FEATURE I Black History Month
BLACK LIVES MATTER Captain Daniel Diakanwa highlights some positive attitudes to racial inclusion in the Army’s history and challenges us to examine where we are now
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LONG time before the Black Lives Matter movement came into existence, William Booth made a prophetic statement to show that black lives mattered indeed. In 1890 he wrote: ‘The negro personally is as yet an unknown quantity. His moral character, intellectual ability and spiritual capacity are as yet comparatively undiscovered... Even now, where in individual cases he has had equal opportunities, he will favourably compare with the white man. It is quite possible for us to argue, therefore, that after years of civilisation, education and Christian influence he will equal, if he does not actually surpass, the white man in those things which now make the latter so much the superior.’ It should be noted that William Booth, a former Methodist minister, was influenced by John Wesley’s theology of sanctification and his fight against slavery. Wesley described sanctification as ‘a heart habitually filled with the love of God and neighbour’ and as ‘having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked’. Moreover, Wesley’s 1774 Thoughts Upon Slavery provided a fierce criticism of the slave trade. Black lives also mattered in the early days of The Salvation Army in America. George Scott Railton was appointed as the Army’s first commander in the United States in 1880. He declared that they were ‘the only white people to whose company, to whose platforms and to whose operations, coloured
people had the same welcome as others’. One of Railton’s successors, Commissioner Frank Smith, wrote in an 1884 War Cry article, ‘Our coloured brethren have been very much wronged, the victims trampled upon… We of The Salvation Army have a holy ambition to be among the first Christian community of America who will faithfully and wholly break down the wall of partition.’ In 1896, Booker T Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, wrote a letter to the editor of the Army’s Conqueror magazine: ‘I am very glad to hear that The Salvation Army is going to undertake work among my people in the southern states. I have always had the greatest respect for the work of The Salvation Army, especially because I have noted that it draws no colour line in religion. I feel that there is a large class of coloured people in the South, especially in the cities, who are not reached by the churches, but who will be reached by your work. In reaching the neglected and, I might say, outcasts of our people, I feel that your methods and work have peculiar value. Certainly, there is plenty of room in the South for your work, and I feel that the coloured ministry of others will give you a hearty welcome. There are thousands of my people in the cities who do not go to church. These as well as others I feel you will reach and help in a permanent form. God bless you in all your unselfish Christian work for our country! If I can
serve you at any time, please let me know.’ While many evangelical churches were relocating from the cities, where many black Americans lived, to move to the suburbs, The Salvation Army remained in the cities to fulfil William Booth’s calling to the marginalised. Black lives matter in the 26 African countries where about 67 per cent of The Salvation Army’s 1.8 million members live. It should be noted that The Salvation Army contributed tremendously to the development of African nations by building schools, medical centres and hospitals. Today, William Booth University is among the top ten universities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. William Booth’s prophetic statement that the black man ‘will equal, if he does not actually surpass, the white man in those things which now make the latter so much the superior’ has been fulfilled as many black inventors have contributed to the scientific development of the world and black businesses and organisations have flourished. Within The Salvation Army, many black officers have been appointed as territorial or regional commanders around the world. In 2002 Commissioner Israel Gaither became the first black officer to serve as the Chief of the Staff, the secondranking officer in the Army world, and in 2006 Gaither became the first black officer to serve as National Commander of The Salvation Army in the USA. The Army’s positional statement on racism says: ‘Racism is fundamentally incompatible with the Christian conviction that all people are made in the image of God and are equal in value. The Salvation Army believes that the world is enriched by a diversity of cultures and ethnicities.’ While that statement is laudable, and although there have been many positive steps throughout the Army’s history, the challenge remains to continually examine our organisational structures and individual attitudes to ensure that racism is acknowledged and abolished.
CAPTAIN DIAKANWA LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN THE USA EASTERN TERRITORY Salvationist 3 October 2020
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