Part of our role on Capitol Hill is to bring attention to stories we feel are of particular importance - stories of hope that emerge in public life; stories that provide insight into the spiritual aspect of a current national or global issue; stories that challenge us to confront our own positions with humility. This area spotlights some of those stories. (Views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute)
March 2,2012 - March 4, 2012
The 2012 Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama will take place March 2 - 4, 2012. This year marks the 47th Anniversary of Blood Sunday, one of the most pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) once again serves as the Pilgrimage Chairman and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-GA) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) serve as honorary co-leaders. Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL), and Martha Roby (R-AL) serve as honorary co-hosts.
This three-day passage through living history demonstrates the powerful role spirituality and courage played in shaping our nation's history. More than 150 members of Congress have joined the Faith & Politics Institute on this memorable and momentous journey, described by many as one of the most valuable experiences they have had while in Congress. For more information about the 12th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage, contact our staff at (202) 546-1299.
Members of Congress and Congressional staff please contact Nelson Watkins, Senior Congressional Liaison (nelson@faithandpolitics.org).
For PRESS information, please contact Curtis L. Baxter III (curtis@faithandpolitics.org).
Virtual Pilgrimage - http://www.faithandpolitics.org/virtualpilgrimage2012 |
On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting ground The Faith & Politics Institute brought together a delegation of Members of Congress and other guests to the birth place of the civil rights movement, New Orleans, Louisiana, to make a spiritual pilgrimage through the Gulf Coast region, including Mississippi. We heard from several of the local Members in both Louisiana and Mississippi who told us their experiences of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. As the weekend progressed, the stories sounded more and more like religious testimony. By the end of the weekend the spirit surrounding the delegation and each program piece was one of unity, faith and a resilience that speaks to the strength of the people from the Gulf Coast.
On Friday evening we felt the warmth and welcome of living New Orleans legend Leah Chase at her iconic Dooky Chase restaurant. Surrounded by an incredibly rich art collection we were served delicious and all-to-fittingly rich food. In this inspiring setting we heard stories from Rep. Charlie Melancon, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, as well as Rep. Steve Scalise, and the dynamic Rep. John Lewis, our Congressional Leader. We also heard from Fr. Vien Nguyen, who is a strong leader in the Vietnamese Community of New Orleans East, which was the subject of a documentary, “A Village Called Versailles,” about rebuilding after the aftermath of Katrina, and the strong unifying of that community. Finally, the last to speak at Dooky Chase, the delegation was graced by the powerful civil rights icon, Ruby Bridges, the first black child to integrate an all-white school in the south.
The delegation traveled to Mississippi on Saturday morning for an informative and inspiring experience with stories from historians Chris LeGarde and Dr. Douglas Brinkley as well as Sen. Roger Wicker, Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, and Rep. Gene Taylor. Church leader, Joe Monti also spoke to and hosted the delegation at the beautiful Our Lady of The Gulf church in Bay St. Louis. While in Mississippi a storm that set a fitting tone rained cats and dogs on us as we drove along the ominous edge of the Mississippi Sound. Concrete slabs and empty poles, previously elevating homes, lined the opposite side of the road. Our lunch, catered by the famous Trapani’s restaurant featured delicious local seafood ended our time in Mississippi before we boarded the bus back to New Orleans.
The delegation had the chance to tour the astounding Make It Right homes in the lower 9th Ward on Saturday afternoon, viewing up-close the beauty incorporated with innovations both green and affordable for those residents whose homes were swept away in 2005, literally in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We were introduced to those homes by the Executive Director, Tom Darden. Darden was joined by Steve Ragan, Dir. Of Development and Government Affairs, as well as Cesar Rodriguez, Product Coordinator, who guided us around the inside of a recently finished duplex home for a brother and sister and their families.
Later at a dinner held at the beautiful Presbytere property of the Louisiana State Museum, in historic Jackson Square, the delegation heard more stories of hope and determination from notable locals of New Orleans, and others. Museum director, Sam Rykels, hosted the delegation at The Presbytere near a beautiful Mardis Gras exhibit. Among those who spoke to us about their experiences of New Orleans, the Civil-Rights movement, the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, and thereafter were Mary Matalin and James Carville, Brian Williams, Jeff Corwin, notable historian Dr. Douglas Brinkley, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, and the iconic Ruby Bridges.
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One of the highlights of the pilgrimage was an intimate reflection group that met in the Loews Hotel and consisted of members of the delegation, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Ruby Bridges, and was led by Rev. Michael Battle. Later that morning, the group attended mass at the Cathedral of St. Louis in Jackson Square, in the center of New Orleans. A moving interfaith service was held in commemoration of the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina touching ground on the Gulf Coast.
Another major highlight of the weekend was that evening at the city’s commemoration program at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in Armstrong Park. The event was co-chaired by Mary Matalin and James Carville, who each spoke warmly of their love for New Orleans, and Terrence Blanchard and Robin Burgess, who played the sax and read a poem written by their daughter, respectively. The evening featured amazing music and dance, and several dynamic speakers, including Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Brian Williams, New Orleans jazz legend John Boutte, Trombone Shorty, and many others. Opened and closed by members and chiefs of some twenty tribes of the Mardi Gras Indians, the evening saw the audience on its feet, singing, dancing or just shouting New Orleans praise much of the time. The overwhelming spirit in that space was one of unity and perseverance. This perfectly tied in each component of the pilgrimage; a perfect end to that powerful time on the Gulf Coast.
To see photos of the event, please refer to our picasa albums here.
On June 30th, Rev. Clete Kiley completed four years of service as President and CEO of The Faith & Politics Institute.
During his tenure, the Institute conducted three Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimages to Alabama and a Pilgrimage of Courage and Creativity to Mississippi. Fr. Kiley facilitated 2 different weekly reflection groups with Members of Congress, hosted many evening reflections and workshops with speakers such as Ambassador Sheila Susulu and Ambassador Tony Hall, Dr. William Ury, Gov. William Winter, Parker Palmer, and Betty Sue Flowers, and hosted bi-monthly gatherings of Senate Chiefs of Staff.
Fr. Kiley leaves the Institute to become the Director of Immigration Policy at Unite/HERE. In his new role at Unite/HERE, Rev. Kiley will focus on the issues of comprehensive immigration reform. He will be working in the area of immigration reform with UNITE/HERE union members, and with the AFL-CIO and other labor unions, as well as the religious community. Since his early days in the ministry serving in the Hispanic community in Chicago, the welfare of immigrants has been an issue Rev. Kiley has held close to his own heart. Fr. Kiley will continue to keep a supportive relationship to The Institute.
A search committee of the Institute’s Board of Directors, chaired by Rev. Larry Hayward, has begun the work of finding the new president for the organization. In the interim, Rev. Doug Tanner, founder of The Faith & Politics Institute, serves as Senior Advisor and Director.
The Faith & Politics Institute will host a reception to honor Fr. Kiley for his faithful service to The Faith & Politics Institute and as a way to wish him well as he undertakes work on an important national issue. The reception will take place on September 23rd at Charlie Palmer’s Restaurant. Invitations to this event will be distributed in the coming weeks.
Capitol Hill is locked in partisan gridlock.
The democratic process, historically dependent on lively politics discourse, has become stymied with harshness, anger, and intransigence. Fear, loathing, and outrage have become the common currency within the Beltway.
We invite you to join us for an evening reflection where you will learn transformative techniques to inhabit this common ground.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 21 -- Reception: 5:30 PM Program: 6:00 PM
WHERE: 2261 Rayburn HOB
In March of 2007, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth participated in an annual commemoration of the Voting Rights March in Selma, Alabama. He was not the only dignitary in attendance; among other civil rights legends, members of Congress, and prominent religious leaders were then-Senator Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. Upon meeting Shuttlesworth, the future President Obama grasped the handles of the Birmingham legend's wheelchair and personally escorted him to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There, Clinton crouched down to speak with the leader. The moment, though fleeting, was a striking image of past, present, and future in national leadership and racial reconciliation.
Fortunately, this brief moment was caught on film. Photographer Byron Buck was accompanying The Faith and Politics Institute on their biennial civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama, and captured the scene with his camera. The Institute immediately recognized the power of the photograph, and arranged to have Obama and Clinton sign the picture as a gift for Reverend Shuttlesworth. Both men obliged. Barack Obama, who has often acknowledged his indebtedness to courageous and determined civil rights activists like Shuttlesworth, wrote: "To Rev. Shuttlesworth - I stand on your shoulders! Thank you". Bill Clinton signed, “To Fred Shuttlesworth - Thanks for your life of devotion and for this good day”.
On September 22, 2009, members of The Faith and Politics Institute presented the Reverend with the signed photograph in a ceremony at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Presenting this photo to Rev. Shuttlesworth were Dr. Robin Fillmore and Nelson Watkins. Family members, well-wishers, and press were on hand to mark the occasion. Staff members Frank Adams from Rep. Artur Davis' office (D-AL) and Caleb Goodwyn from Rep. Spencer Bachus' office (R-AL) were also at the ceremony. After receiving the framed picture, The Birmingham News reports, “Shuttlesworth held it in his lap and admired it. 'I feel like swelling up,' he said. 'I don't regret one bit what I've tried to do in my life'”.
For the full article in The Birmingham News, please see: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/metro.ssf?/base/news/1253693715259740.xml&coll=2
"He's not black"
By Marie Arana, The Washington Post
To me, as to increasing numbers of mixed-race people, Barack Obama is not our first black president. He is our first biracial, bicultural president. He is more than the personification of African American achievement. He is a bridge between races, a living symbol of tolerance, a signal that strict racial categories must go.
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But Obama's ascent to the presidency is more than a triumph for blacks. It is the signal of a broad change with broad ramifications. The world has become too fused, too interdependent to ignore this emerging reality: Just as banks, earthly resources and human disease form an intricate global web, so do racial ties.
Read the full article
By Andy Goldberg, Independent Online
An 11-year-old white girl came home from school in rural California a few days before the election quoting a slogan she had heard from one of her friends: "Rosa sat, so Martin could walk, so Barack could run, so we could fly."
That saying poignantly encapsulates the history of the civil rights movement and the meaning of Barack Obama's groundbreaking presidential victory, summing up the movement that has transformed both the law and society in the 53 years since Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Read the full article
The Washington National Cathedral hosted the inaugural Nancy and Paul Ignatius Program on October 21, 2008. The program, "America and the World: Picking up the Pieces", addressed the intersection of faith and foreign policy. Particpants included Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinksi, Gen. Grent Scowcroft, David Ignatius, Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana, and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
Not only did the program speak to the role that faith can play in international politics, it was also a testament to bipartisanship. Brzezinski, a Democrat who served as National Security Adviser to President Carter, and Scowcroft, who served in the same position for Presidents Ford and George H. W. Bush, came together with David Igantius to write America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. Part of the reason that Brzezinski and Scowcroft agreed to do the book, Gen. Scowcroft said, was to show that the way to solve problems is for people of differing opinions to sit down and have civil discourse rather than to yell at each other.
Watch the full panel discussion here on the National Cathedral's website.