Graphic Slide Presentation is Centerpiece of Ritual of Remembrance

DePaul University will help bring to the light one of America’s most painful practices – the lynching of African Americans – during a unique ritual of recognition and remembrance titled, “Were You There: A Meditation on Lynching,” from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Room 120.

“Were You There” was created by three scholars from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) as a one-time ritual that took place during Black History Month celebrations at the university last February. When Harvette Grey, director of DePaul’s Cultural Center and an SIUC alumnus, cornered Fr. Joseph A. Brown, S.J., director of Black African Studies at SIUC, he agreed to perform the meditation one more time in Chicago.

Brown, 59, the initiator of the meditation, said he knew he had to act after ordering James Allen’s book “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” (2000) and examining the 50 disturbing images from reproductions of postcards that Allen collected for the book and an exhibition that toured the country a couple of years ago. “I took the book to a small discussion group and showed it to a group of eight young black men,” recalled Brown. “They were just devastated and kept saying that other people ought to see this. I decided that we should do something, but that we could not focus on the devastation alone. If we, who are scholars in black studies, only show the pathology, we are contributing to our depression.”

Brown said he immediately got busy and began selecting readings and narrative text that he wanted to include in a meditation on the topic. He drew into the fold colleagues Clarence Carter, assistant professor of voice, and Wilfred Delphin, professor of music, both from SIUC’s School of Music, who began selecting music for the meditation.

“We just did it; it didn’t take an awful lot,” said Brown. “When you look at the pictures, you’ve got to have a response, and art is the only response that black people have ever had that is deep enough to deal with this kind of terrorism.”

The meditation consists of slide projections of images of lynching victims taken from “Without Sanctuary,” a cappella singing of spirituals, black sacred music, poetry and literary narratives on lynching taken from the writings of James Baldwin, Sterling Brown, Ida B. Wells and Richard Wright. The text, from the works of prominent African-American activists and scholars, stands as a record of protest to the atrocities that are being depicted.

“This is a part of American history that normally does not get talked about,” explained Grey, who is also a licensed psychologist. “At an institution of higher learning, truth and remembering should be the essence of everything. We should be able to tell the difficulties that people of African descent encountered – to talk about the genocide.”

According to Brown, part of the reason he agreed to bring “Were You There” to Chicago has to do with paying respect to the Great Migration and the waves of blacks who came north and settled in Chicago to escape violence in the South. “There are stories written about people coming to Chicago because a relative had been lynched in the South,” he said. “Often the core motivation for people migrating from Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama was a fear of death.”

Another special reason for bringing the poignant presentation to Chicago , according to Brown, is because the city was the home of Mamie Till, mother of the Chicago youngster whose brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955 may have sparked the Civil Rights Movement. “People of my age remember very well the picture of Emmet Till in his casket and how it strengthened our resolve,” said Brown.

Finally, Brown said he wants people to understand that “Were You There: Meditations on Lynching” is “not for black folks, it’s for people. When you look at the little boys and girls in these photos, who were witnesses to these acts, standing there grinning in the camera, you have to ask what does it mean to pass on family values? Whites have been just as undone by it [the meditation] and just as reflective as everyone else has been. You can heal nothing until you have diagnosed it correctly.”

“Were You There: A Meditation on Lynching” is free and open to the public. A reception and discussion will follow the ceremony. Reservations are encouraged and should be made by Jan. 28 by calling 773/325-7759. For more information, please visit the university’s Cultural Center Web site at: studentaffairs.depaul.edu/culturalcenter.