[Continued from Part I]
Passing Through the Refiner’s Fire
Orange County was simply not
ready to deal with its history the night
in 1998 the Democracy Forum first held up the mirror for Ocoee to see its then
78 year old Shadow.
But things change, even in an Orange County
with a once virulently racist past. The county in which the Ku Klux Klan felt
free to parade in city streets by torch light a mere century ago is now just under
41% white non-Hispanic in composition. Those of African descendance now make up
nearly one quarter of the population.
Ocoee, which just elected its
first person of color to its City Commission in 2016, is today a diverse city its
ancestors could have scarcely conceived of. The US Census report of 2017 estimates
the population of Ocoee to be just above 50% white, non-Hispanic.
However, demographic changes alone
do not do the hard work of owning a collective Shadow. Embracing a bloody past
rooted in a racism which has abated in its virulence but never completely gone
away is the stuff of hard work, of gut checks, of conscience wrestling, of
letting go of worldviews that oriented their holders to what they saw as
reality.
All of those very human
behaviors were on display last week as the Ocoee City Commission engaged in an
act of repentance, redemption and resurrection. Its Mayor, Rusty Johnson, a white
man emerging from the simmering stew of Southern racism in which many of us here
were raised, issued a proclamation that acknowledged the dark events of November
1920 and asserted that they would never happen again here or anywhere else.
The proclamation designates
November 2 as a day of solemn commemoration in Ocoee and reflects the Council’s
decision to place a state historical marker in its civic plaza to remember those
events and to inform those who do not know of them. It is scheduled to be dedicated
Nov. 2, 2020, the one hundredth anniversary of the Election Day Massacre.
While the proclamation could
have been issued by the Mayor alone, it was striking that he took the initiative
to have the entire Commission vote on the proclamation. It passed unanimously.
Much like the Brown v. The Board case
decided by the 1954 Warren Court, it was essential that the decision makers be recorded
as unanimous in their determination to repudiate this history and to vow to head
in a new direction. The proclamation explicitly rejected its history as a “sundown
town” and embraced a new identity as a “sunrise city” marked by diversity and acceptance.
The people of Ocoee have done
some remarkable soul-searching. It is not easy to first embrace and then distance
oneself from a history that implicates one’s town and one’s ancestors in
terrible acts. No doubt, not every Ocoee resident shares the willingness to do
so. But this event took courage, the leaders of Ocoee proving willing to pass through
the refiner’s fire. The end result, noted by Bill Maxwell, the African-American
voice of the Diversity Board, was a measure of redemption.
All of them are to be
commended.
Prophetic Action
“For
he has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but
to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
It
would be easy to tell this story and focus only on the official, historical
aspects of this event. Some historians are prone to do so. But when you are an
eyewitness to history being made, your perspective is a little more fleshed out,
a little more immediate, than mere dates,
names and events can convey.
When the vote on the
proclamation was complete, the Commission opened the floor to speakers to
respond to their action. What followed was one of the most remarkable events of
my life.
The Mayor would begin the
process of truth telling, offering his own story of how he came to recognize
the need for this proclamation. Much of it centered around the voyage with his
Diversity Board to the opening of the EJI Lynching Memorial in Montgomery. But
the Mayor referenced his faith, citing scriptures from Hebrew and Christian
sources, evidencing how the faith expressed therein inspired the faithful to “Do justice, love mercy
and walk humbly with G_d.” (Micah 6:8)
Thereafter, speaker after
speaker rose to relate their responses to this action. Some of the descendants
of families who lost their homes and their loved ones related the pain of unacknowledged
suffering, of seeing a once vibrant history simply erased as if it had never
happened. One of them pointedly responded to the Commission: “I accept your
apology.”
What resulted was an eruption
of justice, mercy and humility that was striking in its similarities to the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission made famous by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu
in post-apartheid South Africa. As the speakers told of their pain from years of
injustice, the Commission and audience, including some descendants of those
who had caused that pain, listened attentively, some dabbing their eyes.
All around me, people wept
tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of redemption. And at that moment, with
tears in my own eyes, I realized how incredibly privileged I was to be present
for this incredible event where truths were spoken and reconciliation sought.
Hard Work Still Ahead
For many of us who have been
working toward this day, the proclamation was both a bit of a surprise even as it
was a wonderful affirmation of the hard work so many have done over the past four decades.
The heavy
lifting on this project was done by the Diversity Board of Ocoee whose work for
two decades was praised at the commission meeting. They, in turn, had been
brought into being as a result of two groups that began the initial work toward
owning this Shadow beginning in the late 1980s, the Democracy Forum and the
West Orange Reconciliation Task Force.
The local Orange County Task
Force of the Equal Justice Initiative
which last spring dedicated its new lynching memorial and museum in Montgomery was
also instrumental in this accomplishment. For the past two years placing a marker
in Ocoee has been a primary goal. Seeing it soon to be realized is heart-warming.
Recognizing that the achievement of that placement ultimately came from within
Ocoee itself is even more so.
The work of the Task Force is not completed,
however. Our soil collections from the sites of the massacre in Ocoee and the lynchings
in Orlando will soon be placed on display in the museum in Montgomery. We are
working out the details on placing markers in Orlando to mark the two lynchings
there we have been able to document, one of them July Perry.
We are also hard at work developing
our many town hall forums across the region into an educational-curricula for
local schools. Our children must know their heritage, ALL of it. Toward that end, the task force is overseeing a scholarship essay competition at five of the Orange County high schools.
Finally, its collection of artifacts and documentary evidence will soon form the basis for an
exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center during 2020, the
centennial year of the massacre. It will also provide the materials for traveling exhibits for events across
the state.
Much hard work lies before us.
But for this day, I am deeply grateful. It is the first step toward a justice too long delayed
which has finally begun to arrive.
EJI-OTF soil collection, possible lynching site of July Perry, Orlando
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If the
unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it
religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do
not come in sound bites.
For what
does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)
Do not be
daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now.
Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are
you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami
Shapiro, Wisdom
of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston 2018
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