One of the defining moments of 2017 was the Unite the Right rally staged in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11-12. The motley groups of white supremacists and neo-Nazis poorly labeled as the “alt. right” – when there is nothing “alternative” about their very old-school ignorance and hatred – came out of their social media hiding holes to chant Nazi slogans and misappropriated Black Lives Matter chants. This is part of the noxious base of President Donald Trump, who receives their ideas from his former White House advisor Stephen Bannon and current White House advisor Stephen Miller. Notoriously, Trump said there were “some good people” marching in the name of white supremacy in Charlottesville.
Among those bearing witness to this madness – a much larger crowd than the united right itself – was Rev. Traci Blackmon. Rev. Blackmon was present at many places where humanity and democracy were under assault in 2017. Though still pastor of her home church, Christ The King United Church of Christ, in her hometown of Florissant, she is now more than a local force to be reckoned with. The courageous witness she bore in Ferguson, both on the streets as a clergy supporter and on the Ferguson Commission as a policy-maker, gave her national visibility, and she went national. She now has a national leadership position as executive minister of Justice and Witness at United Church of Christ, based in Cleveland, Ohio.
She is no longer ours alone. She belongs to America now. This nation sorely needs her.
Rev. Blackmon’s leadership always moves at so many levels. She brings courage and physical leadership in the form of sudden, overpowering hugs for people who look under imminent threat of collapse, and she often finds herself in the presence of people enduring more than anyone should bear. She also has a mind for policy reform and systemic change. And, like any called pastor, she brings the power of the word. She is a truthteller at a time when lies are diverted with claims of “fake news.”
“My tears were not tears of fear, but tears of mourning. It is a sad moment in our nation – and yet not an unpredictable one, given the current social and political tone of this presidential administration,” Rev. Blackmon wrote in this newspaper about confronting hate and ignorance in Charlottesville.
“I cried because I recognized this moment, not as an escalation of white supremacy in this nation, but rather as its death rattle. And I know that the dying breaths of white supremacy will be long and arduous and violent. I know that there will be casualties on all sides.”
This is a prophetic voice that must be heard.
“I am stating unequivocally that this president’s hateful rhetoric and the focus of GOP policies in this current administration have stoked and exploited fears in ways that embolden white supremacist groups,” Rev. Blackmon wrote in these pages.
This is a prophetic voice that must be heard.
St. Louis needs you, Rev. Blackmon. We need your audacity, intellect, fearlessness, charisma and dedicated leadership. But we know America needs you more. We honor you as 2017 Person of the Year in St. Louis for your principled, prophetic leadership this year, but we will need you more than ever, all over St. Louis and these United States, as we face the daunting challenges of 2018.
