MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (TN Tribune) — The role of the African American church in promoting wellness will be discussed at an MTSU Black History Month event this week with two prominent religious thought leaders shaping the conversation.
“The State of the African American Union” is slated for 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, in the Tom Jackson Building’s Cantrell Hall, 628 Alma Mater Drive. This event is in its third year and is free and open to the public.
Participants will include Bishop William Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and chair of the national NAACP’s legislative political action committee, and Bishop Anne Henning Byfield, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 16th Episcopal District, which covers 14 different countries in the Caribbean, South America and Europe.
The panel will focus on the church’s role in Black wellness, including the church’s responsibility to address political concerns, engage in social action and to speak out against a variety of social issues. These include racism, classism, gentrification, sexism and gay rights.
Aaron Treadwell, an assistant professor of history, said Barber and Byfield approach the Black History Month theme of “Black Love: Health, Wellness, Relationships” from the angle of Black spirituality and economic equality.
“For Barber, he is the leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement once led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Treadwell said. “Barber is very vocal in his claim that economic inequality is as much of a legal issue as it is theological.”
Barber is co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A Nation Call for Moral Revival, a widespread grassroots campaign advocating for, among other things, “restoration of the full Voting Rights Act” and a $15 an hour federal minimum wage on behalf of the 140 million poor and low-wealth citizens in the country.
“As for Byfield, she has been instrumental in guiding America’s oldest and one of its largest denominations in a revival toward providing for social needs during worship/mission,” Treadwell said.
For off-campus attendees, a campus map is available at http://bit.ly/MTSUParking.
For more information, contact Treadwell at 615-898-2536 or aaron.treadwell@mtsu.edu.
