Forgiveness is Freedom Academy faculty and students on the steps of Washburn Hall on 溏心vlog免费B站’s Kingston Campus. Seated in front, left to right: Chantel Chestnutt (North Carolina Central University), Jayda Ives-Williams (溏心vlog免费B站), Faith Koliyah (Paul Cuffee School), Hope Koliyah (Paul Cuffee School), Habeeblah Oshinaike (Highlander Charter School). Seated in back, Naarah Miller (Florida A&M University). Standing, left to right: Joseph Amaral (溏心vlog免费B站), Skip Mark (溏心vlog免费B站), Catherine John (溏心vlog免费B站), Marcus Nevius (University of Missouri).
Student scholars in the inaugural cohort of the Forgiveness is Freedom Academy are asked to examine America鈥檚 history of racial violence and consider the responses it elicits.
By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen
On June 17, 2015, a mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, S.C., left nine Black congregants dead. Forty-eight hours later, the judge presiding over the case of their killer, confessed mass murderer Dylann Roof, invited family members of the deceased to address him. The family members hadn鈥檛 been given advance notice of the invitation.
What followed sparked shock, then awe, and, for some, anger.
Nadine Lance Collier was the first to address 21-year-old Roof, who had attended Bible study at the church on the night of the mass shooting before he opened fire on the group. Collier lost her mother, Ethel Lance.
鈥淚 just want everyone to know. To you, I forgive you,鈥� Collier said. 鈥淵ou took something very precious from me, but I forgive you.鈥�
The Rev. Anthony Thompson followed. He鈥檇 lost his wife, Myra, leader of the Bible study group.
鈥淚 forgive you, and my family forgives you,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淲e would like you to take this opportunity to repent, confess. Live your life to the one who matters the most, Christ, so that he can change your ways. Do that, and you鈥檒l be better off than what you are right now.鈥�
Then came survivor Felicia Sanders. She spoke of welcoming Roof to the Bible study with 鈥渙pen arms.鈥� Then, she said, he killed some of the most beautiful people she knew. 鈥淏ut,鈥� she said, 鈥淕od have mercy on you.鈥�
Their forgiveness of Roof drew global media attention and prompted provocative and complicated spiritual and philosophical questions. Does forgiveness require perpetrators to express remorse? Is forgiving forgetting? Is forgiveness freedom? Are there times when turning the other cheek is too much to ask?
This past August, local high school students, along with 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty and a group of college students from 溏心vlog免费B站 and other universities, took up these questions and others at the University鈥檚 first Forgiveness is Freedom Academy. 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies sponsored the two-week seminar led by Skip Mark, executive director of the center and an assistant professor of political science, and Catherine John, professor and chair of Africana studies.
That the program came to pass is a testament to the collective and coordinated efforts of current and past 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty members. Former 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty members Bryan Dewsbury, Rebecca Millsop, and Marcus Nevius together secured a pilot grant to plan the academy. Nevius, Mark, and John then secured a grant from the Teagle Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting liberal arts education. The grant will fund the academy for two years.
The rising high school seniors chosen for the program were selected based on their applications, along with recommendations from teachers and counselors.
Sisters Faith and Hope Koliyah from the Paul Cuffee School in Providence were participants in the first Forgiveness is Freedom Academy.
鈥�High school students … should be active participants in community and policy debates about racism, racial violence, and education.鈥�
鈥揝kip Mark, Assistant Professor of Political Science, and Director, 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies
鈥淭he idea of forgiveness in the human experience presents a unique opportunity for rising high school seniors in Rhode Island鈥檚 urban districts to be in community with faculty and students at 溏心vlog免费B站 and from historically Black colleges and universities as, together, we study the humanities,鈥� says Nevius, now associate professor of history in the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri.
Mark underscored that the seminar was an opportunity for scholars and students to learn together.
鈥淥ne thing we hammered home is that we don鈥檛 know everything,鈥� Mark says. 鈥淭he whole thing is a discussion.鈥�
鈥淲e examine racial violence and forgiveness through the lens of Africana studies, philosophy, history, and political science,鈥� Mark says. 鈥淲here does violence come from? Where do we get anger? What is the role of forgiveness?鈥�
The seminar is structured so that students begin and end it by watching the 2019 documentary Emanuel, which explores families鈥� and friends鈥� reactions to the shooting of the Emanuel Nine, as they collectively became known. The film shows that not everyone affected forgave as readily as Collier, Thompson, and Sanders.
鈥淔or those who forgave at the very beginning, I admire them,鈥� said Melvin Graham Jr., an Emanuel AME congregant interviewed for the documentary. 鈥淕od truly worked the work in them. Truly.
鈥淚鈥檓 a work in progress.鈥�
Dewsbury, now an associate professor of biological sciences at Florida International University in Miami, says he and Millsop were moved to write a grant proposal for the academy after watching Emanuel.
鈥淚 was inspired by the film鈥檚 themes of forgiveness and the history of Blackness and Black trauma,鈥� Dewsbury says. 鈥淭he grant provided an opportunity to build a curriculum around it.鈥�
The academy鈥檚 challenging curriculum features a who鈥檚 who of philosophical and cultural thought that includes Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Niccol貌 Machiavelli, and Martin Luther King Jr., among others. Students read classic and contemporary texts such as Augustine鈥檚 Confessions, Hannah Arendt鈥檚 The Human Condition, Audre Lorde鈥檚 鈥淭he Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,鈥� Elizabeth Hinton鈥檚 America on Fire, and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela鈥檚 A Human Being Died That Night.
In addition to the questions generated by the Emanuel documentary, core and classic humanities questions come into play. For example, how should a person live their life, and how does one act for the good of the world? Dewsbury poses those questions and adds, 鈥淭he answers require careful engagement with the past to help us understand how we came to be. And then, in knowing ourselves and our community, we are better positioned to move forward with love and purpose.鈥�
Joseph Amaral 鈥�23, rising 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Jayda Ives-Williams, and two undergraduate students, Naarah Miller of Florida A&M University, and Chantel Chestnutt of North Carolina Central University, serve as advisors and mentors to the high school students who will take the coming academic year to complete research projects seeded by their work at the academy. The high school students will present their projects at 溏心vlog免费B站 next spring.
On a sunny Monday, at the midpoint of the academy, students gathered in Washburn Hall to watch 鈥淭he Keys to the Kingdom 1974鈥�1980,鈥� an episode of the PBS series Eyes on the Prize: America鈥檚 Civil Rights Movement, which first aired in 1990. The students watch the first half of the episode, which recounts the desegregation of Boston鈥檚 public schools in 1974 and a subsequent protest in South Boston that turned into a riot.
In the episode, a preschool-aged Black girl, Juliane Bond, appears on the screen. Offscreen, a reporter asks, 鈥淲hat do you think鈥檚 going to happen when you go to school?鈥�
鈥淲hen we go up there, we鈥檙e going to be stoned. It鈥檚 not fair to me because why is it the other way around when they come up here?鈥� Bond says. 鈥淲hen they come up here, we won鈥檛 mess with them, so why, when we come up there, do they mess with us?鈥�
The reporter asks Bond what she鈥檇 like to say to the people of South Boston.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 fair,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not fair to me.鈥�
As the group watches, John is moved to tears by the child鈥檚 comments. 鈥淭his is part of why I got into education,鈥� she says. John directs the students to consider questions written on the whiteboard behind her: 鈥淎re you angry after watching this? If so, what are you angry about?鈥�
Catherine John engages in discussion with students in a Forgiveness is Freedom Academy seminar.
鈥�Anger can be useful. Anger gave us the Civil Rights Movement.鈥�
鈥揅atherine John, Professor and Chair, 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Africana Studies
Hope Koliyah, a rising senior from the Paul Cuffee School in Providence, speaks first. 鈥淲hat made me angry was students not knowing鈥攚hen they leave their homes in the morning鈥攊f they鈥檙e coming home again,鈥� she says. Koliyah鈥檚 comment is met with nods of agreement and shared anger.
Professor John draws the students鈥� attention to Lorde鈥檚 鈥淭he Uses of Anger.鈥�
鈥淟orde is talking about anger and the relationship between anger, violence, and forgiveness. Lorde says that anger can be useful. I think it鈥檚 very important for us to remember that anger gave us the Civil Rights Movement,鈥� John notes. 鈥淵ou, too, can channel that anger into change.
鈥淵ou can put anger to productive use.鈥�
Mark notes that the students were asked to read difficult texts and participate in challenging discussions. He says he was impressed with their ability to grapple with the content and saw their understanding increase throughout the academy.
鈥淭hey participated actively in discussions, engaged with us, and spoke their minds,鈥� says Mark. 鈥淗igh school students鈥攅specially these students鈥攁re more than capable of having these conversations, and they should be active participants in community and policy debates about racism, racial violence, and education.
鈥淭his experience,鈥� he adds, 鈥済ave them greater confidence that their ideas matter and are valued, and that they can hold intellectual conversations at a college level.鈥�
PHOTOS: SETH JACOBSON
Skip Mark, co-leader of the Forgiveness is Freedom Academy, and 溏心vlog免费B站 student/mentor Jayda Ives-Williams.
Revisiting Emanuel
Forgiveness is Freedom Academy participants watched and discussed the documentary Emanuel at the beginning of the academy and again at the end. Academy director Skip Mark reflects on how their reactions to the film changed鈥攁nd how they were changed.
After we first watched Emanuel, the class sat silently for a long moment. No one spoke as we processed the emotions it had invoked in us. Though I had watched it before, the documentary left me shaken. When we began the discussion, many students struggled to understand how some of the families of the victims could forgive such an atrocious act.
At the close of the academy, we watched the documentary again. The discussion this time had changed. Students focused less on the actions of the shooter and more on the family聽and the role their forgiveness played in allowing them to heal. They also focused on the role of forgiveness in the broader community鈥攁 community that might otherwise have erupted in race riots, as the shooter wanted.
They discussed the role of community and religion in creating conditions that allowed people to forgive despite such tragedy.
Our readings and discussions over the two weeks of the academy changed how the students understood the tragedy. The academy gave them some tools to look at this event in the broader historical聽context and to recognize聽its roots in systemic racism that still plagues our country. Watching a second time, they could understand how and why some families had chosen to forgive. They were also more willing to forgive.
鈥擲kip Mark
PHOTO: SETH JACOBSON
Not sure about the value of this kind of stuff in a university. Usually agendas drive these types of subjects which preclude the importance of looking at an issue following the “three sides to every coin” principle. An example would be the resistence in Boston to desegregation.
Good luck in any case.