Today's the day

Today's the day. At 2:00 pm today a rather curious group of people will meet. It's called a forum. I think that's where people get together and talk about common and disparate things and themes. Dr. Crawford is from Lubbock, LCU, and the Broadway Church of Christ, and he comes armed with the voice of God from the prophets. Dr. Mills will come, and he's the Chair of the Department of Agriculture, and he knows about farming in general, small farms in particular, and the 2007 farm bill. Dr. Robinson will speak. He's from Abilene, born and raised in the South, and a prolific writer and competent teacher, and he'll give us a word from the words of Jesus. He knows race and racism and all of their complications. I'll show up, and I'm a university professor, a teller of stories of Black farmers, one whose life has never been the same since seeing those faces and hearing those stories beginning in 1994. I'll speak of the larger social justice tradition among evangelicals and wonder out loud as to what went wrong and what just may be beginning to get right about us in the Stone-Campbell movement.

Sara from Team I; David Todd, Josh, and Tim from Team II; and all of Team III, Sarah, Rebecca, Michelle, Heather, Kimberly, Brian, and Scott, will be here. Sara knows a lot about the plight of the Freedmen in Oklahoma, those who've been disenfranchised by both the dominant white culture and by their tribal group. David Todd, Josh, and Tim have met the farmers face to face, written reports, and have stories of their own to tell. Team III people are immersing themselves in the complication of issues surrounding the Black farmer: land loss, history of Black farmers, USDA/FSA, institutional racism, the Pigford and other law suits, advocacy, and the gospel story. They have their talking points. They're as ready as ready can be. Nervous? Sure. Who wouldn't be in this context.

Most important of all, I'm hoping that the farmers and spouses who've been invited, who live nearby, will be able to attend. They are living their lives, have jobs and responsibilities, and care about these concerns, for themselves, obviously, but also for others. They live the story, they have their stories, and they are burdened by the oppression they see from others.

There will likely be a crowd. It may be a modest crowd since today is the last day of ACU Lectureship, and the crowds always dwindle as people head home and back to their normal lives. My students will come, and hopefully others will come as well. Greg says he'll be there with camera in hand. We've talked a bit about chronicling the Black farmer via the lense of his camera. I'm excited about those possibilities. John Ficara will be there, at least on the screen. His story of their stories will be heard.

The voices of farmers and Black Indians will be heard. They must be heard. We must tell them, and we must create arenas in which their stories can be told, told and heard, to be told again in other arenas.