Walk the Walk: Day One - Charlottesville, Virginia

August 20 2020
August 20 2020

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Chestnut Hill United Church community,

A brief reflection on the first day of my journey from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC.

Walk the Walk: Day One - Charlottesville, VA.

The symbolic starting point of this experience was supposed to be the gathering at the burial grounds of those enslaved at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. There, we—a group of white faith leaders from around the country—would mark the beginning of our 140 mile walk.*

Along this journey we will reckon with the ways our Christian faith has not only been, as Robert Jones’ points out so powerfully in his new book White Too Long, complacent or complicit in upholding white supremacy in America, it has constructed it. We would begin this pilgrimage by gathering at the graves of those who lived and died at Monticello, whose bodies and labor were stolen, even while the enslaver himself would pen the words to what would become the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal.” (The pictures below are of the African American burial grounds, and one of the people buried there – Rev. Robert Hughes.)

We would begin our journey on that sacred ground.

But I needed windshield wipers. And on my way from Philly to Charlottesville this morning, it became clear that I needed them right away. As much as I hated to do it, I broke my long-standing boycott and turned into a Walmart in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Walmart, as it turns out, is my symbolic starting point. The place I needed to start this journey, even though it’s the last thing I wanted to do.

Walmart is sacred ground for my people. I don’t mean my family. I mean so many white people in America. It has come to embody and fund a pro-gun, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-trans, and anti-woman culture at the expense of workers and local communities that is part of the legacy of entangled Christianity and white supremacy in this country. For so many it is the symbol of “our America.” Sacred ground.

I stood in two places today. One full of guns and debt and sickness and poverty and oppression - hailed as sacred, to be protected at all costs. The other, a patch of unmarked ground with stones a passerby would never know marked hidden histories, stolen land, and sacred lives. This is where I begin.

*I am participating in a nine-day, 140 mile walk from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC as part of the national “Walk the Walk” pilgrimage of white faith leaders to RECKON with the anti-Blackness that permeates our past and present as a nation and as faith institutions, RESOLVE to advance racial justice in our faith traditions and nation, and REFRAME the faith narrative in this nation. This is co-organized by Faith in Action, the national network of POWER Interfaith, of which our congregation is a part. More here at https://walkthewalk2020.us/

Rev. Robert Hughes

Rev. Robert Hughes (1824-1895) was the tenth child of Wormley and Ursula Hughes, and thus the great-grandson of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings and the great-nephew of Isaac Jefferson. After Thomas Jefferson's death, Robert Hughes, a blacksmith, remained in slavery on the plantation of Jefferson's grandson until the end of the Civil War.  He owned his own farm and was the founding minister of Union Run Baptist Church in Shadwell, VA.

Burial Ground - Monticello

Burial ground for 70 or more of the 400 slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.

Walmart


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