Arkansans' book tells of black activist/journalist

Two Arkansas natives have co-written a book that they say seeks to capture the spirit of the fearlessness and tenacity of a black journalist and activist who died nearly 90 years ago, but whose life and mission of advocacy still apply to the present day.

Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time, is the work of Catherine Meeks, executive director of the Episcopal Church-affiliated Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta, and the Rev. Nibs Stroupe, an author and retired pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Ga., which is known for its multicultural and racial-justice ministry.

The book's release last month comes after Wells gained additional recognition in one of the cities where she once lived when a street in Chicago was renamed Ida B. Wells Drive in February, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune. It is the first street in the city to be named after a black woman.

"She's such a great witness," Stroupe said of Wells. "We wanted to have her witness be a voice in our time ... and we had the idea of each of us talking about our journey with [Wells], but also with the power of race in our lives, and the power of gender, where she was such a strong witness in both."

Meeks, 73, is black and grew up in Moro. Stroupe, 72, was raised in Helena, less than 40 miles away. The two agree that their lives and upbringings were vastly different because of their race and gender, but both found themselves drawn toward Wells.

Born in 1862 into slavery in Holly Springs, Miss., Wells took the lead as head of the household as a teenager after losing her parents and youngest sibling to yellow fever, rearing her siblings and taking on work as a schoolteacher before finding her calling in journalism, according to the book's biography.

Among the major events that Wells' "resistance and resilience" helped her face were the lynching of three of her acquaintances and -- after she published editorials about some of the ongoing lynchings -- a mob burning down the offices of her newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, in 1892. (After the latter event, Wells did not return to the South until 1922.) The activist went on to continue as a suffragist, an anti-lynching advocate and a signer of a petition that led to the founding of the NAACP.

Meeks and Stroupe believe faith and a sense of spirituality helped Wells throughout her life.

"You can't live in this world with any kind of health and wellness if you don't have some faith, and if you're a black person -- and you have any intention of getting through this life with any peace -- you need to have yourself grounded in something other than the culture, which is not interested in your survival at all," Meeks said. "Wells understood that really well, and I think it's out of that ... space that she had the courage to do the things that she did, and the willingness to give her life over and over for what she believed in."

"For me, Ida Wells was one of those who ... turned fear around to a kind of fierce commitment to being a person, and helping others know they're a person," Stroupe said. "My whole journey and my other writings have been about ... find[ing] your true nature as a child of God, so [I] emphasize that our primary definition is as daughters and sons and children of God, and that part of our journey is to find out what's limiting us from living that out and knowing that."

Meeks was a professor of socio-cultural studies at Georgia's Wesleyan College when she began teaching her students about Wells. Students began telling Meeks that she reminded them of Wells, and the professor took a step back to ponder the reason.

"It was a startling thought to me, but I hadn't thought about [Wells] that way," said Meeks, who initially thought her work in newspaper writing was the reason. "It was actually more than that. It was because of this shared kind of spirit, this unwillingness to have any patience with suppression that [Wells] had, that I so much wanted to embody."

The now-retired professor was still settling into her role leading the center when she met Stroupe at a ministry event led by mutual friends.

Stroupe, who first learned about Wells in 1985 while still pastor of Oakhurst, was fascinated by the activist after finding out that she was born in the same county as his forebears, Marshall County, Miss., but he said he didn't feel that he could write about her solely from his perspective as a white man. Once he began talking with Meeks, the book that became Passionate for Justice began to take shape.

Along with their personal histories and other material, the two collaborated on a chapter in the book that models a dialogue about race between white and black people, which "was a really great idea."

Stroupe has a two-fold hope for readers.

"That they will know who Ida Wells is and engage her life; the other is that they will all begin to think about the power of race and gender, and the power of class, related to American culture in these days," Stroupe said.

Meeks said paying attention to one's thoughts while reading Passionate for Justice can be a helpful way for readers to gain a sense of self-awareness as they engage with the material, and even after they've finished reading.

"I think we tried to present the book in a way to make [engaging with the book] possible by sharing our own journeys and then -- with the dialogue piece in the last chapter -- to create spaces where people can kind of sit with themselves and be open to what might come to them from having engaged with this book," Meeks said. "To me, [it's] about self-engagement because I'm interested in people finding a path to their own transformation. I hope this book will help that process."

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Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time

Religion on 10/12/2019

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