SERMON "If You Have No Place To Go... Emancipation Don’t Mean A Thing!" Reverend Sharon Minor King, Ph.D. – In Commemoration Of the D.C. Emancipation Proclamation Wreath Laying Ceremony – Saturday April 12, 2008 – Lincoln Park – Washington, D.C.	Sharon King preaching to the gatherers. In the background is the Emancipation statue of President Abraham Lincoln and a freed man, Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C.
I. Thank you for once again inviting me to share some historical and prophetic words with you today. I thank all of the organizers, particularly the Hanes family, who keep the vision ever-present before all of us. Thank you, Peter, Mrs. Hanes and the members of “Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.” My topic for this morning is this: IF YOU HAVE NO PLACE TO GO, EMANCIPATION DON’T MEAN A THING (repeat with correct English)… I begin by asking you, how many people here were born in Washington, D.C.? Please stand. If you are at least second-generation Washingtonian keep standing? If you are third-generation keep standing? If you are fourth or more generations, we applaud you? As one who is a fourth generation Washingtonian, It is to you that I ask permission to speak…thank you. For all you newcomers I say: “Welcome to Washington, D.C.” There is a reason for my asking this question because if one were to listen to all that is said about D.C. these days, one might get the impression that successful communities simply do not exist, here? Like the dinosaur, the aging Washingtonian appears to be a faded memory held together by a graying segment of local historians, who are too often considered irrelevant to the “progressive” visions of recent settlers. While we are giving significant and worthy historical recognition today to the abolishing of the Slave Trade both here and abroad, I would like to focus upon land trade and its continued depletion of economic resources and spiritual recovery of Black people all over the world. Land Trade I believe is at the core of Slave Trade because it is still about the land that was stolen from the captured or misplaced people and never returned to its original owners. Yes, we know many died while crossing the Atlantic during the Slave Trade, and many died once reaching this country due to poor living conditions. But, what happened, and continues to happen, to the many who died because of not having a “place of being” where they could identify and continue the legacy of their families and the culture of their ancestors? Look among you. Perhaps you are sitting by someone who can tell you their story of how they inherited land, but never reaped the benefit from it because of thieves, liars, and even laws that betrayed one generation from another. Beloved, it only takes one generation to destroy a family’s resources and a nation’s future.	Amid umbrellas C.R. Gibbs gives a chronology of events that led to Abolition throughout the world
Presenters at the D.C. Emancipation Wreath Laying Ceremony, sponsored by Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.	II. Land is precious. It is a source of identity, inheritance, and legitimacy. Land is that sweet smell of success, and peace, and love. Land is that connection with the global community, the ancestors, and the Creator. If you have never owned land, it may be difficult to understand its value. But if you do not remember what it meant to own land, then the impact of the Slave Trade is even more devastating. Land becomes meaningless, inconsequential, and even a mere commodity to be available to the highest bidder or developer. I believe this is where the Slave Trade did the most harm to African people. We have lost connection with the land, the importance of original ownership and the benefit of legacy to the land, and to each other. Dr. Mindy Fullilove tells of a joke that circulated on email a few years ago. It went like this: Two Navajos, an old man and his grandson were walking on the reservation one day and ran into a group of white scientists from NASA, standing around a spacecraft. The grandson asked what they were doing and the scientists explained they were preparing a trip to the moon. The grandson translated this to the old man, who responded by asking if he could send a message to the Man in the Moon. The scientists were amused by this request and agreed by recording his message on their tape recorder. The old man told the Man in the Moon, “Watch out, they are coming to take your land.”(Fullilove, pg. 58). (repeat) My fondest childhood memories are centered around the land my family called The Homestead., It is located not very far from here in a place called Eastland Gardens. In 1945, when D.C. was not often kind to its Negro population, my grandmother was able to purchase this modest home for a mere $10.00. Today, the value of the home is increased significantly, but because of what I term “Black-on-Black” crime within one generation, our family now risks losing its legacy, security, and identity with that land. This has not only happened to my family, but many others throughout metropolitan areas are experiencing the same dilemma…New Orleans…Mississippi…Detroit…Anacostia…land grabbing is a method of “resource-shifting” throughout our nation. We call it gentrification today…but it is known by many other names, in many parts of the world.
National Parks Service Ranger Joy Kinard & Dr. King exchange fond memories of her father & King's mentor, Rev. John Kinard, the Founder of the Anacostia Museum.	Dr. Frank Smith shares historical recordings of D.C. celebrations
III. The concern for land is global. Internationally, a phenomenon called “ownership by conquest” continues to destabilize people over the issue of land. Currently, there are 46 major land disputes throughout the world that date as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries. 1. For example in 1896, ownership of the land once called Rhodesia and now known as Zimbabwe, was shifted to Europeans. As much as 6,000 acres per Englishman was given as a reward to them for securing the land for Britain (Pakenham, pg.496). 2. Five years earlier in 1891, the U. S. Congress authorizes the leasing of allotted Indian lands to European Americans who migrated from diverse parts of Europe, primarily Britain. 3. This is approximately 75 years after the purported abolition of slavery in Britain, where long after 1807 merchants continued to benefit from human cargo by making ships in Liverpool, manufactured clothing and shackles for the captured and rebellious in Manchester, and imported food for both the captives and captors throughout the British Empire. 4. According to Marika Sherwood, the city of Liverpool continued to thrive on the slave trade long after Abolition, by building slave ships that often concealed their illegal cargo with exchanged cargoes of sugar, tobacco, and cotton from the “New World”. 5. Often, traitors and betrayers from among their own people assisted in the illegal trade of people and land. People who walked among them; looked like them; slept with them; established legal and illegal families ; and yet they looked for opportunities to benefit themselves at the expense of their kin, leaders, and friends. i. In the Bible, Esau did it for a bowl of cereal… ii. Judas did it for thirty pieces of silver… 6. Even today when one visits islands in the Caribbean or countries in Africa, the valued items among the poor and the elite are often imported from the very countries responsible for their historical oppression, colonization, and slavery. CONCLUSION The Holy Bible also tells us that If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. As we lay this wreath commemorating all those who were instrumental in abolishing Slavery, let us continue to find out what happened – and is still happening to the land that was lost. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “One has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individual concern to the broader concerns of humanity” (Ashun, 59). Let us commit ourselves to the reclamation of our land and all of its responsibilities and benefits! It is then that our children today, and the unborn ones of tomorrow, can lift their heads high and compete with others within the global economy. Amen!	In front of Mary McLeod Bethune statue are Dr. King with Mr. Lawrence, a descendant of Chief Crazyhorse. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ashun, Ato. ELMINA, THE CASTLE & THE SLAVE TRADE. Elmina: Nyakod Printing Works, 2004. Davidson, Basil. THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 1992. Huggins, Nathan. W.E.B. DUBOIS: Writings. New York: The Library of America, 1986. Felder, Cain Hope & C.H. Smith (eds.). Nashville: Townsend Press, 1999. Fullilove, Mindy Thompson. ROOT SHOCK: How Tearing Up city Neighborhoods Hursts America, And What We Can Do About It. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004. Meeks, Wayne A. THE HARPER COLLINS STUDY BIBLE. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1989. Okafor, Victor Oguejiofor. TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF AFRICOLOGY. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006. Pakenham, Thomas. THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA Sherwood, Marika. ABOLITION: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807. London: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 2007. Throckmorton, Burton H. (ed.). GOSPEL PARALLELS: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992.
Peter Hanes, Co-coordinator of D.C. Emancipation Wreath Laying Ceremony.	All Souls Jubilee Singers provide inspiring music.