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Workshop/Roundtable Discussion at New England Yearly Meeting | August 2018

Current Activities Retrospective Justice in Healing Historical Injustice and Ills: Reparations Defined as “an attempt to administer justice years after the commission of a severe injustice or series of injustices,” we advocate that Quakerism adopt Retrospective Justice as a model for healing historical injustice. Our ministry is providing education on this call to action through e-newsletters, publications, and collaborative lecture-presentations with Friend Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, a leader in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, the African National Congress, and transnational organizations. The Quakers of Color International Archive (QCIA) As a study-and-research collection, our archive documents the oral histories of Quakers of Color worldwide through videotaped interviews and transcriptions. Established in 2019, the QCIA is a partnership with UMass Amherst, Haverford College, and Swarthmore College, currently housed in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library of UMass Amherst. For access to these videotaped interviews and transcriptions of Friends of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latinx descent, please click here . Reforming Quakerism: Developing New Narratives & Models The BlackQuaker Project calls on Friends to take the following steps: Address the inadequacies of the acronym SPICES, which neglects the testimony of justice and constrains our vision of what Quakerism is and what it might be. Move the justice testimony to the front-burner in the Religious Society of Friends. Focus on structural violence–not just direct, visible violence–as we confront today’s domestic and international conflicts. Adopt a model of Retrospective Justice for healing historical injustice. The Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum Since 2021 we have been programming annual virtual screenings and fora to celebrate the lives and contributions of Quakers of African descent. Held over Zoom webinar, these events are free and open to the public with recordings of past installments available to view on our website. Click on the following text if you wish to watch recordings of our 2022 and 2023 events. Publications We remain committed to releasing e-newsletters, pamphlets, and books that give voice to Quakers of Color, both past and present. To subscribe to receive our e-newsletter, click here. To view a full record of all our past e-newsletters click here . To view a selected list of our other publications, click here . Advocacy: Paul Robeson & Bayard Rustin We work to restore Friend Bayard Rustin and Quaker-descendant Paul Robeson–who has been the focus of over 50 years of advocacy and research by Harold D. Weaver, Jr.– to their rightful places in world history. To view Dr. Weaver’s 1973 vintage video-lecture on Robeson, click here . To view our 2024 event, the Bayard Rustin Legacy Forum, click here . Harold D. Weaver & Anne Steere Nash at Guilford College Harold D. Weaver, Jr and Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge deliver a joint orientation on Retrospetive Justice to QUNO-Geneva Staff Collaboration with Quaker Organizations and Beyond We continue to partner with key Quaker and non-Quaker organizations and initiatives, including the American Friends Service Committee, Haverford College, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers), the Friends World Committee for Consultation, and the Independent Working Group for the extended United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). Click here to see a full list of our collaborators.

Recordings of Our Past Fora: 12 February 2022 | Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge I Am Woman - Leap of Faith: Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge In this video you will see the following from the 12 February 2022 screening of the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum dedicated to Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Director of the Quaker United Nations Geneva (QUNO-Geneva) Trailer for the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum (Cooper Vaughn) Introduction of program and guests (Dr. Harold D.Weaver) Post-screening dialogue between honoree Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge & Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Audience Q & A with our guest and honoree. Closing remarks by Dr. Harold D. Weaver Click here watch: I Am Woman - Leap of Faith: Nozizwe Madlala- Routledge . Click here to view the Webinar chat for this event. 26 February 2022 | Howard Thurman Backs Against The Wall: The Howard Thurman Story The 2022 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continued with a screening dedicated to civil rights mentor, preacher, theologian, poet, and author Howard Thurman. Contents : Prelude: African American Freedom Music. Trailer for the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum (Cooper Vaughn). Introduction of program and guests (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Post-screening dialogue between Thurman expert Dr. Mary Wade and Dr. Stephen W. Angell, Earlham School of Religion (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Audience Q & A with our guest experts. Postscript on Retrospective Justice/Reparatory Justice (Susan Spina). Closing remarks (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Click here to watch: Backs Against The Wall: The Howard Thurman Story . Click here to view the Webinar chat for this event. 12 March 2022 | Mahala Ashley Dickerson Alaska On Line: Red Boucher Interviews Mahala Ashley Dickerson The 2022 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continued with a screening dedicated to courageous civil rights lawyer, philanthropist, and Alaska homesteader Mahala Ashley Dickerson. Contents: Prelude: African American Freedom Music. Trailer for the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum (Cooper Vaughn). Introduction of program and guests (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Post-screening dialogue between guest experts, Johnny Gibbons, law partner of Mahala Dickerson, & Taylor Brelsford, Quaker leader in Alaska (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Audience Q & A with our guest experts. Postscript on Justice Testimony (Susan Spina). Closing remarks (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Click here to watch: Alaska On Line: Red Boucher Interviews Mahala Ashley Dickerson Click here to view the Webinar chat for this event. 26 March 2022 | Bayard Rustin Brother Outsider The Story of Bayard Rustin The 2022 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continued with a screening dedicated to human-rights-movement leader, author, singer, and social critic Bayard Rustin. Contents: Prelude : African American Freedom Music by tenor Bayard Rustin. Trailer for the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum (Cooper Vaughn). Introduction of program and guests (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Post-screening dialogue between guest experts, Walter Naegle, Bayard’s partner and adopted son, and Dr. George Lakey , scholar-activist and Rustin collaborator (Dr. Harold D. Weaver) . Audience Q & A with our guest experts Closing remarks (Dr. Harold D. Weaver) Click here to rent: Brother Outsider The Story of Bayard Rustin Click here to view the Webinar chat for this event. 9 April 2022 | Paul Robeson Paul Robeson & His 200 Years of Quaker Ancestors Paul Robeson: "I'm A Negro, I'm An American" 'WHYY/PBS “Movers & Makers: Joyce Mosley, Family Historian' The 2022 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum concluded with a hybrid screening dedicated to beleaguered leader Paul Robeson & his 200 years of Quaker ancestors in the USA. Contents : Prelude: African American Freedom Music by Paul Robeson. Trailer for the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum (Cooper Vaughn). Introduction of program and guests (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Post-screening dialogue between guest experts, Joyce Mosley, researcher and descendant of the Bustill-Douglass family; Dr. Mark Solomon, eminent historian and authority on African Americans and the Left; and Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Robeson researcher-advocate for over 50 years (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Audience Q & A with our guest experts. Closing remarks (Dr. Harold D. Weaver). Click Here to watch: ‘WHYY/PBS “Movers & Makers:” Joyce Mosley, Family Historian.' Click here to view the Webinar chat for this event. We are unable to provide access to the film, Paul Robeson “I’m A Negro I’m An American,” at this time. If you are interested in learning more about this film write to defa@german.umass.edu .

New England Yearly Meeting: Sessions 2020 A Dialogue on Survival Dr. Amanda Kemp and Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Jr. LEARN MORE

Our Distinguished Honorees Our honorees range from 20th century trailblazing Friends of African Descent back to early Quakers of Color who are too often forgotten. Some of their stories will challenge Friends to consider what defines a Quaker, as we examine the lives of extraordinary people of color who were Friends in all but name, and ask ourselves what may have prevented or deterred them from joining the Religious Society of Friends. We will conclude with a special celebration of the momentous 125th birthday of beleaguered leader Paul Robeson, a descendant of over 200 years of USA and British Quakers. Click on the images below to learn about the lives and achievements of this year’s distinguished honorees. The Proud Valley Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star. Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver. Saturday, 8 April 2023: Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1978) and The Proud Valley (1940) – Celebrating Paul Robeson’s 125th Birthday Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star. Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver. Register for our remaining events BELOW Our SPECIAL Guest Experts We will reflect on each film with a post-screening dialogue and audience Q & A with eminent scholar-activists, writers, & historians, some of whom are descendants of our honorees. Learn more about our guest experts by clicking on their photos below. Bill Sutherland (1918 - 2 Jan 2010) Bill Sutherland (1918 - 2 Jan 2010), a long term AFSC leader, was important in the African and African American liberation movements. As a non-violence leader, he aided Ghanaian Founding PM Kwame Nkrumah and political leader Komla Gbedemah. He served Tanzanian founding President Julius Nyerere & liberation movement/leaders in southern Africa. With co-author Dr. Matthew Meyer, he wrote Guns & Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle, & Liberation In Africa (2001). Joan Countryman (b. 6 Mar 1940) Joan Countryman (b. 6 Mar 1940) grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. Sarah Mapps Douglas Sarah Mapps Douglass (9 Sept 1806 - 8 Sept 1882) was a prolific abolitionist, educator, and author featured in numerous anti-slavery journals. She was especially interested in educating young Black women about their bodies. She endured lifelong racial prejudice and was forced to sit on the segregated back bench in the Arch Street Meeting. She confronted racism wherever she encountered it, even in the Society of Friends. Benjamin Banneker (9 Nov 1731 - 19 Oct 1806) Benjamin Banneker (9 Nov 1731 - 19 Oct 1806) was a peerless astronomer, author, surveyor, and farmer. Born a free man of Senegalese descent, he helped establish the boundaries of Washington D.C. and even petitioned Thomas Jefferson on behalf of enslaved African Americans. He attended Quaker meetings for much of his life. Paul Robeson (9 Apr 1898 - 23 Jan 1976) Paul Robeson (9 Apr 1898 - 23 Jan 1976), the “beleaguered leader,” legendary scholar-activist, athlete, and “artist as revolutionary:” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and musical star. He was a descendant of over 200 years of USA and UK Quakers by way of the Bustill family, including fellow honoree Sarah Mapps Douglass. We will close our festival with a celebration of his 125th birthday. Joyce Ajlouny AFSC General Secretary Joyce Ajlouny has served as the executive head of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) since September 2017, overseeing the organization’s worldwide efforts for peace and justice. As a Palestinian-American Quaker leader, Joyce has been a seeker of refugee rights, gender equality, and economic aid throughout a long career in international development. She is a member of Ramallah Monthly Meeting and attends several monthly meetings in the USA. Keith B. Harvey Keith B. Harvey is the Director of the Northeast Region of the AFSC since 1992. He has led workshops on non-violence training, Criminal Justice history, and International Debt, sat on the Philadelphia Planning committee for the U.S. Social Forum; and served as both member and chair of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Board of Directors. Keith currently sits on the Massachusetts Peace Action Board and works with the MA Poor People's Campaign coordinating committee. Dr. Matt Meyer Dr. Matt Meyer is an internationally noted author, historian, and organizer of over 30 years. His publications include Guns & Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle, & Liberation In Africa (co-authored in 2000 with honoree Bill Sutherland). He is the Senior Research Scholar of UMass Amherst’s Resistance Studies Initiative and currently serves leadership roles with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and the War Resisters’ International (WRI). Joan Countryman Joan Countryman grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and, in 1958, was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. André Robert Lee André Robert Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, consultant, writer, and educator. André has served as a professor of writing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and teaches Filmmaking at the Germantown Friends School, where he worked to develop a film program for their students. His most recent award-winning film, Virtually Free (2021), tells the story of incarcerated youth in Richmond, Virginia, and is still on the festival route. Dr. Emma Lapsansky Werner Dr. Emma Jones Lapsansky-Werner is an Emerita Professor of History and the Emerita Curator of the Quaker Collection at Haverford College. With Gary Nash and Clayborne Carson, she authored Struggle for Freedom, a college text on African American History. Her current work includes: a history of a Bryn Mawr Quaker family; a study of a Philadelphia multi-cultural intentional community; and a biography of contemporary Quaker Chuck Fager. She is a member of Lansdowne Monthly Meeting in Lansdowne, PA. Joyce Mosley Joyce Mosley, author of Graham’s Gift (2020) has documented her family history of African American and European American Quakers, including the first mayor of Philadelphia. Joyce has presented her family research at genealogy conferences, including the African American Historical and Genealogical Society and the African American Genealogy Group. In 2019, Joyce’s important family research was featured in a WHYY-TV/PBS episode of “Movers and Makers.” Dr. Rachel Webster Dr. Rachel Jamison Webster is the author of the March 2023 book, Benjamin Banneker & Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, creative nonfiction that explores ancestry, race, gender, & justice in American history as Webster and her DNA cousins discuss racial justice, genealogy, & stories of their ancestors. Rachel is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University, where she has received multiple awards for her design and implementation of anti-racist curricula. Pamela Williams Pamela Williams is an educator in the Burlington School District (VT) with a background in clinical social work & research, including instructional support, counseling, Restorative Practice, mindfulness in education, & coordination of service learning projects at local and international levels. Former faculty at Westtown School, Packer Collegiate Institute, & Stone Ridge School, she has also been an instructor at Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and the Community College of Vermont. Gwen Marable Gwen Marable, is a retired educator. Her family discovered their relationship to the man known as the country’s first African- American scientist, Benjamin Banneker. Jemima Banneker, Benjamin’s sister, was Marable’s fifth grandmother. Dr. Gerald Horne Dr. Gerald Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History & African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of Paul Robeson: The Artist As Revolutionary (2016) and has researched issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, & war. He has written about the film industry. His courses include the Civil Rights Movement, U.S. History through Film, Labor History, & 20th Century African American History. Dr. Charles Musser Dr. Charles Musser teaches Film & Media Studies and American Studies at Yale University. Charlie co-curated a series of Robeson film retrospectives for the Paul Robeson centennial in 1998. He also co-curated the DVD set, Pioneers of African American Cinema, with Jackie Stewart and the catalog, Oscar Micheaux and His Circle, with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines. He has published extensively on American early cinema, Robeson, Micheaux, Bill Greaves, and Spike Lee. our director, curator, & HOST Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Alumni Fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, is the Founding Director of the BlackQuaker Project (BQP). A pioneer in Africana Studies in the early 1970s, Hal founded and chaired the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers University, through which he was able to focus attention on the neglected legacy of the great Rutgers alumnus: Paul Robeson. At Rutgers, Hal taught the first course in the world on Robeson, made an instructional film on Robeson’s life and accomplishments, and, most importantly, initiated the successful action to award Robeson an honorary doctorate in 1973. In celebration of Robeson’s 75th birthday in 1973, Hal organized the first Robeson symposium and the first Robeson film retrospective in the United States. For the past 50 years, Hal has worked to restore Robeson’s legacy to its rightful place in world history, through publications, lectures, films and film retrospectives, and symposia. Changed for life by his exposure to Quakerism at Westtown School and Haverford College, Hal combined his faith and activism into the BQP. He has produced several publications important to Quakers, including Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights (with Paul Kriese and Steve Angell, 2011) through FGC Press and the Pendle Hill pamphlet, Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice: An African American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives (2020). He has served in various Quaker governance roles with QUNO-New York, AFSC Board and International Programs Executive Committee, Pendle Hill, Cambridge Friends School, Friends General Council, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation. In 2022, he was awarded an alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from Haverford College. He is an active member of the Wellesley Friends Meeting, which sponsors his ministry.

COVID-19 and Quakers Note: This page (l ast updated on June 29th, 2020) remains on our website for archival purposes only. The BlackQuaker Project hopes this collection of resources from the early era of the COVID-19 pandemic may still be of use to F/friends and others. Quaker Resources Updates from Friends United Meeting- https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org AFSC- https://www.afsc.org FCNL- https://www.fcnl.org Friends Journal- https://www.friendsjournal.org Quaker Speaks- https://www.youtube.com/user/Quakerspeak FGC Resources- https://www.fgcquaker.org/resources/friends-and-covid-19-pandemic-updates-how-guides-and-resources FWCC-Americas Section Covid-19 Resources- https://fwccamericas.org/_wp/covid-19-resources/ FWCC-EMES Section updates- https://www.fwccemes.org/news/ FWCC-AWPS Section, press “Find Out More” at bottom of page- http://fwccawps.org FWCC-Africa Section has not been active in posting COVID-19 resources- https://www.fwccafrica.org FWCC World Office 3/30/20 statement- http://fwcc.world/uncategorized/continuing-but-changing-work-during-covid-19-outbreak Current Contexts of Global Quaker Communities AFRICA For daily updates on Africa from the African CDC click here . Updates on Kenya For daily updates on Kenya click here . Sep 18 - Why is Kenya’s death rate so low? Read/listen here . Coronavirus and police brutality are intermixing in Kenya’s second largest slum, Mathare. Watch and read about the issues. Read the Monday June 29th update from the US Embassy in Kenya here . Watch a video about how the locusts are affecting pastoralist communities and creating potential for conflict here . Updates on Burundi June 24 - Read about endangered health workers and prisoners in Burundi here . Read about President Nkurunziza’s death here . Read HRW’s report on the grave situation of the virus in Burundi here . Updates on Rwanda July 15 - Read about how Rwanda is using many tactics, including previous HIV infrastructure, to keep COVID-19 cases low here . Read about economic relief funding in Rwanda here . Read updates on Rwanda and other parts of East Africa from BBC News here . Updates on South Africa Sep 19 - Read about how the initial shock of COVID-19 resulted in surprisingly low deaths here . Read updates from the South African government on COVID-19 here . Read about COVID-19 and racial tensions in South Africa here . Learn about South Africa’s 8 stage response here . South Africa started a trial for a vaccine developed at Oxford, watch here . THE AMERICAS Updates on Cuba Sep 30 - Read about the lifting of partial lockdown regulations in Havana here . Cuba has declared the virus under control as of June 9th, watch how they did it here Updates on Bolivia As Bolivia struggles through political turmoil and record deaths from the coronavirus, the promotion of a toxic “cure” by politicians is exacerbating tensions. Read about it. in the NYTimes (Aug 22), Washington Post (July 17), and Polygraph (Aug 11) . Updates on Jamaica Find daily updates on Jamaica here . Sep 3 - Jamaica is managing a spike in COVID-19 cases that could be detrimental to the economy, read about it here . Updates on the Canada Sep 29- Canada is experiencing a spike in cases as small gatherings flout precautions and school re-open, read about it here . Get daily updates about Canada here . Updates on the United States The US is beginning its fourth large-scale vaccine testing, read about it here . Read about racial inequalities in COVID-19 deaths and the collapse of the social safety net due to structural racism here . MIDDLE EAST/ASIA Updates on Palestine/Israel Sep 1 - Some restrictions are limiting access to healthcare for those in Gaza, but there is hope for increased access. Read about it here . Updates on India Oct 13 - As COVID forces families into poverty, child labor is rising quickly. Read about it here . Updates on Taiwan Sep 22 - Taiwan handled the virus well, and drew off of their 2003 experience with SARS to control the pandemic. Read about their effective response here . Updates on Hong Kong Sep 15 - Testing in Hong Kong increases with a third wave of infections, read about it here . Follow three recent graduates living in Hong Kong, and how the virus is affecting their futures by watching this video .

Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar at Guilford College | October 2019 1/3

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