The second annual “Lift Every Voice” free lecture series in celebration of Black History Month will be held Tuesday during the month of February at 6:30 p.m. at the Spring of Hope Church, 35 Alden Street, Springfield. The series is presented by the church and the Springfield branch of the NAACP.

Pastor Talbert Swan, II

This month, when we sit down to our thanksgiving meal consisting of our turkey and many other culinary delights, not many of us will be holding a ritualistic vigil to commemorate Plymouth Rock. First, the inaugural pilgrim landing was at Provincetown, Cape Cod. Second, according to Pilgrim Hall Museum, “there are no contemporary references to the Pilgrims’ landing on a rock at Plymouth.”

Although the arrival of the Pilgrims signaled the annihilation of Native Americans, few people are sensitive to this historical fact and Thanksgiving is thus widely perceived as a time for family and friends. It is taken as an opportunity to reunite with loved ones, friends, and relations we haven’t seen for years. It’s some time off work, a break from school, the chance for an extended romantic weekend, and more importantly, an opportunity to eat copious amounts of food without feeling too guilty!

This past spring, the Business Insider ranked Springfield number twelve among the most dangerous cities in the country. The infamy of that designation along with a spate of violent crime that swept the city during the summer caused Mayor Dominic Sarno and law enforcement officials to put their heads together to come up with a strategy to reduce crime and make the city safer. What they came up with was nothing new or innovative, it was a warmed over method of crime fighting labeled ‘zero tolerance.’

For those of you who do not know this, the idea behind ‘zero tolerance’ is that if you get tough with minor offenders and make their life as difficult as possible serious crime would also start coming down. In my humble opinion, which of course is backed by the data: ‘zero tolerance’ cannot be all that effective if it only provides a temporary solution. There has to be more done than paying overtime to set up shop in high crime areas and going after minor offenders to fight crime. That being said, we must come to grips with the fact that youth crime is directly affected by the dismal condition of our educational system.

The role of the Black Church throughout the history of America has been that of the leading entity in the fight for social justice and civil and human rights. The fact that this institution has not just struggled for African Americans, but for all Americans is profound. The prolonged endeavor of the Black Church in the area of civil rights coupled with its’ mission to serve the poor and disenfranchised and to give spiritual guidance to its’ congregants while being the moral conscious of a country that has resisted racial equality is a powerful accomplishment.

It is quite amazing that our African ancestors were taught a form of Christianity that would make them better tools of service for their oppressors, yet adopted a theology of liberation that would not accept “slaves be obedient to your masters” as a directive to remain in bondage. They developed a philosophy that supported the eradication of the racist institution of slavery that kept them from being free, as their God desired them to be.