Racial Awareness Day: Walking and remembering on 'sacred ground'

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More than 150 clergy and lay leaders gathered under the ancient oaks of Middleton Place near Charleston on February 28, walking the ‘sacred ground’ where enslaved Africans and white Europeans lived and died for generations, and where their descendants continue to grapple with their shared history and the present-day realities of race and discrimination.
The Diocesan Racial Awareness Day brought together people from the 31 congregations of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, as well as guests from other dioceses and other denominations.

The focus of the day was a viewing of the one-hour film produced by Middleton Place called Beyond the Fields, which includes dozens of interviews with descendants of enslaved people and owners who lived and worked at the historic plantation.

Middleton Place offers a unique opportunity to share that history. Its foundation has worked for decades to research and tell the story of its African and African American residents, including the work of slaves in its demonstration areas, and opening Eliza’s House, a former slave dwelling, as a museum house in 1990. Since 2000 Middleton has offered tours focusing on the everyday life of enslaved people. Beyond the Fields, first as a book published in 2008 followed by the documentary film, are part of that ongoing commitment. Much more information is available at https://www.middletonplace.org/beyond-the-fields/ , including a link to watch the documentary online.
 
“It was significant that we met at Middleton Place for our conversations regarding racial healing and reconciliation,” said Bishop Skip Adams, who attended as a participant. “Being on the grounds where plantation life flourished and where we know so many enslaved people lived and worked was not lost on any of us.

“My hope is that God uses our time together for the ongoing healing of our diocese and nation, conformed more and more to the mind of Christ, and as we participate in the grand sweep of justice in history,” the Bishop said.

Ongoing training in racial reconciliation, justice and healing are required for Episcopal Church clergy and staff and highly encouraged for all others under actions adopted by General Convention. But as the group assembled around tables to begin the day, Bishop Adams said that while those requirements are important, the Racial Awareness Day represents something more.

“This is not just about fulfilling commitments or checking a box. It’s about building a culture of awareness about who we are called to be as a people of God,” he said.

Archdeacon Callie Walpole, who organized the event on behalf of the diocese, offered thanks to Middleton Place for hosting, including Tracey Todd, CEO of Middleton Place and producer of the film Beyond the Fields, and Charles Duell, Middleton’s Steward and a member of St. Stephen’s, Charleston.

The facilitator for the day’s conversations was the Rev. Dr. Kylon Middleton, pastor of Mount Zion AME Church in Charleston and executive director of the Charleston Illumination Project. He reminded participants that as they walk around the historic plantation, “you are on sacred ground.”

Dr. Middleton is also a partner with Archdeacon Walpole in the Episcopal/AME Book Study hosted each Tuesday at Grace Church Cathedral. Many members of that study attended the Middleton event.

“Every week there is a collision at the intersection of Glebe and Wentworth,” Dr. Middleton said, describing the book study. “And it is a good collision, because we come together weekly grappling with tough issues of systemic injustice, racial disparities, embedded inequities in our culture.... We feel there is a moment where we are illuminated. We don’t necessarily have to agree, but we are at least enlightened and we are aware, and we are better for having sat together and talked one with another.”
 
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been ‘the other,’ but it’s certainly not a good place to be,” Dr. Middleton told the group. “We have come to combat and stamp out those othering experiences that exclude, that marginalize, that push to the periphery those who have historically been left out.”
 
To drive home that point, at one point in the discussion, he asked participants to identify one individual at each table who was different from everyone else at their table -- for example, the only woman, the only clergy person – to serve as the leader and spokesperson.
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After Noonday Prayer and a lunch of fried chicken, barbecue, collards and other regional favorites, participants had time to walk the grounds of Middleton, reflecting and writing in journals.
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Several churches sent teams of clergy and lay leaders to the Racial Awareness Day. A group of 15 attended from Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church in Pawleys Island, including their priest associate, the Rev. Donald Fishburne.
 
“As a Charleston native, I felt during the pilgrimage day not so much guilt or shame, but sorrow and heartache for the cruelty of the past that continues to find expression even today,” Fr. Fishburne wrote afterward in a report for his church newsletter.
 
The Episcopal Church on Edisto team was joined by the Rev. Chick Morrison, pastor of New First Missionary Baptist Church, the historically African American congregation that worships next door to the Edisto Episcopalians, and has given them use of their historic sanctuary for the past six years.
 
Pastor Morrison told the group during the discussion period that while understanding the past is important, it’s also important to look toward the future. “We don’t fight fire. We fight fire with love,” he said.

After the event, Archdeacon Walpole offered the following reflection:

“The Reverend Dr Kylon Middleton, AME minister and Director of the Charleston Illumination Project, who facilitated our Racial Awareness Day at Middleton Place, calls the grounds at Middleton ‘sacred.’ It might seem incongruous (perhaps anywhere but in South Carolina) to hold a racial awareness day at a plantation known as America’s oldest landscaped gardens, where thousands of enslaved Africans toiled ceaselessly to make South Carolina Britain’s wealthiest colony. The film Beyond the Fields produced by Middleton Place delves into this history, featuring numerous Middleton descendants and local personalities speaking in strikingly non-dramatic, matter-of-fact, tones about a divergent but shared heritage and the pressing task for us all today to seek unity in diversity – and truth. The past is not dead but rather confronted and acknowledged—on the way to a future of full redemption –transformation – communion.”