Camille Taylor
WJBC Forum
Last week, Not In Our Town organized a communitywide prayer vigil at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church for the nine people killed at the Mother Immanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Around 300 people attended a truly ecumenical service. Everyone came to reflect, pray, and stand united against hate.
Rev. Frank McSwain, from Mt. Pisgah, and Pastor Kelley Becker, from First Christian Church, touched the crowd with their words. Rev. McSwain repeated several times, “together we stand, divided we fall,” and explored what happens when people come together or find ways to separate themselves. He noted that people/experiences have made “deposits into our thinking” during our lives, and over time this has contributed to the people we’ve become.
My thoughts went to the accused gunman, Dylan Roof, and I wondered what people/experiences made deposits into his thinking over the 21 years of his life. I flashbacked to two visits I made to South Carolina. On my first visit to Charleston, my ex-husband and I were “greeted” by white hotel staff in the parking lot when we pulled up in our new 1984 Chevy conversion van. The staff wanted to know who we were delivering the vehicle for. We had no idea what they were talking about and only wanted to check-in and go to sleep. They were angered when we insisted it was ours and demanded to see our license, insurance, and registration. After seeing the items, they grumbled, and we followed them reluctantly inside thinking, “Can’t black people own a van?” We had to stay, because it was a two week Naval Reserve assignment, and the hotel was already paid for.
I remarried 21 years ago. While on my honeymoon, we drove from Florida to Washington, DC. and stopped at a secluded rest stop in South Carolina. We got out; noticing the van next to us had a large Confederate flag covering the window with a sign saying, “Save the land, join the Klan!” I didn’t want either of us to go into the restroom unsure of who/ what we would face.
Those are just two deposits that have fueled my life’s quest for equality and respect. Not In Our Town’s mission is to have a safe, inclusive community.
Last week’s vigil is another example toward that goal. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “…Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”