 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Thanks for coming out tonight. We hope you get a chance to see the exhibit. Do Lord remember me, the Black Church in Rhode Island? We're going to begin tonight with a special performance from Joe Wilson Jr. I don't know if anybody's had the chance. As I did, I was lucky enough to see the mountaintop at Trinity Rep. It's here. It was a powerful performance. And Rob Demick, the curator of the exhibit, is going to explain the performance that Mr. Wilson's going to be delivering tonight. Good evening. It's a privilege to bring, do Lord remember me, the Black Church in Rhode Island exhibit to its first stop after a tour of Providence, Newport, and Winsocket under a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the humanities. And so this is its very first outing separate from that funding. And we're really honored that the Pharisees have had the vision to bring this to Roger Williams University. I think it's fascinating that it happens as we close Black History Month. It's here for a week, which means that Black History is not marginalized to a month. It is a history that needs to be recognized and celebrated for 12 months out of the year. It is also, as I say, as a white person, and many people, particularly white people, ask me, what is your interest in African-American history? And my answer is always that it is a shared history. You can't separate the black from the white. So that is my place and my interest in this history as I intersect with it as a person of white skin. As we envisioned this project beyond the exhibit itself, we felt it was really important that voices be heard, that we experience places and events in time. So when the exhibit opened officially at the First Baptist Church in America, founded by Roger Williams, on all those wonderful things, freedom of religion, which, as we look at the exhibit, was not extended to people of color. People of color were forced into churches that were owned or operated by their masters and had to get permission to leave them. And you'll hear more about that in the panel. But we wanted to celebrate how the black church has nurtured intellect, artistry, and politics. And so as people entered the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church, which was the cradle of the first black church in Rhode Island, we hear black women playing the violin, representing the Jeter family in Newport. Pastor Jeter raised an entire family of children who all were stringed musicians. And you'll see that in the exhibit. There was a prelude and a postlude that represented the gospel tradition of the black church. There was a spiritual song. There was a magnificent keynote by Reverend Dr. Doris Hooks, longtime associate pastor of Congdon Street Baptist Church in Providence. And then we heard the extraordinary voice of Alexander Crummel, who was a black Anglican, who came to Christ's Church in Providence, founded in 1839, a relatively short-lived Episcopal church. But while there, he wrote an impassioned letter during the door rebellion that said black Americans, black Rhode Island specifically, deserve the vote. That is the speech that you will hear this evening from Alexander Crummel. It was so magnificent that it did win Rhode Islanders the Black Vote in 1842. And so please welcome Alexander Crummel. Gentlemen, there are monstrance of the undersigned colored citizens of Rhode Island. Respectfully represent that in the Constitution that is proposed to be sent forth by your respected body for adoption, there is one measure inserted upon which we, as an interested party, beg leave with deference to make known our views and give an expression of our sentiments. We have referenced to that proposed article which, in inserting the word white, denies all persons of color the use and exercise of the elective franchise. We protest against it as unwarrantable. We affirm that there is not in the character or condition of the colored people of this state as a class which can justify this procedure. We are mostly native-born citizens. We have lent our best strength to the cultivation of this soil. We have aided in the development of its resources and have contributed our part to its wealth and importance is a justification of our disenfranchisement sought in our want of Christian character. We point to our churches as our reputation. In want of intelligence, we refer not merely to the schools supported by the state for our advantage, but to the private schools well-filled and sustained and taught by competent teachers of our own people is our industry questioned. This day, were there no complexional hindrance, we could present a more than proportionate number of our people who might immediately, according to the freeholders qualification, become voters. We claim then that to deprive the colored people of this state, of the immunities of citizenship, on account of the color of skin, a matter over which they have no control is anti-Republican. And against such a procedure, we enter our solemn protest as a harm, an industry, an injury. As destructive in tendency, we regard this measure and do, therefore, remand straight against it. Thank you. My name's Ed Fitzpatrick. I'm the director of medium public relations here at Roger Williams, former Providence Journal columnist. And as a Providence Journal columnist, I got to know both of our panel members. So just to introduce them, I got to know Ray Rickman as a former state representative and former deputy secretary of state, a little-known fact that Ray beat Lincoln Chaffee's brother, Zach, in 1986 in a state rep race for College Hill. He has conducted 300 diversity and race relations workshops for businesses, colleges, and government agencies over the past 30 years. The former executive director of the Providence Human Relations Commission, he was equal employment opportunity officer for both Lifespan and the city of Providence. He's also a former president of the ACLU and is now the executive director of Stages of Freedom, an organization that promotes black culture for the entire community, co-curator of the exhibit you saw today. Do Lord remember me? Also joining us on the panel is the right reverend Dr. Jeffrey A. Williams. He's dedicated his life as both a spiritual guide and social change advocate. He, his work as the founding pastor, what year was that? 1999. 1999 of the King's Cathedral in Providence, began with nine people meeting in his home. The congregation has grown and now exceeds 500 regular attendees as a bishop. Dr. Williams oversees 50 congregations in six nations and serves as counsel to a number of local churches and ministries. In addition to being a sought out advisor to members of government, having served in 23 boards and commission, that's a lot of long nights. He's been a chapel speaker for both the NFL and Major League Soccer. Dr. Williams is a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Masters in Public Administration has a doctorate from the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and Dr. Williams' book, Knowing Your Why, the key that unlocks your full potential will be released in May, coming out soon. He's the husband of beautiful lady Lelani Williams and the enthusiastic parents of Joy Victoria and Grace Noel Williams. And I can tell you he's also energetic presence at 6.30 in the morning on Facebook. With a morning decree, if you haven't seen it, you're gonna wanna check it out. So we're gonna have a good discussion tonight. We would, just the other panel member or censor regrets that she cannot make it tonight, Professor Charlotte Carrington Farmer is ill, but she tells me that the core 102 class is in attendance tonight. Let's hear it from the 102 class. Are they here? Very good. So Ray, let's start with you. You and Rob Demick mounted this traveling exhibit. What did you hope that it accomplished? What do you hope it accomplished? So everybody can hear me. The average Rhode Islander knows very little about African-American history. And then when you break it down to anything in particular, whether it's sports or religion or politics, they know even less. Some of this is our educational system. Some of this is a society that tries to make black folks not have any roots. Nations worked very hard at it. Pre-1965, there was an effort to erase black life and culture. And so stages of freedom believes that the American people are good, just lacking knowledge. And if they knew more, they'd act better towards others, the other, as they say in sociology. So you bring out an exhibit like this and first black folks had a church in 1890. People were surprised. And then they see all the growth. And finally, black people are more religious than anyone else in America currently and have been for 200 years. And all that is measurement that they go to church more often. And so we are our church. And that's what this exhibit's about. Now, before I forget, I'll tell people, our goal is to get folks to change and understand and promote personally. So if each one in this room today would send somebody in the next six days to see the exhibit, it would be wonderful. Yeah, how many people have seen it so far? Probably about 22 or 300. This is a traveling exhibit because this is Rhode Island. If this was Michigan or Utah, we wouldn't need a traveling exhibit. People would travel 50, 60 miles and come to the choices. Rhode Islanders, no, this is documented. And every chance I get, I bring it up because it's destructive to us as a state. Folks cannot, I met a woman the other day from Newport who had never, 65 years old, never been to Providence in her life. I think that's unbelievable, but not abnormal. So we're gonna take this to every corner of the state. We took it to three places already, Woonzucket. And we're here now in Bristol and then we'll go, we think we go back to Providence and then we'll go to Westerly. And so four or five times a year, Rob and I will get this out and take it to folks since they probably won't come to us. Yeah, how long is it here? The next one? Yeah. And is there a location? March 6th, March 6th. I noticed that the final panel includes a familiar face, Bishop Williams. So as the final, the capstone to that exhibit, you seem well situated to tell us where, what's next for the Black Church? What role do you see it playing going forward? We've learned the history now going forward. Well, thank you, Mr. Beck, and thank you for having us here and to sit with Mr. Rickman. It's always a pleasure. The fact that I was in the last panel was a great surprise and honored to be there. I would hesitate to speak on behalf of all people everywhere who are Black, but the reality is that the Black Church, as it's called, has a very significant role that it must play in the day and time in which we live. Sadly, we're still calling it a segregated place. 11 o'clock on Sunday morning is still a very segregated hour in America and very much so still in Rhode Island. But the Black Church or the Church in the urban context has to play more than a role than just occurs on Sunday morning. It's always played more of a role than just Sunday morning. It must be Monday through Saturday. It must involve arts entertainment, economic development, education, social issues. We must speak truth to power. Must meet felt needs of individuals. Very real basic needs of folks. So the Black Church, really it's finest hour and its most needed work is probably ahead of us and not behind us. Yeah, because the exhibit says Black churches have used the pulpit to fight for freedom, advance political causes, promote ideas and engage their communicants and marry at social issues. So you don't have to name names, but what are some of the specific issues that are on the table today? Well, just even dealing with the very fact that there is a permanent underclass that has been created as a result of legislation really over the years and the byproducts of being an enslaved people and a people group. So at a minimum, we have to deal with the issue of poverty, economic development and education. And the pulpit is a place in which not only are direct spiritual matters or very orthodox teachings delivered, but also things that matter in everyday life has to happen there. That's probably why in the Black Church services are so long because we have to handle a lot of things. For the record, how long do your services take? 15 minutes. 15 minutes. In and out. All right. Ray, could I add something to that? Absolutely. So Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, these are giants of the civil rights movement in NAACP Urban League and the like. One day they asked the Reverend David Abernathy, Dr. King's lead lieutenant, why can't we kind of get ahead of him, meaning get ahead of Dr. King? And Reverend Abernathy said to them, that's not possible. A black minister is going to lead this movement because black folks will respond better to a black minister. And so sometimes we forget the power of the black church in terms of politics and the like. While we're talking about King, I never let this pass. I always want white women to be champions of black needs and rights. And the reason for that is we are very forgetful people. Pre-Dr. King and the civil rights bills, white women could not go to law school, could not be ahead of anything that you could imagine and two thirds of them couldn't have a job because their husband would be disgraced if they went to work. So in the passage of the civil rights bills, the Republicans, being devious, added on women, thinking that because the civil rights bills looked like they were going to pass. And if you add it women, then that might take it down. But it didn't. And so every woman in this country moved forward. The Harvard Law School, correct me if I'm wrong, is 52% female graduating class this year. In 1964, it's 1% and they were wasting their time. So every chance I get, I bring that up because I believe in allies and folks who've been made hold, final comment, Lyndon Johnson had a soft spot for Mexican-Americans. And partially he agreed to pass the civil rights bills to ennoble them. And black folks were really secondary to him. He came around from being a noted racist to being the greatest president ever on civil rights. I don't mean to give such a long answer, but this is the church in action. And Dr. King is just one of 1,000 black ministers who helped lead this struggle. On behalf of a nation that has no idea that I was born in a apartheid society. Speaking of Dr. King, the general just had a story today saying the last Rhode Island speech that MLK gave in Rhode Island happened this spring 50 years ago. He spoke at Brown University on April 23, 1967. There was a second Rhode Island appearance in seven months. He had been at URI. And in a sermon at Brown, America's called America's Chief Moral Dilemma, he spoke against poverty, racial inequality, and the Vietnam War. He said, peace and civil rights movements, while they cannot be mechanically fused, are nonetheless intertwined because the war in Vietnam is hurting the programs at home. I love America. I want us to be a moral example to the world. But if we can't remain on the wrong side of a world revolution. So Bishop, tell me your thoughts on that and if the message resonates today. If you just changed a few terms there, it could play today. Given the wars that are occurring all over the globe, I heard one statistic that said just 44 different skirmishers of wars going on, even as we speak, let alone the ones that we're involved in directly or indirectly. And with the amount of money and human capital, if I can use that term, that's expended on wars in foreign field, we still find ourselves tragically without resources or even the will to handle the issues at home. Most certainly, we could have rebuilt our school systems by now with one year spent in terms of wars that, in retrospect, were most certainly unjustified. So Dr. King's words still speak to us even to this day. And speaking of today's headlines, I can't get too far from my roots here. The journal just had a story posted a few hours ago. It's going to be in tomorrow's paper saying immigration activities, they were at the St. House saying that there was fair mongering by Rhode Island legislators who support the Trump administration's immigration policies that include potential mass deportations. So what role, if any, should the Black Church in Rhode Island play in addressing issues like this? Bishop? Do you want to go first? I'll defer to you, sir. So I think there's a universal issue. I think that all churches and mosques and temples ought to be in the front of this struggle. And there's no room for people to hold back for whatever reason. And I'm very optimistic we're going to beat Trumpism. Seriously. It's erratic. Some of it's unconstitutional. It is mean-spirited. It's filled with hate and venom. And I think at some point you're just going to have clearly, already more than 50% of us didn't like it, but you're going to get to 75% or 80%. You heard it here. And the reason for that is one day it's transgender people. And the next day, you just cannot believe this stuff. But let me give you a down-to-earth whatever, because every time I get in front of a group, I want to say something they don't think about. So we're going to realize how ridiculous some of this stuff is. 44% of people who come to this country who are undocumented came on an airplane. A border wall cannot stop that. Secondly, every study shows that if you make something more difficult, people will find an alternative. So building a $50 billion wall isn't going to stop 10% of the folks who are coming. Now, here's the ridiculousness of it. If I wanted to stop undocumented immigrants, Ed, I would walk in 10 restaurants in Providence tomorrow and arrest the owners. OK? Why are we not talking about the people who own the landscape companies and the restaurants and whatever if we're serious? So the people who make it possible, there's no conversation about. The people who are trying to enhance their lives, we're criticizing. We have no replacement labor for them. You're going to wreak havoc on the economy. They're doing nothing wrong to us in terms of criminality or anything like that. And then finally, let me come to racism. There are 11 million undocumented people, 4 million of them white, which we refuse to talk about. The largest number of undocumented people last year are Canadians. And they're in Boston building skyscrapers at $75,000, $80,000, followed by Irish folks working in the best bars and restaurants. And there is no discussion. Now, if someone's taking our jobs, it is the white folks. It is not the guacamalans working in the kitchen at Hemingway's. OK? I can name you 35 restaurants if you want me to. And you know it too. So this is disgusting that if he was serious. And then finally, when you get ready to chase someone who can hide in the shadows, it's work. And it will cost billions of dollars to grab Mexicans. I just told you that someone came on an airplane. They had to be here three months or three years, and they overstated. We know where they live. Are you listening? So you could grab Canadians all day long if you wanted to rid this country of undocumented people. It is unadulterated racism. And the American people, half of them, have fallen for it. The other half have to say no. And say it vigorously. Let me make the final comment. Because I'm so angry at him and us because we can fall for this garbage. And when you do racist things, it pulls your soul down. 9 out of 10, the person you're doing it against, you probably have less effect on their mental health than yours. And I would tell you the final thing. We chase away half the undocumented folks. They will go someplace else and build those other economies. So, and please don't misunderstand me. I think, remember, the Republican congressman said to another Republican congressman, can you produce your papers showing that you have a right to be in this country? And you can't. Because before 1913, almost no one had to have papers. About 10% of people actually have something from Ellis Island. The rest of them, Mayflower people included, have nothing. And then, this is a long answer. And I'm not going to give another long answer like this. You've got to keep it shorter than his sermon. You've got to keep it. I love it, though. The church has a few things that I think are needed and necessary going forward. One is this inherent, and in quotation marks, a moral authority that the church has. And so, the church, the pulpit, the sacred space is not just a different latitude and longitude, but there's something that occurs in that realm that makes a difference. And so, the church must speak to that. But where we've failed is it can't be an individual. An individual can lead. But there must be an empowering and a mobilization of other individuals organized. And some things are just kind of very organic that has to occur. And so, one of our jobs as leaders of the church is that we inspire, inform, educate, and hopefully convict individuals with the mindset that, hey, you too have a responsibility to be critically engaged in your society, in your community. Because when it's on one individual, for a brief period of time on a Sunday, it doesn't work. As well as it would if people sitting in front of us, and even through social media, realized they too have a role to play. So that means all of us have a role to play. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, one should agree that how this present form of doctrine is going forward from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is detrimental. But the church itself most certainly has a responsibility. And it must move from simply being an orthodox place to orthopraxy. In other words, we must practice our orthodox. There must be an outworking on a Monday through Saturday basis, not just a Sunday morning basis. So for those of you who saw the mountaintop, the final scene, the final segment, Ray, you saw it, right? I saw it. Is Martin Luther King seeing the major world event center full of it after his death? And in the day I went, the final segment was the day's front page of the New York Times. And you just can imagine MLK reading that headline. So what do you think King would think of what's going on in the news today? And where do you think he'd be? Well, he's the greatest prophet American of the 20th century. And he wasn't frightened. Now, everyone young in this room doesn't know what America used to be like, J. Edgar Hoover's America. So Dr. King is extraordinarily brave. And if you read Taylor Branch's three books on King, you'll see that he wasn't foolish. He didn't know whether he would live another day. There were several attempts. But the day they bombed his house with his wife and children in it, shook his soul. And he said, I need to quit this, get me a college professor job, and move to Pennsylvania. And so you have a man who's probably lonely. And he's such a champion. He cannot step back. And it isn't done. What he needs to do is not done. Now remember, this is after the passage of the Civil Rights bills. This is 1968. And so it has these two achievements that have the ability. You can't legally redline anymore. You cannot take black people's resumes and throw them in the garbage. You have to let women go to law school. This is an accomplishment of a lifetime. You know, I mean, he's there with Roosevelt. I mean, seriously. And I think Dr. King would be the same today. I just can't imagine him being lesser. Now, here's the real answer. You ready? My mother said one day, Dr. King came to Detroit. And I wanted to go see him. And my mother said, no. I was 15 years old. And she said, you cannot go. There's going to be violence. Now, regularly, they were going to kill Dr. King. And we all knew it. And this was the day they were going to kill Dr. King. And so she would not let me go. But she turned to me and said, God gave America Dr. King just when we needed him. Bishop, what do you think he'd be today? I agree with my friend here for sure. I think there would also be a further mobilization of people. Because the fact that Dr. King was not, he was not a sermonizer. He was not a politician. He was not actually, and probably you couldn't help me if I'm wrong, he was a reluctant leader in aspects. He didn't want the light in that regard. But he most certainly was a prophet. This is why his words, 50 years later, still cause people to weep. Because there's something that was divine a part of that. And in my position, I can say that, right? Something divine a part that still lives on today. So I most certainly believe he would be moving, really moving us forward. If I could add one aspect, I think to the discussion when we talk about the church. Because the root understanding of the word church is, comes from this word, ecclesia, that means a called out group to discuss the affairs of the city or the polis. And so it was, in fact, in Bible days, Jesus' Senate. It was his group of people that he called out and said, listen, there's something we have to do in the earth here. And you're my guys. And in Luke chapter 8, you're my ladies too. You have to read the book. At some point, we have to read the Bible. At some point, it's going to have to happen. So the church is a called out group that is supposed to be myopic in its view as it relates to, what is the will of God in the earth? And completely filled with love, however. That doesn't mean the church will agree with everything and everyone, but it will agree with this. That all people have certain, unable rights, that all people deserve a certain level of treatment and decorum. All people deserve the same level of treatment. That is something that the church really should be about and agree upon. And Dr. King, notwithstanding being a card-carrying Baptist, clearly a man who was proud to be who he was and the skin that he was in, embraced many, many, many different groups, trying to move everyone forward as it relates to civil rights. And so I believe Dr. King would be front and center in this day and time. And just to stay with you for a second, Bishop, because this morning at 6.38, I opened Facebook and I got your morning decree every morning. 591 people, something like that were on there from Pakistan and all over the world were tuning in. And I thought of it in terms of an article that was just in a South Carolina paper about how historic black churches faced a challenge of attracting youth. So it quoted the pastor of a church there say, and there are many, many churches that are contending with the same concern. My personal opinion is that there's a generation that's been distracted by technology and Facebook, they mentioned Facebook, and text messages. No one's texting at this minute. A lot of people will say they bring their phones into church or to lectures to follow the scripture, but then the scripture reading is done and they're not listening to the pastor or they're scrolling through their Facebook. Distraction is one of the enemy's best tools. So, how do you use Facebook and why are you using that? Is that part of reaching out to a young generation? Well, yes, it is part of reaching out to a generation. My mother is 77, as of last week. My father turned 80 in December and I didn't know my mother had a Facebook page. I didn't know she had an email address. Can you snapchat? Until she was communicating with my wife. And she said, your mother said this, I said, when did you talk to my mother? They live in Virginia Beach. Well, you know, she emailed me. I didn't know my mother knew how to email. She finally got a Facebook profile picture up. It's been a while, but she's there. So, you have generations from college students and even younger. You've got high school students that are on their way to school who are watching to our senior citizens. So, Facebook or social media is something we cannot ignore. We must embrace and use for the betterment of humanity rather than the other nonsense that occurs. But with that article, on face value, I could agree with it. But the reality is, people do not come to church many times. And this is 33 years of ministry for me. It's because what they're hearing is irrelevant to their life on Monday morning. You see the idea of heaven, which is, I believe it's a bona fide place. I believe that one day you and I are gonna close our eyes and wake up in eternity. And so there are two places I think that one needs to make sure. You're in one place or the other. That's for another discussion, another day. But that being said, there has to be a relevance every day. So most churches do not have people sitting in a pew because what they're hearing is not relevant to their practical life. So the distraction of Facebook or social media as a whole is secondary. The issue is, I'm not gonna be distracted by what's going on on a Sunday morning if what I'm hearing is relevant to my life in very practical terms. And that may mean how we present the message. The message itself has not changed and will not change and should not change. But the methodology most certainly will. Or the delivery may. What our friend did there in the microphone and reading that speech, that can very, very much be. If I had my way in another life, I would be kind of a sanitized version of Steve Harvey. And I would do that on Sunday mornings. I really would. I've had conversations, no one agrees with me. Despite the fact that my name is on the building, no one lets me do what I wanna do. But that's what I would do. Why? Because people, they want that. And it can speak, you can still say some very hard things, but there's a way to say it. And that performance will be on our Twitter feed, by the way. But Ray, we've been talking about it kind of all along here. But tell us about the connection between the early black church and the black church in the 21st century. It's a continuum. And I told you earlier that there are more black religious people, percentage-wise, than there are. So black folks are still more connected to the church. I tell this story, and I have to be careful in Catholic, Rhode Island. But I write to the bishop every once in a while, and I update him. Catholic Bishop. The Roman Catholic. You don't write me. The Roman Catholic. I'm talking about me. I text you. Never text. I email you. We'll talk about you. I email you. So, often a church tells you to do something. And the Roman Catholic Church has several views. And when I was a legislature, they used to take a hammer to me and even cause people to threaten my life over several issues. And I shared. Did you say legislation? Yes. And I was shared with the Catholic, I think it's the third Roman Catholic bishop that I've shared this with. We got lost one day when I was new to this state in Barrington, and we ended up in Roman Catholic Church or driving by it, and it was Christmas time, and I love Christmas services. And we went to get in and had to stand in the door and you could barely get in because the church was full. That same church, 12, 14 years later, went to the service and could have had 12 seats. We have a decline in people's involvement in church. And I tell the Bishop, Catholic Bishop, I think that should be your first chore to take care of your own flock and then take care of me later. Or not at all. No, he doesn't respond. I've only written, I won't exaggerate, I've only written him three times. But I think what this Bishop said is true that churches are having trouble in general and the congregations are smaller and young people aren't interested. It was a different age in which I was a kid. You went to church. And we were Baptist. You went to church. So that's gone because the mother's not going to church, how the kid's gonna get there. But I still believe in the value of the church. It is a great institution. It often does things for you that no one else will do. It may create alternative family for you. And when I go to church, we travel around. And I think I'm still a member of St. John's, but it's closed, Episcopal. But we, I sit and listen to the minister. And if the minister doesn't say anything relevant to me, that's why I can keep going to church. I tune out and pray for the ancestors or something. But it's still a great spiritual place to be, that space. So I think the black church is still leading every other. But everything is in some degree of decline because I believe, I'm answering the question you didn't ask me now, I think technology is taking a hold of us to the point of being destructive. And I told you earlier, and I wanna tell the whole audience, the other day I saved a young man's life, a RISD student. I didn't tell you this. Well, I didn't really save his life. But when I put it in my autobiography, I'll say I did. He was texting, walking across the street, downtown Providence, texting, and walked behind the car that was backing up. And I reached over and grabbed him by the back of the coat and yanked him out of the way. Now, after this episode, while still in the street, he didn't thank me. You didn't thank you. Well, he actually cursed the driver. And then, while still in the street, he went back to texting. Are you listening? I'm listening. So first, I don't text when I get to a curve. But secondly, if that happened to me, it would be six months before I'd be texting in the street again. He was texting 10 seconds later. This is dangerous because, and someone explained it to me earlier, here at the university, this is people's lives now. Often not television, not family. Six or seven years ago, the first time at Gregg's, I ever saw something, I thought I would never see it again. Mother talking on the phone or texting, the two kids and the father. Didn't talk to each other the whole 45 minutes they were at dinner. I'd never seen anything like it before. We need a spiritual awakening. Amen. You're gonna be on social media, it better be for the morning to come. That's right. That's it, take away. But Bishop, we were just talking about this earlier that there was another piece of news that the president's efforts to bolster relations with historically black colleges ended in controversy today after the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, released a statement equating the history of the schools founded during an era of racial segregation to the school choice policies. What did you think of that? Let me start by saying this. The scripture says that we should pray for our leaders and those in authority. Amen, amen. There's a level of unconscious incompetence that exists in levels of government, both locally and nationally, where folks don't even know what they're talking about. Because for Secretary DeVos to think that somehow at historical black colleges were some new charter school that folks elected to just have their own place, that is largely an era, to say the least, that schools were built because we couldn't go anywhere else. And so that came out of that era, if I've got my... There was a choice. I've got my... Right, so... No choice. Right. There was no choice. So I think part of my concern and what caused me to get up at 5.30 before the 6.30 is because it's hard to communicate to folks that are just incompetent. But Betsy, that's what they call her in Detroit, Betsy. And when they want to be nice, they call her Betsy the billionaire. She has single-handedly destroyed the Detroit public school systems and the Attorney General of Michigan, Republican, tried to indict her over giving bribes to Republican legislators if they would vote a certain way. And the way was after they created 100 charter schools in Detroit in less than 10 years, 50% of them are not good. And there was an effort to create some standards and give them three years to reach them. And she offered bribes to stop there and be standards. She's interested in private charter schools publicly funded. And this person, if you watch the here, I've watched her for 10 years, but this person is the last person in America. I have a six-year-old grand-nephew better at this job because he's friendly, he's friendly. Okay? There's, excuse me, Bishop, there's something evil about her. She hates school teachers. She hates unions. She hates probably all Detroiters. And she spent 10 years destroying that school system. It is now the worst in America. And I believe she intends to do that to us. Final comment, because sometimes you have public relations campaigns. So the charter schools, I voted in the legislature that we could have 10 to 12 charter schools. They would be innovative and wonderful. We would look at them and we would steal stuff and take it over to the public school. And now we have 24, 25. They won't honor the original legislation. It's not in the law. And so it's a political battle. And both sides have gotten their backs up. And it's a mess, destructive. But here's the point I wanna make. The charters have been very good at saying we're wonderful. Probably there's a chart in paper today if you saw it. And half the charters, just like in Detroit, are probably better or equal to public schools. And the other half are awful. But the reputation is they're all wonderful and they're not. But here's the unbelievable. You ready? Public schools are lousy. The public schools of East Greenwich are not lousy. The public schools of Barrington are not lousy. The public, 75% of people go to a decent public school and the rest of us, often race, go to lousy public schools. And then Nancy, I'm sorry, Betsy. Betsy equates all public school with bad. It is a damnedable lie. And we have a lousy public relations campaign. Now I didn't tell you, I'm not opposed to charter schools. I'm opposed to charter schools that harm public schools. So my answer is, I think back to what I said earlier, every single human being who sees this stuff needs to act. And whether it's just an email, the U.S. Senator from Maine and the U.S. Senator from Alaska voted against her. She got in, she had only 50 votes. That would be failure, 50-50's failure, you don't pass. And the new Vice President of the United States carried her over with his vote in the Senate. This woman should not have this job. Let me just ask a few more questions about history before we open up to Q&A here. There's probably a lot of reasons the black church was created, but what were two or three of the main reasons, right? Just stick with you. We needed to find a way to survive. And so in Newport, actually, they create a union and it's to bury people and the like, but also when you're hungry. And we see it later in the Roman Catholic Church. And we see it. We see churches being social work and beyond. But the church is, it has spiritual and it has political. It has everything you can imagine in one place. And I was told to and I want to remind everybody that Bristol had a black church created in 1850 because Bristol had a small black community. And the African church opens in Bristol at 417 Wood Street, housing a school. I want to tell you that because every third black church had a school because we couldn't go to public school for two reasons. There are no public schools, which Americans love to forget until the 1840s. But even if there was a public school, no blacks could attend. So the church is a powerful instrument. And I would tell you, and I got to be real careful with this, nope, I won't. Go ahead. Well, one thing I noticed in the exhibit that Frederick Douglass was in the exhibit. And I hear he's doing great things these days. So. Ah! So, but just tell me about his connection to Rhode Island. Oh, Frederick Douglass visited Rhode Island on 12 occasions. He went to Congress Street Church at least once. He was in Newport and by here, he was in a couple of the Quaker churches. He was probably in Trinity, probably in Trinity. He came from slavery to Newport. And they told him, you don't want to stay here. New Bedford is more friendly and you don't have to worry about slave catchers in New Bedford, they don't permit that. Newport wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. So, no, no, Frederick Douglass is, you know, again, he's a giant of the 19th century. And can I tell everybody, every chance I get, I tell people this, this is a wretched life being a leader. It's dangerous. They will kill you. 5,000 black people lynched. They would have lynched Douglass if they could have. So, oh, we're lucky they've had him. We know a house who, 94, Condon Street, Mr. Douglass laid his head there at least three times. And Bishop, last question for you. Just what do you want people to leave here tonight thinking? What's the main takeaway do you think from this exhibit and in this discussion? You can put it in the tomorrow's morning decree. Well, I certainly will reference that. I would think that the reawakening of the need for all of us to connect to the local church, I think is one of the messages that we need to walk away with. Beyond just kind of the soothing of the conscience, sometimes we go to church because we feel bad, but actually recognizing that it's a place for critical civil and civic engagement that comes from a moral center, but nevertheless that is the place. And so moving from our churches as being historic entities that we go and look at and look at the artifacts to a place where life exists. And so that's one. The second thing is to recognize that we all have a responsibility to make our world a better place. And despite one's political affiliation, we'd have to side with the fact that there are people being mistreated all over the globe and specifically home to borrow from Dr. King's last speech. So we've got charity starts at home, my mom would say, and so we need to take care of one another here. If we'll do that and fight for the betterment of all people, we'll be better for it and the world will be a better place for it. And ready to take away for core 102. What would it be? 102? Democracy. All right, so we'd like to open it up for question and answer here, far away. I'm sure you're loaded with some good questions. We've got a microphone here. Want to use the microphone? Okay, so we can all hear you. Yeah, we can't hear you, nope. All right, can you hear me now? Is that a vast improvement? All right, all right, so I'll start over again. You said in your opening remark that the churches are segregated, largely of the black churches and white churches and I wondered what you attributed that to at this point in our history. And then secondly, one of you said that there was stronger membership in the black churches than the white churches. And I was wondering if you would attribute that to the fact that the black churches are more successful at doing this, this sort of, not just the Sunday, but the Monday through Saturday experience. It's back into that question. I think that's part of why people recognize the quote unquote black churches a place to be because it can appear to be more relevant. That's not true across the board. Perhaps it's a truism, but not necessary truth. But the other aspect is that culturally, the black church was part of your culture. Even if you didn't go, you claimed to go. Right? You didn't go. You know what I mean? I have thousands of members that I have never met. They say, I go to the cathedral. Well, I don't know who you are. Right? But they claim that place. That's kind of a touchstone, touchstone parts. I think that's critical. One of the reasons why the churches are still segregated is because of lack of understanding of the fact that culture may be different. Doesn't mean it's inferior. So we find that individuals who, the cathedral can be too colorful, pun intended, too colorful for some individuals. But oddly enough, those same individuals will listen to me on social media. They just don't give any money on social media. But they listen, and they should. That should. I think they probably- I only listen on Sundays, you know. I don't listen on weekdays. So that's part of it. Also, sometimes individuals are afraid of coming into the urban core, the urban cities. Onlyville, where we're located, our big church. Onlyville, God forbid. One woman said from Western Cranston, she said to her grandson, well, where are we gonna park to Mercedes? That was interesting. The grandson replied, next to the other three Mercedes. So the idea is that, again, these stereotypes, that difference is inferior is part of the problem. And last, probably more tragic and I hope it doesn't sound cynical, is the fact that there's a lot of healing that has to happen. And it's difficult to bring cultures together when there's unspoken issues that are never addressed. When individuals say that it doesn't matter we're all one church, well, no, it doesn't matter. Or color doesn't matter, no, it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to separate us or divide us. But the very fact that God put me in this skin and put you in that skin is significant to God, so it should be significant to us. And so we learn and develop and grow in that as opposed to having it separate us. But that's why the church enlarged. In another three hours I can tell you the rest, but. So let me, like Phil Dono here and run the microphone. Hold a half a second. Sure. So the Episcopal Church is all white and then the Episcopal Church is integrated in letting slaves set in the balconies or as William J. Brown said in the pigeon hole. And black people are abused in the Episcopal Church and then one day they get out and they create their own and right into the 1960s the Episcopal Church of Rhode Island is segregated. And then Bishop Higgins worrying about all civil rights acts and the like orders St. John's basically to integrate. And the black folks come to St. John's and the white folks die out. Now let's be nice. They didn't leave. They just nobody knew came and blah, blah, blah. And then basically it's a black church. And this can be repeated time and time again. So it's not an easy trail. But I always love to tell people this. This is gonna be my book that I've been writing for 20 years and so don't wait for it. But we lived on an all white street and went to the Methodist Church on the corner and it's mammoth. And my mother wanted to go there because they had a bowling alley, tennis court. They had everything. When she found out they had a summer camp, that was it. So we went and we were forced to sit in the back row of that church for almost a year and a half. And one day my mother said, we're not doing this. And we went in and sat in the front row and told the minister to remove us, which he did not. It's unwelcoming, really unwelcoming. And that's the nature of this society. And I'm a positive human being in terms of how I move forward. But I don't see this nation as such because our schools were, are segregated, our churches. You can't even believe that a minister would do that to a family. Yes, sir. So this is a tough, this is a tough country that was an apartheid society until 1964. 85% of black people could not vote in this country before the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Think about that for a second. So this is not an easy kind of discussion. This is a rude, vicious nation practicing savage, I'll leave it. Question here? Yes, a bit of a first thank you on a quick comment if I may. First I was very moved by the presentation of the reading of the declaration, let's say, which basically is a clear protest in the sense of protest, in the sense that it's a kind of the notion of being a witness that prophetically announces and denounces wrongs. The notion of protest as a witness, I think it's important to think about that. The kind of the reclamation, not only off, we are here but we are citizens and we have the right to vote and to participate is quite significant not only then but today. I think that connects to the question of the word, prophet that you used in regards to Reverend King and Walter Benjamin the thinker would have said that prophets come from the vanquish, not from the victors. And they always interrupt history. With a certain revolutionary intuition of the presence and the present and they transpose the personal into the historical. And to me this is where what you are kind of suggesting to us with your kind of very passionate advocacy for democracy as you ended up, one of the last questions Ray, to me this is a very important call and I think it's a call that we all have to pay not only attention but to participate actively on making this place better. And you can see for my accent I'm from Argentina and I come from a Jewish family that emigrated or escaped partly the Holocaust. And I've been engaged in projects dealing with the history of slavery and Rhode Island as well. But my interest in this and kind of just as a comment or as a question is how do you see perhaps Rhode Island having been one of the largest or the largest slave trade state in the U.S. How do you see this history not only stages of freedom but how can we all together expand the understanding that you're proposing? So again I might be naive but I believe this. If everybody understood their history and our history they would act better. The Narraganses wanted to gamble and have a casino and the state took its foot and beat them half to death and said no and then turned around six years later and told some white folks from England that they could have Twin Rivers. You can't even think that that would happen in that short a time. Can't you wait 30 years before you, you know. And then they had the reasons the Narraganses couldn't do it. And they were the most absurd reasons you've ever heard and they had 10 of them and finally they had a reason for everybody. Something that people could agree to to do the Narraganses' dirt. And that's what I think our problem is. We cannot undo what we have done because we do not try. I'll give you an example. There are 40 families who got to be rich off of slavery. We have the list of them. And some of them got to be fabulously rich. Browns are my favorite because they took their slave money and created Slater Mill, the Industrial Revolution which made America the greatest. That's a gift from John Brown to the nation. It's an unbelievable gift. So how can you not talk about the slavery that he participated in, engineered, did in order to create that wealth to do that? So I think everybody who's on a school board, everybody on the town council, there needs to be pamphlets, there needs to be books, William J. Brown's book. Every school district should buy it and hand it out. Now what is this about? For probably a hundred years, Rhode Islanders hid the history. They hid it. In the last 30 years, we are coming around to it. It's okay. But it's not strenuous. It's not strenuous. Finally, I say this to everybody and I have Nancy Pelosi and everybody else saying it. She wants you to give a dollar to Democratic Party every day. I think everybody alive who cares should be giving some money. And if you're broke, give the $5 a month. If you're not, give the 25. And if you're rich, give 105 or 100,000 to the ACLU, to the NAACP, to stages of freedom. I mean, seriously, we've got the finance to this battle. To the church. I wasn't done. I wasn't done. Just. The question here. First of all, I want to thank both of you for a wonderful presentation and what you're trying to do. I've known both of you for many years, as you know. I'm an Episcopal priest and I have a comment and then a question. First of all, if people want to really understand the history of slavery in Rhode Island, there's a wonderful book recently published called Black Work by Christi, Dark Work, by Christi Clark Pujara. And it really chronicles the business of slavery and how the economy in Rhode Island was built on the backs of slaves. My comment to Bishop Williams, when you talk about this place and the other place where you hope we all go someday. I think given the divisions and the conflicts that we're living with in our society today is a good statement for saying we are already in with one place. And what our theological task is and our religious task and our political task and our social task and our racial task is to make the other place real on earth so that we really take seriously what Jesus said about teaching his disciples how to pray. Your kingdom come, O God, on earth. And that's our task, I think. Now my question is this. We are the most biblically illiterate state in the country. People in Rhode Island do not read the Bible, period. They don't even read it on the iPhone. Although you can get a download text of the whole scripture on your iPhone, many people probably don't know that and they certainly don't do it. We also have a terrible education system, especially in the inner cities in Rhode Island. Providence, Wensacket, Central Falls. And it's a disgrace in many ways because we are not doing the job that we need to do. And in the midst of all of this, at the recent election, 40% of Rhode Islanders, those who do not live along the coast, voted for Trump. Our congregations are filled with people across the political and theological spectrum. How do we respond to that division and what wish should we be saying to them? And I'd like to hear both of you comment on that. So I have committed to go to those 19 towns, and not a one of them's on the coast. This whole east side of Rhode Island voted not for Trump. And I'm giving 17 talks on race. And in Foster, it was the most fascinating encounter. I've been doing diversity workshops for 30 years. And every time I go in one with 50 firefighters or 50, whoever it is, they've never been in a diversity workshop before. Diversity is something you talk about at colleges. You don't talk about it in public street. And so they don't know much except stuff that is not true. I will tell you this real quickly. I, trying to help Hillary, talk to 100 firefighters, white in Providence, and 100 police officers every morning. I would stand out in the street and talk to them. And they would tell me they were for Trump. He's gonna make America great again. He's gonna bring back, and all yelling. I believe maybe one or two of them had a dialogue with me. The rest of them believe things that aren't true. And I brought this just to prove that I know what I'm talking about. My mother raised me never to say things that are not true. And that's one of the disadvantages I have when being in the political arena. Are you ready? If you saw this headline, it should strike you as unbelievable. The $243,000 firefighter. His base salary is $75,000. He lives in one of the nicest cities in the state. His kids go to fabulous schools. I talked to him on the street, and he's unhappy. Personally unhappy. Not unhappy like I am with the wars in Iraq and the fear of Iran war and all of that. He's personally unhappy. He has nothing to be unhappy about. His father worked in a jury factory, making peanuts with no insurance. It's a lie. People are lying because they're mad because there was a black president. You know, they're just lying. So the majority of white people who say they're unhappy are lying. Now, what percentage of them are racist? I don't know. Hillary is right. A certain number are in that basket. Now, how do I know that? I'm a black man in America. Sir. Okay. And I can go to Situat. I may be the only black Rhode Islander. I might be the only Rhode Islander. I've been in every town and city 39 times each. I love it. And the cops stare at me. Okay? This is a racist society. And the majority of white people are doing very well. Thank you, sir. And they're lying about it. And they're lying about it mostly for racist reasons. Final comment. So in diversity workshops with fire, and I've done, I think, 18 fire departments here, 40 in Massachusetts, I'm sitting there with 50 white guys and they start telling me how blacks are taking their jobs. And I, show me one. These police departments have one black, two black, and they're taking their jobs. 250 white folks, and they actually believe it. They're not lying. They believe it. So I tell everybody of goodwill when you're sitting with your uncle, because people say I can't talk to her. She's my grandmother and she's 80. She's too old for me to talk to. Now, she's not too old to say racist things to you with your kids in the room. And then on the other hand, that's my good friend I gotta stay in good with him. No. We must all speak up every chance. And if you're chicken, lean back like this. This is what I tell them in diversity. Lean back like this and say, Uncle, you didn't really mean to call that baseball player that, did you? You know, they're not gonna take your head off. And it may be the first conversation in their entire life when someone asked them not to be a racist. All right, we've got a question here. I just wanted to say, gentlemen, thank you for your presentations. Very eye-opening. I'm a law student here. And one of the things that being here in law school and right now going through constitutional law, I've just come to the conclusion that racism is very much interwoven in the fabric of our country. It's just, it's just there. It's probably not gonna go anywhere. And the other thing is that racism is a heart issue, which is why we still need churches because until your heart gets right, the racism isn't gonna go anywhere. It's just gonna still be here. When I, I'm from Delaware and when I came to Rhode Island two years ago, I felt like I stepped back into a time warp because it had been a long time since I had been followed in a store to go in the store and followed around as if I was gonna steal something or go into a restaurant and the waitress is scared to put the plate down in front of me because she might touch me and the plate would fall on the floor. So it's very eye-opening coming to Rhode Island. But my comment is you had mentioned that each one of us in here, we all need to do something. So from both of you, what three things can each one of us in this room today walk out of here and commit to that we can actually do because I think we need to operationalize the thoughts of that we need to do something. We need to be empowered. We need to mobilize. I get that. But give me something that I can put my arms around and say today when I walk out of here, there's three, these three things I need to do. Thank you. If I could, I'm going to combine both of the last question as well as that question. Something that really has to happen if we're going to really make an impact is help everyone understand that the issue affects everyone. And the issue quotation marks, it affects everyone. There was a fire many years ago in Philadelphia, Row houses, very famous event government was involved in something. And the idea that one house was on fire somehow didn't bother someone at the other end of the block. The fact is that if this house is on fire, your house is on fire too, it's just a matter of time. So trying to help a society from millennials to baby boomers to everyone in between and on other side of the spectrum understand that this issue helps us. I mean, this issue affects all of us. So boiling it down to how this affects you in socket or butucket or in Delaware, I think is paramount to trying to move everyone forward in that regard. And yes, it's been 35 years. He was one of my deans at Brown. Thank God I survived it. Praise the Lord. One of the main things and Dr. Rickman provokes me every time I'm with him that we can do and need to do is find a channel to begin to understand our history even at a deeper level and teach someone else that. Now it's a tall order and I really I detest being in conversations where I have to be the one who's constantly bringing education to folks. But that's part of our task to do. So that's one of the things that you and I and all of us can do is try to find out about our history that we're located in both locally and nationally. I think that's a major part and it sounds a bit tongue-in-cheek but I would encourage everybody to come to church on Sunday or at a minimum be on Facebook in the morning. 6.30. 6.30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Because again, there's more light we need. That's gonna be very helpful to us to move forward. And the last area and this is something that at the King's Cathedral we're gonna do a better job at is a political awareness. They're with the amount of people that we're in contact with on a weekly basis. If a small percentage of those folks would be unknowledgeable of what bills are coming up and would then put pressure on local legislators, we would make great progress. Now it's not my job, let me rephrase that. I don't wanna tell people how to vote and what to do but I do share principles that are true to me and true to scripture at least I believe. That being said, there's a phone call that can be made or let it can be written. You can show up places. So if we could do that, if we would do that, we would begin to make some noise. And then last but not least of course is making sure people vote and or at least appear they're going to vote. One of the things that has helped me have leverage in the city is that people perceive me to have political sway over people, right? I mean someone said that to me. If you give me 400 votes, you can have what you want. If I told you the stories it's quite interesting to say. So we could make progress if people would most certainly show up. They've got to show up, register and show up. So I'm gonna give you a four quickly. Rhode Island, here we sit in the law school. Rhode Island has 87 judicial spots, judges. Two black and ready? 85 white in a state, 24% black and brown. In a state where up to 60% of the people come to the courthouse every day are not white. The governor has four vacancies, call her tomorrow. And ask to speak to her. Say I would like to speak to Governor Ramondo. They won't let you, but it will frighten her to death. I worked for congressman once and chief of staff and he said one person calls or writes, they're probably a nut, don't bother me. Two, pay close attention to them. And three, let me know what they said. Now that's how politicians are, seriously. You can integrate the court. You want something to do? One phone call to the governor. If 10 of you, now I can get 30 of you to shake your heads, but if 10 of you call tomorrow, it will make her nervous. She has four vacancies. Now by the way, when you have the, I can't go any longer because I go to my other points, but sometimes when you have this conversation with people it's unbelievable what they say. Is there anybody qualified? And I've been saying publicly all four slots should go to people of color. Well, that ain't gonna happen. But I suggest you suggest it. Because then we'll have six out of 87, which is not good. I believe in money. And now with technology, it's just fabulous. I get all these Democrats asking me for $3 and then I say, oh what the heck, I'll give it to them. And I click on and the minimum you can give is five or 10. You know, it's really insulting, my intelligence, but I'd give it to them anyway. I suggest that. That we, every time we see a cause, we care about. So the women's march in Boston, I gave my $5 and then I got up and went. A twofer. Are you listening? And $5 from 50,000 people is money. And nobody can tell me they don't have any money. Now getting money out of college students is very difficult. But people are sitting there buying whatever they're buying. I won't say what they're buying. And it costs 25 bucks and they don't have $5 to help save the nation. They do. Everybody does. And I think electronically now it's so easy to give. And I get pressure not to, but I give everything. And when I'm being rational, I only send $10. So anyway, that's my second one. We need, and the ACLU has been getting money, Lord, and Planned Parenthood. Those are the only two. The final thing I would tell you, and I said it earlier, speak up. At all times, and you might want to lower your voice when you speak up. You get a reputation of somebody who's a radical. I just told you that I think the governor should appoint minorities to all four slots. And everyone I say that to in the business, in the legislature, whatever, they think I'm the most radical person ever born. Now they didn't say anything. I don't curse, but word almost came out. They don't say anything that their 11 white folks appoint it in a row. Not a word. The mind doesn't work. Appointing white folks is normal and okay and expected. Appointing anybody of color is either celebratory or strange or different. And if I have one more person ask me, are there any people qualified? You know, so let me start with Kazby Harrison and go all the way across the range. I can name 30 lawyers perfectly qualified. And I know three Asian American women perfectly qualified to be judges. So I believe, I mean in the response to you on this, this is really important. We need 50 million of us to speak up every week. Do not let the week go by. Betsy will give you a reason. Do not let the week go by. And back to Betsy. I've adopted two United States senators. Not White House and Reed, I don't need to adopt them. They're wonderful human beings or rational people. I have adopted the senator from Alaska and the senator from Maine. They both want to be reelected. And later, if they don't act right with a moral compass, I'm going to work against them. And electronically, that's very easy to do now. All right, let's give these gentlemen a round of applause. Thank you very much. Thank you.