Recently the United States remembered a tragic yet oft-forgotten episode in its history—the horrific massacre of African-Americans, their homes, their houses of worship, and their businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Memorial Day weekend in 1921 [1]. This massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history [2], resulted in between 75 and 300 deaths and the destruction of millions of dollars of property [3].
The wealthiest African-American community in the United States, often called “Black Wall Street,” was left in ruins [4]. At least 10,000 blacks were left homeless [5]. Many survivors left Tulsa, while those remaining behind kept largely silent about the massacre and its impact for decades to come [6].
One of the buildings lost in this tragedy was the Bethel Seventh-day Adventist Church [7], apparently founded in 1918 and having at least 20 members by the time it was destroyed [8].
Until not too long ago, many Americans—including the present writer—knew nothing of “Juneteenth,”—June 19, 1865—the date on which many of our black citizens celebrate the end of slavery [9]. On this date, Union Army General Gordon Granger proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas, where the practice had lingered longer than in most other states of the former Confederacy on account of the slow advance of Union troops to the outer Confederate territories [10].
This day has now become America’s eleventh federal holiday. On June 15 and 16, 2021, the U.S. Congress established this holiday by a unanimous vote in the Senate and a 415-14 vote in the House [11]. President Joe Biden signed this legislation into law the following day [12].
“Warts and All”
Most are familiar with George Santayana’s admonition that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” A similar warning by Ellen White is familiar to many Seventh-day Adventists, in which she writes:
We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history [13].
One of the strongest evidences for the truth of the Biblical narrative is the fact that it includes negative stories from the lives of its heroes. Many ancient histories, especially from the Middle East—the context from which most of the Bible was written—carefully omitted negative incidents from the records recounting the experiences of prominent and revered rulers. The Bible, by contrast, doesn’t do this. Pivotal figures in the Biblical record from Moses and David in the Old Testament to Peter and Paul in the New, are given a “warts and all” portrait in the Bible’s account of their earthly sojourn.
Evil in Our Past
There are those who would rather not hear negative aspects of their national or cultural history. I remember, while pastoring in the New York City area, when the famous movie “The Passion of the Christ” was released. While not wishing to endorse the movie, which contained some notable departures from the Biblical story of Jesus, I found it strange that some in the Jewish community faulted the film for allegedly encouraging anti-Semitism. None can deny, of course, the fact that the Jewish role in Jesus’ death has at times been twisted by a segment of professed Christians as just cause for hating and mistreating Jews. But to candidly acknowledge Germany’s instigation of the Nazi holocaust is not synonymous with endorsing prejudice against Germans, nor is the frank recounting of mistreatment of the Irish by the English an excuse for disliking persons of English descent.
For the same reason, one need not endorse or facilitate anti-Semitism by admitting the role played by first-century Jewish authorities in the condemnation and death of Christ. Of course, it’s important to recognize the truth of what one Christian pastor stated in New York City during the controversy over “The Passion of the Christ,” when he reminded the public that it wasn’t the Jews who put Jesus to death, that in fact “we all put Him to death.” He went on to cite the declaration by the prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Messiah’s future sufferings, that “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
By the same token, the frank admission of evils such as racism in the history of the United States, and the role such evils have played in the development of our culture and national consciousness, is not to denounce America as a moral fraud or to condemn the American nation as intrinsically and incurably evil. Such acknowledgement may, to be sure, involve a radical and perhaps painful reassessment of our past as well as our present, together with a re-thinking of the way we educate our children. But such acknowledgement in no way casts reproach on the founding ideals of this country. It simply means we haven’t always lived up to those ideals, and that we still have a ways to go before in fact we achieve them.
When I was in elementary school, I remember all too well the glossy portrait given of such historical figures as Christopher Columbus, who was generally depicted in those days as the heroic explorer sent on his way to discover America by the kindly king and queen of Spain. We weren’t told, of course, how he enslaved and even exterminated certain native tribes in the New World [14], nor were we told of the brutality and sponsorship of the papal Inquisition by that “kindly” royal couple who funded Columbus’ expeditions [15].
The picture so often painted in children’s schoolbooks and Thanksgiving pageants of the relationship between the Pilgrims and other New England settlers with the native American peoples of that region, is sanitized and seriously untruthful, as a recent in-depth history by George Washington University Professor David Silverman titled This Land is Their Land bears witness [16]. The same is true of the popular histories of California widely taught to those of my generation who grew up in that state. as I did. When I took California history in elementary school, the Franciscan monks who founded the California missions were portrayed as benevolent, altruistic priests who came across the ocean to help the natives. In reality, the principal founder of these missions—one Junipero Serra—was a brutal inquisitor whose subjugation and mistreatment of local California tribes caused the descendants of these peoples to beg Pope Francis not to make this man a Catholic saint—appeals issued in vain, as it turned out [17].
Hiding from the Past
Sadly, many are now protesting current efforts to educate the American people—including schoolchildren—as to the role played by racial intolerance and similar evils in the rise and growth of the American experiment. But hiding from the past won’t change what really happened, nor will it reverse the destructive and divisive consequences from which our society still suffers on account of these persistent transgressions. The ideals enshrined in our nation’s founding documents are not fraudulent because Americans have so often failed to practice them, a failure that tragically continues in our own time. To make such a claim would be as foolish as to claim the Bible to be a fraud because so many Christians fail to adhere to its teachings. But at the same time, neither Christians nor Americans can hope to achieve the ideals for which they strive unless personal and national shortcomings are rightly confessed.
I remember the storybooks from which I learned to read in my elementary school classes—the idyllic village by the river, Shoemaker Dan’s cobbler shop where downcast boys went for consolation when disciplined by a stern father, families gathered about warm fires in snow-hushed cabins at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so forth. And no one remembering those reading books can fail to recall that one thing all characters in these stories had in common was skin color—they were all white.
Such whitewashing—pun intended—of the American past is a travesty and a farce, and can legitimately be called a feature of systemic racism. People of color form an integral part of the mosaic that is American culture and American history. Whether deliberate or inadvertent, the omission of such diversity from the education of the young is a denial of reality and an impediment to the righting of past wrongs in this land. Whether personal or social, sin cannot be overcome unless it is acknowledged.
Conclusion: Learning from the Past
We as Seventh-day Adventists have a past to learn from as well. When the Southwestern Union Record reported on the destruction of the Bethel Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tulsa during the 1921 massacre, the following was stated:
The negro riot in Tulsa last week was a terrible thing for our brethren and also the conference. We lost our little church, three of our sisters were made homeless and our colored minister, Elder White, lost all of his clothes and some money belonging to the church which was in his possession. We are sorry for this and we wish to assure our brethren that they will receive help from us as soon as possible [18].
While the expression of sympathy and sorrow for this disaster in the above report was commendable, we note with sadness the use of the phrase “negro riot”—language obviously failing to recognize the extreme violence of Tulsa’s white population which in fact initiated and perpetuated the riot in question [19].
When we don’t acknowledge our history, or even know it in some cases, it isn’t possible to learn from it. Many apparently find it easier just to cover their eyes and plug their ears rather than become aware of historical realities they would rather not recognize. But this is not a Christian trait, much less a Seventh-day Adventist one. If God’s people are to lead efforts toward reconciliation and better understanding in today’s polarized climate, they must not lend their influence to efforts aimed at keeping people ignorant of the dark and unpleasant chapters of our national story. As many of the Psalms bear witness, the ancient Israelites were taught to recount both positive and negative experiences from their past as the covenant community. Reviewing the example of Solomon’s repentance, Ellen White offers counsel that is applicable to both individuals and societies regarding the memory of past wrongs:
The true penitent does not put his past sins from his remembrance. He does not, as soon as he has obtained peace, grow unconcerned in regard to the mistakes he has made. He thinks of those who have been led into evil by his course, and tries in every possible way to lead them back into the true path. The clearer the light that he has entered into, the stronger is his desire to set the feet of others in the right way. He does not gloss over his wayward course, making his wrong a light thing, but lifts the danger single, that others may take warning [20].
REFERENCES
1. “Tulsa race massacre,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Parshina-Kottas, Yullya, et al, “What the Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed”, New York Times, May 24, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/24/us/tulsa-race-massacre.html
8. Ellsworth, Scott, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, LSU Press (1992), 113.
9. “Juneteenth” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
10. Ibid.
11. Annie Grayer and Daniella Diaz, “Congress passes bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday,” CNN, June 16, 2021 https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/politics/house-vote-juneteenth-federal-holiday-senate-passed-june-19/index.html
12. Kate Sullivan and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden signs bill into law making Juneteenth a national holiday,” CNN, June 17, 2021 https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/17/politics/biden-juneteenth-bill-signing/index.html
13. Ellen G. White, Life Sketches, p. 196.
14. “Christopher Columbus” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Brutality
15. “Ferdinand II of Aragon” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon#Forced_conversions; “Isabella I of Castile,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile#Expulsion_of_the_Jews
16. David J. Silverman, This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019).
17. “Junipero Serra” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun%C3%ADpero_Serra#Modern_controversy
18. Southwestern Union Record, June 14, 1921, p. 4 https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/SUR/SUR19210614-V20-23.pdf
19. “Tulsa race massacre,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
20. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 78.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan