Friends, I am sitting here is tears. I was on Zoom calls from 9am-9pm ET today. So when I scrolled through my emails I was shocked to see the NYTimes email alert, sent early this morning that Rev. #CTVivian passed away this morning at 95 years old. 1/
Rev. Vivian was one of the giants of the Civil Rights Movement. Taught non-violence by Rev. James Lawson, Rev. Vivian helped organize the 1960 Nashville Sit-Ins. He eventually became the national director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference affiliates. #RIPCTVivian 2/
I was blessed beyond my own understanding to be introduced to him the first time as a staff-worker in Christian ministry. He led our organization through profound anti-racism training. The old white men just about list their minds—and Rev. Vivian was 100% right. #CTVivian 3/
The next time I met him was on the set of the #Selmafilm. We were there to witness the filming of Turn-Around-Tuesday. He remembered me and was gracious enough to sit and talk for some time on a break. 4/
My last conversation with Rev. #CTVivian was for #FreedomRoadPodcast March2018, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In this precious conversation Rev. Vivian share his greatest lessons from the movement. freedomroad.us/2018/04/episod… 5/
Thank you, Rev. #CTVivian for your service to our country—and the world. You were followed hours later by your fellow Civil Rights Movement General, #RepJohnLewis. Now standing in the ranks of the ancestors, your taught us how to follow Jesus. #RIP (photo: David Goldman, AP) 6/6
Please forgive all the typos. Pecking through tears. 🙏🏾
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1/ On @MSNBC Michael Beschloss just told the story of Gandhi sending the Queen a wedding present—a piece of cloth that he spun himself. Gift was downplayed at the time. Beschloss said gift was sign of how Queen made everyone feel special. 😧 #Queen#funeral
2/ I usually love Michael B’s take on everything on @MSNBC. But this is a GROSS oversimplification of that moment. #QueenElizabethII
3/ When the British colonized India they outlawed the spinning of Indian tapestries. Britain’s Indian “subjects” (non-citizens) were only allowed to grow the raw cotton. Then it was exported to Europe, spun in similar style and sold back to Indians at a profit. #queensfuneral
2/ While I have reflected that my relationship with Jesus has moved from boyfriend-ish to brown liberator, Bob reminds where the whole evangelical lovey-dovey image of Jesus comes from. #churchasbrideofchrist#bethmoore
3/ So, why did White Evangelical’s pounce on a reference to crushing on Jesus that any one of us could find at ANY church Women’s conference? And why now? #bethmoore#loveydoveyjesus
If the impact of well-intentioned people following white supremacists is racial and gender oppression, then those followers are guilty of racial and gender oppression.
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1/ I recently spoke on the intersections of race/gender oppression in US. The very first RACE Law in the nation’s foundational history was passed in VA 1662. It was also the very first GENDER-based law and the first CITIZENSHIP law passed on this soil.
2/ That 1662 law created race-based slavery, by locating citizenship in the womb of the mother. Citizens could not be enslaved. So, if your mother was enslaved, she wasn’t a citizen and you were not a citizen. So, you could be enslaved. Plus, they outlawed interracial marriage.
3/ The 1662 law was in full force for 200+ years until passage of 13th and 14th Amendments, which ended race-based citizenship and outlawed slavery. Interracial marriage wasn’t legalized until the Loving v. Virginia (1967) Supreme Court ruling 305 years after VA’s 1662 race law.