my husband worked many hours and donated money to bring Obama’s hope to this country. Not just because he was black-a significant plus-but because we felt he was the best candidate to bring hope after eight rather hopeless years. And because millions of us helped fulfill part of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream: We judged him on the content of his character-not the color of his skin.

Racial justice at Sojourners includes many things, such as the Prison Ministry we have. As you know, poor blacks are incredibly disproportionately represented in our penal institutions. The parenting class that Joan Richardson and I teach, aided by many of you who come as speakers, reaches mostly African-American mothers. Our present class represents 30 African-American children and grandchildren.

Tutoring at some of our largely black Charlottesville schools can provide intervention that often means a child becomes either successful or another statistic among the poor and/or imprisoned.

Supporting The Salvation Army campaigns and food banks, again, helps a disproportionate number of blacks.

As we contribute to Books Behind Bars, this helps that large African-American prison population.

As we support City Council candidates like Kristin Szakos and others who care passionately about the poor and inequities in Cville, especially, in our schools, we help bring about racial equality.

Helping the African-American Teaching Fellows is another way we seek to enact racial justice in our area.

It is great that we at Sojourners seek to love everybody, but let us remember that the Bible says that God showed his love. Not just talked about it.

And that we show our love by obeying His commandments, which include the wonderful verses in Matthew 25 about feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison-helping those considered by others as “the least of these.”

Note the words in I John, “You show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely by talking about it.” Let’s persist in finding ways to put feet to our words.

Let us continue to support and expand our ministries that aid racial justice and maintain Obama’s mantra, “Yes, we can! YES, WE CAN!!”

 –Dell Erwin