BRIDGE and Macedonia Baptist Church present "Peace, Justice and Activism: We are the Dream!"

MLK Jr. Day Remarks fROM Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, BRIDGE CEO and Founder

Thank you for gathering for this service here today and I am grateful for the sisterhood (& brotherhood) and partnership with Macedonia Baptist Church. As we looked at how we wanted to celebrate Dr. King today, peace justice and this concept of order resonated. 

When I focus on global peace and my own peace, I think the term “peace” requires discernment and a search for clarity. Peace is beyond a ceasefire and is well beyond evading conflicts or considering peace broken or disrupted when truth is told or when questions are asked. That truth — however ugly, messy, hard or unclear— is where peace begins. Dr. King said it so well in a sermon that I will share from. Listen and note — While he speaks to his connection to God and Jesus as his guide, you listen and think about who is sacred to you, who holds you and guides you. What holds you accountable? Is it your faith, your God, your family, the next generations of children and families to occupy this planet? What is your North Star?

A day before he was sentenced to 386 days of prison with a $500 fine for his activism (which ultimately was appealed and overruled by Kings attorney), Dr. King presented this sermon, "When Peace is Obnoxious," at Dexter Baptist Church. 

His words were published and paraphrased by Alpha Phi Alpha national President and Fraternity brother Stanley. Stanly wrote He, Dr King, had recently engaged in a long talk the other day with a man about this bus situation. He discussed the peace being destroyed in the community, the destroying of good race relations. I agreed that there is more tension now. But peace is not merely an absence of this tension, but the presence of justice. And even if we didn’t have this tension, we still wouldn’t have positive peace. Dr. King continued:

“Yes it is true that if the Negro accepts his place, accepts exploitation, and injustice, there will be peace. But it would be an obnoxious peace. It would be a peace that boiled down to stagnant complacency, deadening passivity and:

1. If peace means this, I don't want peace:
2. If peace means accepting second class citizenship I don't want it
3. If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don't want peace 
4. If peace means being complacently adjusted to a deadening status quo, I don't want peace.
5. If peace means a willingness to be exploited economically, dominated politically, humiliated and segregated, I don't want peace.
6. In a passive non-violent manner we must revolt against this peace.
7. Jesus says in substance, I will not be content until justice, goodwill, brotherhood (sisterhood), love yes, the kingdom of God are established upon the earth. This is real peace. Peace is the presence of positive good.” 

​I was with a friend, colleague, ally and partner in our mutual aid Solidarity project this week presenting our collaborative heartwork and she said we (white peoples or privileged peoples) are taught to understand doing good (this good Dr. King speaks about) is hard and painful but she insisted the path of good and doing good is our path to joy and I would argue that is the authentic, positive peace Dr. King stood for and spoke to at Dexter Baptist Church . Her words resonated because over the years I have witnessed her allyship to me, to her values, to the Black community and it requires work, giving up material things, discomfort, relationships falling away, asking hard questions of those closest to her but again finding her  joy, newly aligned relationships, seeing the positive impact on strangers in our community and knowing lives are changing for the better, creating a better world with more joy than what money can buy for her children and mine…and for  all of the next generations to come.

This is a truth that is real in my day to day, work that is alive and vibrant among us that touches many of our lives and if not ours directly—our neighbors’ lives. Many of you here today support this work and some will be giving a helping hand later today in the vision of Dr King day… serving our community.

Justice work is not and can never hold complacency and silence, it cannot be about ease and comfort; it cannot be about ego and righteousness. Justice work is about seeing, listening. Doing. Repairing. 

In my view, Justice work cannot be perfect and organized. I believe white supremacy and its systems are meticulously organized to stand for centuries and critique and challenge any threat to it and characterize the disruption as “disorderly” or “not correct/right”. I believe justice requires some chaos and disruption in a disordered fashion to truly dismantle racism and systems that perpetuate poverty and oppression in order to transform our path to a more just and equitable way. That does not mean a lack of goals, motivation, or coordination but progress does require an unpredictable, disobedient disorder with an arc towards justice. This civil disobedience, as it were, disallows gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is an active form of white supremacy that operates even in our home county today… gate keeping is something me and my organization have to fight everyday for the empowerment of our community. This disorder and disruption invites innovation, transformation, and ultimately saves more lives in the collective movement towards justice and equity.

We cannot see our brothers and sisters, our neighbors new or old as taking away from us. See them as value added to our lives with a lesson to bring to us. See them as mirror reflections of who we are and who we are in trusted, true relationships with—and not. Use the new relationships as windows in to old and new dynamics and attachments. Ask, what needs to shift? And what can and will I do about that?

Change cannot happen without disruption and agitation. Change has to hold love at its center… the Love for oneself, one’s community and for the planet we live on and that love has to include the humanity and well-being of others. Otherwise, there is an aperture for hate, distrust and none of us can afford that in our community. Justice is what love looks like in public is a favorite saying of mine by Cornel West. They are one in the same. Justice and love. And that work can lead us to joy and peace.

Today we honor Dr. King’s work and Dr. Du Bois by raising the banners in Great Barrington of Dr. Du Bois. I encourage you to read Dr. King’s entire speech at Carnegie Hall that uplifts the legacy of Dr. Du Bois.

As we landed on this theme of peace, justice and activism thinking of all of the genocides and the decades long cry of the Palestinians uplifted by Black Feminists who I so admire and use as my guides, I wanted to hear from those voices who surrounded and supported Dr. King. I found this amazing piece by Coretta Scott King and like almost all work of the Civil Rights movement’s work, the words are evergreen. I will end with her words. 

Coretta Scott King Reflects on Working Toward Peace:

"As we begin the twenty-first century, I think it is important that people of every race, religion, and nation join together to develop a shared vision of a world united in justice, peace, and harmony.

We should dare to dream of a world where no child lives in fear of war or suffers the ravages of militarism. Instead of spending more than two billion dollars a day on the arms race, as the governments of the world do now, we must invest in human and economic development, so that no one has to live in poverty. We must project a bold vision of
a world where valuable resources are no longer squandered on the instruments of death and destruction, but are creatively harnessed for economic development and opportunity.

Let's dare to dream of a Beloved Community where starvation, famine, hunger, and malnutrition will not be tolerated because the civilized community of nations won't allow it. Instead of five hundred million people going to bed hungry every night, as is now the case, in the Beloved Community every human being would be well nourished.

We should dare to dream of a world being reborn in freedom, justice, and peace, a world that nurtures all of its precious children and protects them with compassion and caring. In such a Beloved Community, every child will be enrolled in a good school that has all of the resources needed to teach them to love learning. Young people will be able to get as much education as their minds can absorb and a full range of cultural opportunities to enrich their spirits.

In the Beloved Community, conflicts between nations will be resolved peacefully. Dictators will be replaced, not by civil war and terrorism, but by organized nonviolent movements that will ensure that freedom, human rights, and dignity will be honored under all flags.

Instead of religious and racial violence and wars between nations, there will be interreligious, interracial, and international solidarity based on tolerance and respect for all cultures. With such a commitment, we will not only reduce cultural conflict, but also create a global community where a new vision of unity in faith can prevail.

We must find a way to tap the tremendous healing power of faith to promote a higher level of cross-cultural understanding and cooperation, which can help rid the world of war and violence. Even as we worship in many languages and call our common creator by a host of different names, let the people of every religion now make room in their hearts for interfaith brotherhood and sisterhood for the sake of humanity.

All of the world's great problems-the struggles for self-determination and human rights, stopping war, halting the arms race, checking the exploitation of multinational corporations, and confronting the global environmental crisis-must be addressed by nonviolent movements.

Thus, twenty-five Nobel Peace Prize laureates have joined together in affirming that the first decade of the new century will be a decade for peace and nonviolence, and the first year of the twenty-first century will be devoted to nonviolence training and education.

As my husband, Martin Luther King Jr., said in a challenge he issued in 1967, "I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject for study and for serious implementation in every field of human conflict, and by no means excluding the relations between nations." And as Mohandas K. Gandhi, who inspired Martin, echoed, "we should train for nonviolence with the fullest faith in its limitless possibilities."

Both Gandhi and my husband understood that the great advantage of nonviolence is that its success does not depend on the integrity of political leaders. It depends on the courage and commitment of people of goodwill.

To meet the challenge of the Nobel laureates, we must join together in creating a nonviolent movement to achieve peace with justice that spans the globe. With courage and determination, we must sound the knell for the end of fear, apathy, and indifference to human suffering and proclaim a new century of hope, a century of protest and nonviolent resistance to injustice and repression throughout the nation and around the world.
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At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we have an historic opportunity for a great global healing and renewal. If we will accept the challenge of nonviolent activism with faith, courage, and determination, we can bring this great vision of a world united in peace and harmony from a distant ideal into a glowing reality.

This work can feel immense but we can do it. We start at home and then follow our networks. We are all connected. This global beloved community.

This is a very special year for Macedonia Baptist Church… 80 years. Please join in the preparation and celebration of this historical church.

​Thank you so much for coming and thank you again Rev Forte and Conway and the Macedonia Choir and congregation for today and all the days before and in our future together. We will take up a collection today and proceeds will be split between BRIDGE Solidarity Projects and the Macedonia Anniversary Fund.

It is my pleasure to call up Rev. Carol Allman-Morton of Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire and following that I will call Leigh Davis to begin our community reflection on peace, justice and activism and the legacy of Dr. King. Leigh Davis is daughter of chief architect of Martin Luther King Day as invited by Corretta Scott King, Vice Chair of Great Barrington Selectboard and Liaison of the Du Bois Legacy Committee.

- Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO and Founding Director of BRIDGE and Town of Great Barrington Vice Chair of Du Bois Legacy Committee, January 15, 2024