This is a copy of an article my father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage aka Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, wrote, I believe, for a column in the “Michigan Chronicle” for January 1967. You can read the sermon notes for his New Year’s Day sermon that year here “The Faith of a Mustard Seed”.
Click on these pages to enlarge.
He was definitely on the money about 1967 with the Detroit and Newark rebellions leading the way.
That’s just what I thought when I read the first lines.
Your father is simply amazing. I just talked to my family about Detroit during that time. I really enjoy reading his work.
I’m glad you enjoy reading because I do enjoy reading it and posting it. Takes me back to those days. Somehow there seemed to be more hope for the future then than now.
What an insightful and prescient statement of the situation! I wonder what he had to say about the recommendations of the National Commission on Civil Disorders the following year, which, as I understand it, initiated corrective measures in the areas of employment, education, and housing to head off an all-out revolution. Did he welcome them as promising or mistrust them as co-optation? What did he see as their effect on the internal organization he pointed to as crucial? Too many people champion a move from organization to action; your father knew that, in fact, for any sustainable change, it had to be the other way round, action for its own sake being a dead end.
I have his remarks to the National Commission on Civil Disorders around here. I will have to find them and put them in a post.
I would love to read them.