5th Ward News - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day

City of Evanston, Illinois sent this bulletin at 01/18/2021 02:32 PM CST

Monday, January 18, 2021 | View in browser

Wishing You Peace and Justice on this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King video: https://youtu.be/9N-m9RcZGkc

Hello Neighbors and Partners,

In the memory of Dr. King and for our community, let’s actively pursue Reparatory Justice together; the time is now.

Please read my message at St. Nicholas Catholic Church for a special Dr. Martin Luther King Mass:

Thank you to the Peace and Justice Committee, Father, and the entire St. Nicholas congregation for your commitment to racial equity and your thoughtful contributions to the City of Evanston Reparations Fund.

On behalf of the Evanston City Council and the Black community we thank you for your leadership and heart to learn more about our responsibility to partner in our goal to repair damages in the Black community due to historic injustice and oppression that impact us today. Reparations is an overdue initiative that requires Ally leadership and participation, thank you for your example.
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Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Today’s scripture reading is a timely call to action to our community.

As we celebrate the legacy of Dr. King, it is needless to say, his dream is not alive. In fact the actions of the twice impeached president and his domestic terrorist convening at our nation's capital was a nightmare. A continuation of a 401 year nightmare for African Descendants in America. In 1963, Dr. King stated in his I Have a Dream speech:

“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Today our national social climate is not far removed from the error of Post Reconstruction when lynching was used to murder and terrorize Black Americans into submission; In Dr. King's case it was lynching by gun shots, last summer it was 8 minutes and 46 seconds and a knee to the neck of George’s Floyd and 7 shots in the back of our own Jacob Blake as his children observed; and all other forms of racial terror... Today we are not far removed from the discriminating practices of Redlining, or the injustices of the disparate delivery of the GI Bill... the War on Drugs still lives and Mass Incarceration of Black men continues.

Dr. Kings dream is not alive.

Chattel enslavement was outlawed with the Emancipation Proclamation “but we remain in the jet streams of the consequences”. (Sir Hilary Beckles)

Later in Dr. Kings speech he mentions the commitments of the Declaration of Independence and coming to “Cash the check” or make good on the commitment; He goes on to state:

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce "urgency of now.”

It is Dr. Kings call for the urgency of now in which I take my direction.

Now the good news! We are Evanston. Hate and division and oppression seems inescapable but it IS stoppable. We have taken a bold and just step toward repairing the damages in our City with the passing of the nation's first funded reparations legislation. We are working together in truth and reconciliation and stretching ourselves to right our wrongs.

Our local case for reparations is largely justified in our housing and zoning policy; yet Jim Crow laws, over-policing and racial aggressions have their place in our history as well. As the Black community learns more about our post traumatic slave syndrome our white allies are learning about their own history in white supremacy.

We are in this together. In every corner of this City we are working on racial healing and I hope you are proud to be in a City that has moved beyond ceremony and is actively working to bring life to Dr. King's Dream.

We have a long road ahead, but I stand with you for a community committed to peace, justice and vitality for all of us.

If you’d like to learn more about Evanston Reparations please visit our website: https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/reparations

The time for shifting the narrative around social justice, racial justice, and the evolution of activism is here. Be a part of the activist community and tune into "The Shifting Narrative" broadcast TONIGHT, Monday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. The broadcast will feature The Evanston Five, a panel of young, Black Evanstonian activists, as they have a spirited, thoughtful conversation about the history and future of civil and human rights in Evanston and in America.

Tune into the “The Shifting Narrative” broadcast by visiting Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre’s Facebook Page or YouTube Channel.