The Rev. Traci Blackmon had a direct personal conversation with President Barack Obama in the White House last February, nearly a year before he nominated her to serve on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which he did on Friday, January 29.
On February 26 of last year, Obama convened a group of national civil rights leaders. Though Blackmon now has a national position – as acting executive minister of Justice and Witness Ministries for The United Church of Christ, based in Cleveland – then she was only pastor of a small, local church, Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant.
The only other civil rights leader without a national position invited to the meeting was Rev. Raphael Warnock, and he is pastor at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“It was a gathering of voices from all over the nation, mostly national denominational heads and leaders of national organizations,” Blackmon told The American. “I was trying to figure why I got in the room. Ferguson was why.”
Blackmon’s church sits four miles from where then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown Jr. in August 2014. She was among the earliest and most devoted clergy supporters of the Ferguson protest movement. Her leadership on the ground captured the attention of Gov. Jay Nixon, who appointed her to the Ferguson Commission in November 2014. Clearly, it also captured the attention of the president of the United States.
Obama convened 18 civil rights leaders last February, including the chief executives of the NAACP and National Urban League, but only asked four to present to him. Blackmon was one of those he selected.
“He wanted to know what was on our hearts and minds,” Blackmon said.
She told the president that she and her community were concerned about “public education in our nation, the inequity based on economics and, in my opinion, based on race,” Blackmon said.
Clearly, the president was impressed, because the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to which he now has appointed Blackmon is presently focused on poverty (its most recent report was on modern slavery, human trafficking). The council will report on poverty in America and make recommendations to the administration on how to improve the partnerships it forms to address poverty.
The amazingly ecumenical council is chaired by Susan K. Stern of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Jewish Federations of North America. Other represented groups include the National Association of Evangelicals, PolicyLink, United Way Worldwide, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Episcopal Church, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Buddha’s Light International Association and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
When Blackmon spoke to The American on Tuesday, February 2, the council was meeting in Washington, D.C., but she told them when her appointment was finalized (after months of vetting) that she already had a commitment on that date.
“I was committed to speak for a grass-roots effort in Jefferson City,” Blackmon said. “I don’t want to become a person too busy for the people who created this opportunity for me, so I chose to go to Jefferson City and told them I’d be with them next time.”
She also wanted people at the grass roots to know why she accepted the presidential appointment.
“I am a called person of faith person who believes in justice, in fighting for justice in every way possible,” Blackmon said. “You can’t just fight from the White House or any infrastructure, but you also can’t leave those opportunities out. It’s not more important than the street, it’s not less important. You have to do all of it.”
So Blackmon is willing to represent the street at the White House, address 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., now that she has that opportunity.
“It’s a long way from Pennsylvania Avenue to West Florissant, but somebody has to be the link to what’s really happening,” Blackmon said. “I hope to be part of that.”
