After Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, several nationally prominent Black religious leaders arrived, thinking they could help lead the protest movement that had surfaced. But the religion-focused ideas they were proposing didn’t mesh with the energy and the pent-up frustrations of the mostly youthful protesters. To a large extent, their spiritual inspiration came from hip-hop music and African drums. One of those protesters, Brittany Packnett, was the daughter of a prominent Black pastor, and served as a translator — trying to bridge the disconnect. At the time of Brown’s killing, she…
Author: The Associated Press
Hundreds gathered in an Ohio city on Wednesday to unveil a plaza and statue dedicated to abolitionist Sojourner Truth at the very spot where the women’s rights pioneer gave an iconic 1851 speech now known as “Ain’t I a Woman?” Truth, a formerly enslaved person, delivered the speech to a crowd gathered at the Universalist Old Stone Church in Akron for the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. In the speech, Truth drew upon the hardships she faced while she was enslaved and asked the audience why her humanity and the humanity of other enslaved African Americans was not seen in the…