Exploring the intersections of race and criminal in/justice
Exploring the intersections of race and criminal in/justice
One warm summer day in the 1950s, when I was about four years old, our family drove the 25 miles from our small East Tennessee town to shop at the Sears Roebuck store in Knoxville. My most vivid memory from that “big city” excursion was seeing the two drinking fountains in Sears: a refrigerated one with a big “whites only” sign and a smaller, non-refrigerated bubbler labeled “coloreds.” I am grateful for my parents’ efforts so many years ago to help their very young child comprehend this injustice.
Many decades later Ryan and I witnessed another, much more pernicious, form of racism when visiting a friend serving time in prison. The incarcerated male population there was overwhelming African-American. Partly in response to that experience, and once we initiated Holy Trinity’s prison book ministry in 2013, I have been studying the intersections of race and the criminal justice system in the United States. I have been heartened by the anti-racism efforts of our synod and our congregation, which enriches the lives of prisoners by sending books and supplies the state does not provide.
Each year at the June Printer’s Row Lit Fest, our church’s booth includes a resource handout with blurbs about such important books as The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010) by Michelle Alexander and Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (2017) by James Forman Jr. Especially compelling is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014), by Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson. There’s a free study guide at https://justmercy.eji.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/just-mercy-discussion-guide.pdf. The newly-released film version about one man wrongly placed on death row is reviewed at https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/just-mercy-movie-review-michael-b-jordan-930607/, and you can see the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQbeG5yW78.
Educating yourself on the issues is one great way to participate in Holy Trinity’s prison ministry. Here are a few more:
Donate used books to this year's drive on Saturday-Sunday April 25-26 and May 2-3. See full book donation guidelines at http://www.holytrinitychicago.org/ministries/prison.
Make a monetary donation to the loose offerings at designated services to help cover the costs of materials for packing and postage for shipping dozens of boxes of books to several Illinois prisons.
Sign up for a shift at the Holy Trinity booth at Printer's Row Lit Fest on June 6-7, 2020, and share information about this ministry. Previous experience with the prison ministry is not necessary.
Continue bringing good condition women's clothing, shoes, purses, coats, etc., for use by women entering the labor market from the Fox Valley Transition Center in Aurora. Please deposit items (clearly marked and in a paper or plastic bag) in the basket marked "Fox Valley" in the HT Lakeview narthex or give them to Pr. Ben Adams at HTLoop.
Carol LaHurd cslahurd@comcast.net