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JUNE 2021
The Christian Recorder
THECHRISTIANRECORDER.COM
FREDERICK DOUGLASS MEMORIAL COMMUNITY PARK, PORT TAMPA By Diane Egner, 83 Degrees Media
The senior bishop of the A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church Worldwide, the Rt. Rev. Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr., stopped by Port Tampa on Saturday to break ground on a new park and playground where the historic Frederick Douglass Negro School once stood. The consecration and groundbreaking ceremony took place across the street from the historic Mt. Zion (Port Tampa) A.M.E. Church at 7401 S. Kissimmee St., where Richardson’s father once served as the pastor. Richardson, a graduate of Florida A&M University who received the Master of Divinity degree from the Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta and the Doctor of Sacred Theology degree at the ITC through the Atlanta Theological Association, told church members and friends who gathered for the service that he remembers well growing up in the neighborhood that provided the foundation for his global service today. The church’s current pastor, the Rev. James T. Golden, led the service, which marks the continuation of an effort to build a community center next to the 132-year-old church and open a unique park and playground for neighborhood
children. Church members are busy planning an anniversary celebration in June and are gathering community support for honoring and preserving the history of the working-class neighborhood that was once home to Port workers in the late 1800s up until recent years when new homes and apartments began to dominate the landscape. Tampa Architect Jerel McCants is lending his expertise to design the park and playground as well as the community center. McCants, Yvette Lewis, president of the Hillsborough County NAACP, and Clara Glenn, president of the Frederick Douglass Negro School Alumni Association, were in attendance. ❏ ❏ ❏
IN CRITICAL CONDITION: VOTING RIGHTS, EDUCATION, AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY By D’Weston Haywood, Ph.D.
Republicans in state legislatures across the country are moving with lightning speed to restrict voting rights and ballot access. This is largely in response to dramatically changing racial demographics and the rise of “woke” voters, as well as recent narrow Republican losses to Democratic candidates. Farright conspiracy theories charging voter fraud, among other things, are also working to drive these efforts. Their success has been swift. States like Georgia, Florida, and Iowa are leading the way in legislation that limits early voting periods, absentee ballots, and mail-in voting, for instance. In Georgia, even offering food, water, or assistance to voters waiting in line could be prosecuted as a misdemeanor. Tennessee has joined the spirit of these problematic efforts in limiting democracy, though from another, deeply related front. As Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists lead our modern Black freedom struggle, pushing America to address its racial past and present, the Tennessee General Assembly voted in May to ban the teaching of systemic racism in the classroom and to withhold
funds from schools and districts that do so. The bill does not identify BLM by name but advocates indicated as much in their defense of the legislation, denouncing Critical Race Theory (CRT), one of the key philosophical tenets shaping BLM. CRT began as an academic movement among legal scholars in the 1970s and has since spread beyond the academy to activist life. It rightly argues that racism is embedded in the country’s institutional structures and gets produced and reproduced by those structures pervading American life from the justice system to popular culture down to everyday interactions between people. If you have ever heard the terms “white privilege,” “intersectionality,” or “structural racism,” then you have probably encountered CRT as it has advanced a crucial vocabulary and framework of ideas in understanding and addressing racist thinking, policy, policing, laws, and institutions. Even Donald Trump had heard of it, repudiating it in an executive order in September 2020, not long after BLM protests had mobilized nationally with great impact in the preceding months. Tennessee is following the former president’s policy trend and
states like Idaho, Utah, and Arkansas may also, given recent debates about similar measures in their legislatures. These emerging, antiintellectual policies against classroom discussions that could otherwise help cultivate an informed future electorate invested in a civic engagement that helps root out longstanding inequities, in fact, go hand-in-hand with their antidemocratic cousin—the new wave of assaults on voting rights. Indeed, both are growing together, sprouting from the same seeds that are working to advance perhaps a new Republican form of criticality: the process of expending intellectual and institutional energies to devise virtually any means necessary to resist the expansion of democracy. Ironically, such moves affirm the very point that CRT is making, rejecting critical theory to instead embrace conspiracy theories about stolen elections. ❏ ❏ ❏
GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI HONORS TOP 30 UNDER 40 By Rev. Dr. Alice Hubbard Crenshaw, 8th Episcopal District
Turner Chapel Ame Church In Greenwood, Ms Proudly Recognizes “Bro. Johnathan Parnell As A Recipient Of Greenwood’s Top 30 Under 40 Honor.” On Wednesday, March 31, 2021 The Greenwood Commonwealth Publication Announced The Annual Honorees For 2021-22 Bro. Johnathan Parnell is a lifelong member of Turner Chapel AME Church, where he has served in numerous capacities. He is the son of a proud mother Sis. Viola Parnell who is also an active member of Turner Chapel. He is an Oracle Application Database Administrator in IT at Viking Range, LLC, where he has worked for 14 years. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Mississippi State University. He list his hobbies as playing video games, watching movies and spending time with family and friends. Growing up in church, Bro. Parnell has worn many hats. He served as Sunday School Teacher, Trustee, Class Leader, Assistant YPD Director, Sunday School Van Driver, and Church Treasurer. He is currently, the Northwest District Sunday School Superintendent in the 8th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Bro. Parnell
is currently the social media administrator, ministry of media president and Choir Director for both the Adult and the Youth choirs at Turner Chapel AMEC. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he served breakfast to the Sunday School Department and mentored the youth and young adults at the church by assisting them in their schoolwork, providing advice and guidance, and being like a big brother or father figure that they may have need for directions. He once received an Acknowledgment Honor from Tuner Chapel for his work, dedication and promotion of the church. Bro. Parnell was led to his career choice because he always loved computers and technology. Seeing as how technology was always going to be a challenging field, he knew that was the arena for him. No matter what career he had, it was going to be related to and working with computers. In addition, he has always loved being a problem solver. He gets a sense of accomplishment when being introduced to a problem and developing a solution to that problem. His current career combines these two passions.
