From Rev. Eileen Wiviott: August 28, 2020
I am running out of ways to say my heart is broken. I have no more words to express the outrage I feel about the merciless, cowardly and hateful violence inflicted on black bodies. The shooting of Jacob Blake III, in front of his three children on Sunday night, is only the most recent example. I don’t have the words to express how deeply sad and angry I am for the pain and loss I imagine his family is feeling and the trauma his children have experienced. I pray that they find a way to heal from that horrific experience.
At the rally in Evanston on Tuesday night, Alderman Cicely Fleming spoke of the collective trauma of racism and violence. Each new violent example of the destructive and vile white supremacy that rules our nation, unchecked by our criminal injustice system, adds to our collective and compounded trauma. Our world, our community, and each one of us is in need of collective healing and repair from this physical, mental and spiritual trauma.
This week, I learned of the history of solidarity between the Unitarian Church of Evanston and Ebenezer AME Church in Evanston. I knew that our former minister, Charles Eddis, marched for open housing in Evanston in the 1960’s. I didn’t realize until this week that it was Jacob Blake’s grandfather, Rev. Jacob Blake Sr., who led those marches and championed affordable housing especially for senior citizens. I am regretful that a close collegial relationship hasn’t continued between our congregations over the years. I’ve reached out to Rev. Deborah Scott to offer my support, in whatever way it might be needed or wanted. I will attend the outdoor service of lament on Sunday at 2pm at 1800 Maple Ave. I hope you will join me if you are able, even though I know it will not be enough. I will weep for the victims of corrosive and destructive white supremacy, so flagrantly on display through the weak and the pitiless. My tears will accomplish nothing.
My prayer of lament is that our tears fuel our rage, and that our rage empowers us to act in solidarity with those whose lives have been and continue to be torn apart by racism and criminalization which dehumanizes and devalues black and brown lives over and over again. We must say enough is enough and speak out against the false narratives of white supremacy. The REAL team, with your ministers and leaders are continuously working to offer meaningful actions you can take. Keep an eye on the newsletter and the home page of the website. For now, one meaningful action you can take is to sign up to support the Breathe Act.
Please join me in sending prayers for the well–being of Jacob Blake III, his family, his children, his faith community and for those who died protesting in the streets. Do not believe the lies that Jacob Blake was somehow at fault. Do not fall for the false narrative that rioting and looting are the reason two people were killed on Wednesday night. Those deaths were the result of white supremacy valuing property over people, pure and simple. And we cannot rest until it is abolished. May we not rest until every black and brown life, is held as precious and loved, safe and whole, in the same way that white lives are.
And I share this letter from the African Methodist Episcopal Church:
White Supremacy Terrorism, African Methodism and The Struggle To Redeem The Soul of America
The servant leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church watched the video of the shooting of Mr. Jacob Blake III, 29 years old, and watched in unholy horror as we heard at least seven shots. Now the family is confirming that Jacob has at least 9 bullets in his body and at this time is paralyzed from the waist down.
Sadly, we watched white supremacist police terrorism strike and now must write another “call to action” to remind the nation and the world, that because “Black Lives Matter” this systemic violence against men and women of color must stop immediately.
The shooting of Jacob Blake, in the back several times, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in a car filled with his family including three children, ages 3, 7, and 8, has the nation in an uproar. The inhumane treatment of another person of color, in the shadow of the assassinations of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the recent shooting death by police of Trayford Pellerin in Lafayette, Louisiana, are just more examples of the political tyranny and insensitivity inflicted on people of color in this nation. We raise the same question found in a recent newspaper headline: “WHY ARE POLICE STILL USING UNWARRANTED FORCE ON BLACK PEOPLE?”
When Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and a group of Blacks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed the Free African Society leaders in 1787, it laid the foundation for the organization, growth, and development of the global AME Church in 1816.
Brother Jacob Blake, III is one of the fruits of the AME Church tree of faith, freedom, and family. The Blake family has served as ministers for four generations in pulpits around the country. His grandfather, Rev. Jacob Blake, Sr. was the Pastor of Ebenezer AME Church in Evanston, Illinois, and leader in protests that created fair housing policies in Evanston. Today, Brother Jacob Blake’s cousin Rev. Robert Blake led in uncovering the Flint, MI water contamination in 2014 and now serves as the pastor of Greater Quinn AME Church in Detroit, Michigan.
From Denmark Vesey’s planned slave revolt organized in what is now called Mother Emmanuel AME Church to the assassination of the Emmanuel 9 on June 17th, 2015, to the shooting in the back of Jacob Blake, III in front of his three young children on August 23, 2020, the AME Church has resisted and fought back against the institutional violence perpetrated against Black people.
Today, we call for our friends, ecumenical partners, and people of all faiths to join the African Methodist Episcopal Church in resisting and overcoming white rage and terrorism and continue to pray for the spiritual, physical, and emotional healing of Jacob Blake, III and his family and using up this Sunday’s services to denounce police brutality.
Bishop Michael L. Mitchell, President of the Council of Bishops
Bishop Adam J. Richardson, Senior Bishop
Bishop Wilfred J. Messiah, President of the General Board
Bishop Frank Madison Reid III, Chair of the Social Action Commission
Mrs. Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Director/Consultation, Social Action Commission