On Sunday July 10, 2016, in response to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile members of law enforcement, about 5,000 people shutdown traffic on the Hernando-Desoto Bridge. After coming down from the bridge, they proceeded to march through downtown Memphis. Here is my reflection on that evening. I was tired. I had been up since two in the morning to catch a 5:15am flight back to Memphis. Once in Memphis, I followed through on all of my obligations... Read more
by Steven Tramel Gaines “Do you really believe white racism exists?” A BLM activist asked me that question as we ended our march at the site of Dr. King’s martyrdom. After an awkward pause, I responded with something like this: “If you’re asking if I think many white people are racist, yes.” (Surely she had understood “white racism” as racism enacted against whites.) Her friend asked to see my sign again. I showed it to her. The sign said, “End... Read more
On Sunday July 10, 2016 activists marched on the I-40 bridge in Memphis to protest the recent killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police. After coming from the bridge, protesters march through downtown Memphis. Below is a Facebook Live video from our editor Andre E. Johnson that captured some of the march. Donate to the Work of R3 Like the work we do at Rhetoric Race and Religion? Please consider helping us continue to do... Read more
On Thursday evening July 7, 2016, Micah Johnson shot and killed 5 police officers and several others wounded. Police reported that Johnson was “upset with Black Lives Matter” and he wanted to “kill white people, especially white police officers.” We here at R3 collected some reflections from this tragedy. If you would like to share, please email us at [email protected] or by Twitter or Facebook. I grieve for the five Dallas police officers who lost their lives to senseless... Read more
On Tuesday morning July 5, police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana shot and killed Alton Sterling. The next day, Wednesday July 6, police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul shot and killed Philando Castile. We here at R3 collected some reflections. If you have a reflection you would like to share, please email us at [email protected] or contact us on Twitter or Facebook. Dropped by my son’s place of employment to give him a hug and tell... Read more
by Kenneth Vandergriff Stanley Hauerwas wrote “war is America’s central liturgical act necessary to renew our sense that we are a nation unlike other nations.” Unfortunately for Americans war has spilled into everyday society. The most recent police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota have led to protests in the streets, and rightly so. People of all races rising up in the name of peace. And yet, violence still erupts. On the night of July 7, 2016 police officers in Dallas,... Read more
by Amy Steele Dear God, Hear my prayer. Just like that! the sun can feel like it is setting. And night can seem an eternity. I know that I do not have to rush beyond these feelings, for tradition reminds me that there are those who pray sorrow’s mysteries. How anyone could despise black skin, I sit in awe. Blackness is so utterly profound to me. The night is my comfort. The shade is my relief. The color is my... Read more
by Michael J. Steudeman The Free State of Jones is really two movies. The first is a tightly-told story of a rebellion-within-a-rebellion led by Newton Knight during the Civil War. This movie has a familiar story arc, tracing one man’s journey from war defector to the leader of a de facto sovereign territory in Mississippi. Spanning only three years, this story happens in an easily-imagined geographic space, including Ellisville and its surrounding farms, plantations, and swamp. The second movie is... Read more
In the case of Utah v. Strieff, the Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision, found that if an officer illegally stops an individual and then after the stop discovers an arrest warrant, any evidence from the stop may be used in court. The only restriction is when an officer engages in “flagrant police misconduct,” which the decision declines to define. This means that police now can stop anyone on at anytime, without any probable cause. In addition, this ruling nullifies... Read more
On May 20-21, 2016, the University of Memphis hosted “Memories of a Massacre: Memphis in 1866, a Symposium Exploring Slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction.” The culmination of a semester-long series of lectures, workshops, discussions, and book talks, this symposium featured historians and scholars from across the country, including Robert K. Sutton, retired Chief Historian of the National Park Service. Together, their presentations and the ensuing discussions pried open what has for 150-years been the carefully concealed history of Reconstruction, its legacies,... Read more
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