N.B. This essay was published as a My Word column in the Orlando Sentinel Opinion section December 6, 2023. It appeared on the morning that the marker from the Equal Justice Initiative commemorating Arthur Henry was dedicated.
On December 6, Orlando will dedicate a marker commemorating
the lynching of Arthur Henry. As lead investigator for the Alliance for Truth
and Justice seeking to re-member our fellow citizen, I am grateful. At the end
of this long journey, I reflect on what I learned in the process.
First, I am struck by the truth of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
assertion that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice.” Both of those assertions have proven true in this process.
The investigation to re-member Arthur Henry required five
years to achieve. But the events it uncovered laid buried in time, indifference
and the active collusion of those who sought to erase them from our collective
memories for 98 years. Henry’s marker evidences that while justice is slow, it
can finally arrive.
[Images:
Klan exhibit, Orange County Regional History Museum; Rosewood descendant Lizzie
Jenkins]
Third, I’ve come to believe that secret keeping is the acid
that erodes truth, prevents trust and ultimately harms our lives together. That
includes white families protecting the worst kept secrets in the world of their
Klan involvement as well as Black families protecting their children from
“knowing too much,” refusing to tell them of the harm done to family members.
This kind of secret keeping prevents recognizing the harm done to our fellow
citizens as well as accountability for those who caused it. But such secrets
never simply go away; they are wounds on the body politic that inevitably fester.
Finally, as a sixth generation Floridian, I have realized
that the story of Arthur Henry is not simply his story, my story or the stories
of those immediately involved. It is a chapter of our story as Floridians, an
integral part of who we are as a people. We do ourselves no favors when we opt
for marketing with which our state sold its image to the world for decades even
as Florida led the country in lynchings per capita.
Owning these parts of our story we never allowed ourselves to tell will not make us comfortable nor are we entitled to comfort. But if we are to know who we are, we must embrace the whole truth about our common lives, good, bad and ugly. Until we own it, that truth is always a liability to whatever whitewashed façades we might maintain. In the end we owe ourselves more than that.
Harry Coverston is an Episcopal priest, a former assistant public defender and retired lecturer from the Philosophy Department at UCF. He serves St. Richard’s Church in Winter Park.
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
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.
Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected
don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
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, 2023
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