Is the AME Church Caught Up on the Messenger and Missing the Message?
By Adrienne Fikes, 2nd Episcopal District
Ida B. Wells’s account of an 1894 Philadelphia AME minister’s meeting, shared in her autobiography, A Crusade for Justice, did not deter her from continuing to do the good work God called her to do. She said,
I thought they intended [the invitation] as an expression of appreciation of the work that had been accomplished, but the Reverend Dr. Embry objected to the resolution’s passage on the ground that they ought to be careful about endorsing young women of whom they knew nothing – that the A.M.E. church had representative women who ought to be put before the public and whom they could endorse unhesitatingly.
…it had remained for the ministers of my own race to bring me before them to hear them discuss whether they could afford to endorse me. “Why gentlemen”, I said, “I cannot see why I need your endorsement. Under God I have done work without any assistance from my own people. And when I think that I have been able to do the work with his assistance that you could not do, if you would, and you would not do if you could, I think I have a right to feeling[s] of strong indignation. I feel very deeply the insult which you have offered and I have the honor to wish you a very good morning.”
In May 2020, this pioneering journalist, activist, and icon of America’s civil rights and women’s rights movements, was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize special citation.
Imagine the even greater works Wells might have accomplished joining hands with the descendants of Bishop Richard Allen, the Rev. Absalom Jones, and the Free African Society? How many Black lives might have been saved since 1894 had we not missed the message by getting caught up in the messenger?
The Movement for Black Lives (m4bl.org), and organizers mobilizing across the country, galvanized our country June 1-7 in defense of Black lives. As a result, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says, ‘It is time to move our rhetoric towards action to end racism in our city.” Los Angeles plans to defund the police department by at least $150 million and invest in minority communities. The Minneapolis City Council announced their intent to disband the police department and invest in proven community-led public safety.
As this Movement rises, the AME Church’s Social Action Commission is declaring “business, as usual, is no longer acceptable.” Also, the 6th Episcopal District’s “Millennials of Faith Against Anti-Blackness” are rallying on the steps of my former church.
Brother and sisters, the time for action is now. Black humanity and dignity require Black political will and power. People are taking to the streets, flooding social media, calling local officials, and demanding justice based on the M4BL Policy Platform (m4bl.org/policy-platform). Now is the time for the AME Church to lend our support to the Movement for Black Lives.
