By: Dr. Essie P. Knuckle

Dr. Essie P. Knuckle — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 19:02:54 +0000

I am inspired by your work at telling our black history as it actually was in the past. I will not allow a person from a different racial or ethnic group to define me. I stop other people in their tracks when they talk about “your slave ancestors”. I immediately tell them that my ancestors came from the great continent to a foreign land in which they were “enslaved”. I also say, “do not call my ancestors slaves to make yourselves feel superior.”
I feel sick each week when I have to look at the giant picture of the white man Christ pictured in my church of worship, because I believe that all humans were made in God’s own image and not the way that the Europeans depict him. No minister that I know has even spoken about the 400th Commemoration of the arrival of Africans into North America. My town is celebrating an African American Festival on August 24th and I am determined to see that that is the theme for that festival. I read your article in the Roanoke Tribune, my home town of origin. Thanks for knowledgeable people like you.

Comments on: ‘Deconstruct and decolonize our history’: UCC minister of racial justice The Rev. Dr. Velda Love urges ownership, truthtelling

By: Dr. Essie P. Knuckle