African American History Month Wrap-Up
By Jeannette Brown
March 2, 2003
Ephesians 4: 31
e beginning of last month Frank Bolden began the Christ Church observance of African American History month by telling you the reasons why we should observe the month. During the month we touched on famous African American scientists and musicians and we had a wonderful musical service two weeks ago.
This Sunday I am going to wrap up the discussion for
now. History is not static, what we did
last week, last month last year is already a part of history. So I want to discuss what you are already
doing that is a part of African American history.
I will begin with housing here in Summit. The Dennis Place houses were built by the
Summit Civic Foundation. Christ Church
was a part of the founding of the Summit Civic Foundation Allen Tinker was one
of the founding members and Ruth Appleby was on the board. This organization was founded to build
houses for middle income African American in Summit, because there was
none. There was so much opposition by
the neighbors; to this in the beginning that by the time the houses were built
the people for who they were intended had found other housing. This is how I happened to live in one of the
houses that coincidently happens to be the house directly behind the house
currently occupied by Tom and Brea Reiber. I used to cut through that back yard to go to work at CIBA. To continue
with housing, Christ Church is a part of the Interfaith Hospitality network,
which provides temporary housing for the homeless and the Board of World
Fellowship funds the Homesharing Program of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties of
which I am currently both a board member and a provider. I have a room that I have used to provide
housing for a young African American woman who had to downsize her life. Christ
Church also used to participate in the Habitat for Humanity Program and I
remember going to Newark with Jim Marsh and Phil Weber to work on a house.
Christ Church members give time and money to the
Community Food Bank where some folks are headed today. A group of Christ Church
members founded Bridges, which provides food and clothing to homeless in New
York and New Jersey.
As for education we used to work with the Protestant
Community Center in Newark in their Suburban Cultural Educational Enrichment
Program (SCEEP) which is a program that buses children from urban schools to
suburban churches for an after school tutorial program. This program still exists and they also have
a program for high school students in which the teenagers meet with suburban
teenagers for programs like trips to museums or bowling etc. Our confirmands
have gone to The Irvington Congregational Christian Church to help them with a
program. This church has an inactive
Community Development Corporation of which I am a board member. When reactivated they hope to write a faith
based initiative proposal to run an after school program. In fact after school programs for urban
students are needed because the state just cut the funds they were giving to
urban districts for this purpose. These
after school programs provide tutoring and recreation for urban school
children.
Pat Kettenring
founded a program in Newark called GlassRoots, Inc. This is an entrepreneurial art venture program that works with at
risk teens. The quote from their web
site says; GlassRoots is a metaphor for the life
of the young. Each young person represents a thing of
beauty, of potential. But just as glass is
transparent, is fragile and can be broken, so too it can become strong
through tempering. GlassRoots provides that
opportunity to temper
one's potential through the skills of the arts and
entrepreneurship.
Thus GlassRoots is a metaphor for life. Pat says that this program really makes a
difference for these young people. The Women's Resource Center currently runs a
program called The Girl Project; they want to expand this program to include
more minority girls. I am working with a program called Project SEED. Project
SEED is a program for poverty level high school students. It is funded in part by the American
Chemical Society and provides a summer experience in a scientific research lab
for these students. This program is
also changing the lives of young people by giving them access to a profession
that they may not have heard of or contemplated as a career.
The UCC General Synod 23 proclaimed public school support—and
advocacy for the same—as one of the "foremost civil rights issues in the
twenty-first century."
Therefore it behooves every one here in this congregation
to see that all children receive a good education. After all it just makes good business sense, since you pay for
this with your tax dollars, it is cheaper to educate a child to a state where
they can become tax paying citizens than it is to put them in jail. . The Harvard Civil Right Project has a new report entitled “A Multiracial
Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream?”. The report states
that the schools are being
resegregated, due in part to housing patterns in the states.
What are the current action items to change African
American History? In the area of
housing, welcome new neighbors no matter what their race. In Social Services keep track of what is
happening to Medicaid in this state, single men have been thrown off the
Medicaid roles and services are reduced for others. In Education African
American in Higher education are monitoring the results of the Michigan Affirmative Action Supreme Court
decision. There already fall out from this in the Princeton has ended a race
based program for students. You should also monitor what is happening in your
school district. Make sure all children
are educated to their potential and not disproportionately tracked into lower
level programs. Become a mentor to a minority student like Barbara Von Klemper.
Lastly, everyone can do this be good to one another
and respect all people regardless of their race and social status. As we sing
in the choir “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted for Christ sake. The bible passage in this anthem is
“Ephesians 4:31” Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one
another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” This is how
you at Christ Church can change the course of history for not only African
Americans but all people.
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