We all had to deal with the fact that the lives of our students, like many young black men and women, were shaped as much by what the civil rights movement did not accomplish as they were by what it had. He has been shaped by his time learning from veterans of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., most closely Vincent Harding and Dorothy Cotton, and by his work with human rights activists around the world, especially in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. On Being with Krista Tippett. The On Being project is now a buzzy hive of activity, where the idealistic staff likes to gather around the live-edge table for shared vegetarian lunches.Although Tippett is still in charge of the whole thing, there are new leaders, too. Community organizers Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson have much to teach us about using love — the most reliable muscle of human transform… It was all made possible by the courage and hope of everyday people. Lucas Johnson Lucas Johnson has deep, global experience in conflict resolution and community organizing. He had a deep love and appreciation for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee workers and would express this often, rarely uttering a critical world in public. In her interview with Krista Tippett, Mahzarin Banaji asks “Are you the good person you yourself wants to be be? If hope died that day, it should not be lost on us that King was someone who believed in resurrection. Step away from the week with us. He has been shaped by his time learning from veterans of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., most closely Vincent Harding, Ruby Sales and Dorothy Cotton, and by his work with human rights activists around the world, especially in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Damianne December 6, 2019 November 28, 2019 podcast, quotes. It is a radical commitment to a life of struggle for a goal we may never see. To focus one’s energy on the failures of the movement is to miss the fact that the civil rights movement was never responsible for our problems: White supremacy was and still is. Post navigation . Krista Tippett created and leads The On Being Project and hosts the On Being radio show and podcast. Harding used to echo that sentiment in a variety of ways. I think it is exacerbated by things about the movement that too many of us still don’t understand. The repression may become so difficult that you flee to Cuba, or it may cost you your sanity. And he embodied the passionate social engagement of the prophets, drawing on wisdom at once provocative and nourishing. Next. Lucas Johnson has deep, global experience in conflict resolution and community organizing. Hosted by The On Being Project. The bullet that rang out at the Lorraine Motel that fateful day in Memphis simply wasn’t powerful enough stop that journey. We’re trying to carry our questions with as much humility as we carry what feel like insights and answers. Lucas Johnson leads The On Being Project's work in social healing as Executive Director of Civil Conversations and Social Healing. White supremacy was enforced with brutal terrorism. They didn’t fail us. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson — Community Organizing as a Spiritual Practice.” Find more at onbeing.org. To them, the suffering experienced today is not a failure of past movements, but rather the “work we have yet to do.”. I knew that this was what was also meant by “You’ve got to be prepared for the long haul.”. I understand the allure of talking about the movement as having failed. From 2014 until he joined the On Being Project in December, 2018, he served as General Secretary of IFOR’s global operation. Online with Facebook Live. We're hiring a Senior Producer for On Being, Associate Operations Manager, and an Executive Assistant to Lucas Johnson, EVP of our Civil Conversations & Social Healing team.Detailed job postings can be found here. Written by At the same time, younger people in the movement often pushed King to do more, or say more. tay up to date with our latest podcasts, writings, live events, and more. Lucas studied at Mercer University and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. On Being with Krista Tippett October 22, 2020. I am confident there were also the minor legends of church mothers and deacons at Ebenezer and Bethel A.M.E., and at the barber shop around the corner, which no doubt impressed upon him a sense of memory and continuity. I don’t have enough hubris to be critical of those facing such an assault. Yek Zehao. Users who reposted this track. Hosted by. Lucas Johnson. Lucas Johnson is executive director of On Being’s Civil Conversations Project and a leader in the global interfaith peace movement. Daring to learn, daring to send your children to school, daring to aspire to something more than the circumstances into which you were born could be punished with death. The change we work to affect is an intergenerational pursuit — one that calls us to courage, commitment, and community with one another, as well as those who came before us. There was a gap that was on display — not just in the classroom, but in the black community at large. Nelson Mandela would tell the world years later that the journey towards freedom is a long one. Lucas Johnson honors the radical hope of the leaders of the black freedom struggle. It is reprinted here with permission. What’s more, it’s just simply misdirected. krista tippett, lucas johnson, onbeing, podcast, podcasts, quotations, recommendations. You may be shot down by an assassin while you’re young and, for that matter, you may be imprisoned and beaten. Love is patient and kind, we read, but patience and kindness only emerge in situations where patience and kindness are tested. In 1968, many watched their friend, whom they loved, be gunned down. He would not do this alone. King is often celebrated for his commitment to nonviolence, peace, and many other things. Copyright © 2021, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He saw it not as some clearly defined and unique moment of history, but rather as another chapter in a series of moments in world history, where the people Europeans sought to colonize and enslave decided to resist — sometimes en masse, sometimes in individual acts of conscience, dignity, and defiance. S tay up to date with our latest podcasts, writings, live events, and more. If you do, it’s a result of severe trauma. Images show footage of the people we think of as celebrities in a way that may obscure the pain they felt — people like Harry Belafonte or Mahalia Jackson. Lucas Johnson on Onbeing. The great challenges of our time hold vast open questions, all of which will still be with us the day after this election. Lucas Johnson leads The On Being Project's work in social healing as Executive Director of Civil Conversations and Social Healing. The On Being Project It was the death of hope. angel by surprise. Among the work he will draw on and extend as part of CCP, he incubated a Beloved Communities Project in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium; and helped to create an Ethics of Reciprocity initiative with the United Nations. Nonviolence has too often become an expectation imposed on the powerless by the powerful, and King’s name is evoked in order to do so. The United States failed us, laws failed us, humanity may have failed us, God may even have failed us, but those who participated in what’s called the civil rights movement didn’t fail us. King’s critics contributed to his development as a leader and strategist, including Malcolm X, who is too often contrasted with him, as if they were polar opposites; they were not. Modeling one of his lessons on the importance of community, he often invited other civil rights veterans to speak about the transformative experience of the movement. The murder hurt in a particular way that seems difficult to describe, but I think the feeling is accessible even to those of us who were not yet born. He was previously international coordinator for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, a century-old peace-building organization. That movement — commonly called the American civil rights movement — was actually just one moment in a centuries-old struggle for freedom and dignity stretching back to when the first Africans were enslaved and brought to the “New World.” In recognition of this history, Harding was reluctant to call the struggle in the 1950s and ’60s the civil rights movement. Describing the failures of the civil rights movement — as well as attacking King and the nonviolent struggle — can have a soothing effect precisely because his legacy is so easily juxtaposed with gains that seem remote and the all too potent experiences of racism in our lives. I believe King’s commitment to humanity grew out of his love for black people and existed because of the love he received from black people. Lucas Johnson, executive director of Civil Conversations and Social Healing for The On Being Project (Minneapolis, MN) has been named a Civil Society Fellow, Class of 2021. Lucas Johnson. Our ancestors have given us far too much momentum and too much resilience to stop us so easily. The Pause is our Saturday morning newsletter, a gathering of threads from the far-flung, ongoing conversation that is The On Being Project. Lala Figueroa. OnBeing Lucas Johnson Lucas Johnson has deep, global experience in conflict resolution and community organizing. The On Being Project At this live Zoom event, Krista and Lucas Johnson, who leads The On Being Project’s social healing initiatives, turn toward questions before us in this year of rupture and see what possibility they might open for shared life — even as we disagree on much; even through tumult and uncertainty. A young preacher remembers the legendary Vincent Harding and "his gift of sight to help us see ourselves and each other.". ET Facebook Live. But there is a tendency to want to define efforts today in contrast to earlier manifestations of the struggle, rather than in continuity. In the subsequent years, those who opposed the movement succeeded in stopping the marches and in confusing, co-opting, and obfuscating organizations and activists. All of this perpetuates ignorance about both King and the movement he came to represent. He has been shaped by his time learning from veterans of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., most closely Vincent Harding and Dorothy Cotton, and by his work with human rights activists around the world, especially in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Without belief in the former, it is impossible for anyone to proclaim the latter. Lucas was a leader in the U.S. community of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), the world’s oldest interfaith peace organization, for 6 years, based in Atlanta and focused on the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. At the On Being Project right now we are listening, and listening again, to Resmaa as well as others who’ve been teaching us in recent years and to whom we will turn for new wisdom in this time. Previous. Vincent Harding joined the ancestors in 2014, and we’ve lost many others since. Users who like Lucas Johnson and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons — The Stories of Their Grandmothers We're excited to share three current job opportunities. You’ve got to surround yourself with people you can be in the struggle with for 50 years.”, What he didn’t say at that moment — but what I understood being among people forced to grieve the loss of their beloved brother Martin — was that you may not make it that long. Many have spoken about the funeral and all who came. about 1 week ago. Among the most important lessons I learned about King from those who knew him is that you need to understand the movement he came to represent in order to understand him and his legacy. If one considers carefully the inhumanity of the segregated Southern United States, one realizes the defiance that mere survival sometimes required. Lucas Johnson and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons — The Stories of Their Grandmothers by On Being Studios published on 2015-02-19T16:39:53Z. Lucas is also a community organizer, writer, and a minister in the American Baptist Churches. Harding felt it was important for us to also see another image: He painted for us the picture of the people who poured into the streets to watch the mule carrying King’s body down Auburn Avenue, along with the ordinary men and women who streamed into Sisters Chapel at Spelman College throughout the day and deep into the night to weep, wail, and to say goodbye. It’s up to us now to continue, and we’ve got to be community to each other for the long haul, however long that may be. His faith was as much about “radical amazement” as it was about certainty. It was clear that bullet was meant for us, all of us who dared. From 2014 until he joined the On Being Project in December, 2018, he served as General Secretary of IFOR’s global operation. He was a leader in the U.S. community of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), the world’s oldest interfaith peace organization, for 6 years. Lucas Johnson is international coordinator of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and an ordained Baptist minister. Some veterans may blame themselves for letting that happen, but the assault was massive and unparalleled. List View; Standard View; Grid View; 0 Results. They created the community that produced the man who King would become. clock. Becoming Wise with Tools for the Art of Living with Krista Tippett. Lucas Johnson is the executive director of The On Being Project’s Civil Conversations Project. Home Explore Podcasts Search Download the app. He was born in Germany in a military family, grew up in Georgia (U.S.), and now resides between Amsterdam and the United States. In her interview with Krista Tippett, Mahzarin Banaji asks “Are you the good person you yourself wants to be be? Listen to Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson — Community Organizing as a Spiritual Practice, an episode of On Being with Krista Tippett, easily on Podbay - the best podcast player on the web. They witnessed and endured the massive FBI assault on the movement that was COINTELPRO. The persistent lack of equity, persistent discrimination and dehumanization of black and brown people is all rather crushing in the wake of all that was sacrificed in the 1960s. Solange Souza. King also had his father’s contemporaries, including his mentor Howard Thurman. Yet, people seem reticent to celebrate the fact that King was committed to black lives and the fullness of black life, and there is something pernicious about this reticence. This is done, in part, by attacking nonviolence and spreading the false narrative that its champions, our elders in the civil rights movement, failed. user393548487. krista tippett, lucas johnson, onbeing, podcast, podcasts, quotations, recommendations. There is a "crisis of isolation in America" and a profound need to grapple with the question of loneliness. Community organizers Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson have much to teach us about using love — the most reliable muscle of human transformation — as a practical public good. As a result, King’s ideas and insights were shaped in conversation with those who came before him. Users who liked this track Julie Kacmaz. The Civil Conversations Project seeks to nurture and model the virtues that lead to social healing and to accompany the transformative work that inspires new ways of being in community with one another. In On Being, we’re re-visiting Krista’s conversation with Alain de Botton, one that over and over again returns to the fact that love — whether in couples, or families, or friendships — is true and hard work. user699531664 I will never forget the eloquence of veteran SNCC activist Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons’ response to a young brother in Brussels when he proclaimed “the fact that you used nonviolence is the reason why police are still killing you today.” With, calm, grace and precision she told him: “Most of us chose nonviolence because when you love the people you are organizing, you don’t want to see them hurt, or killed.”. Episodes How to Listen. Unearthing those critiques and amplifying forgotten voices is part of telling the truth about what happened. At an award ceremony years ago, while looking at his peers Andrew Young and Dorothy Cotton, Harding told me, “You’ve got to be prepared for the long haul. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Among the work he will draw on and extend as part of CCP, he incubated a Beloved Communities Project in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium; and helped to create an Ethics of Reciprocity initiative with the United Nations. onbeing.org Living the Questions: A Civil Rights Elder on Exhaustion and Rest, Spiritual Practice, and the Necessity of Loving Community | The On Being Project The Civil Rights elder on the importance of self-care, spiritual practice, and community while engaging in the work of social healing. The choice to emphasize King’s universal relevance is often made as if a commitment to black life in some way conflicts with a commitment to humankind. Nashashibi is the founder of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a force for social healing on Chicago’s South Side. Menu. People who seem incapable of dealing with the reality of injustice today use King’s image in ways that are both ahistorical and de-contextual. The gains of the civil rights movement gave way to yet another form of social control and state-sanctioned violence in the forms of mass incarceration and police killing. What we talked about in that room over those weeks prepared us for the years ahead. Read his full bio here. Lucas studied at Mercer University and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Lucas JohnsonLucas Johnson has deep, global experience in conflict resolution and community organizing. Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson — Community Organizing as a Spiritual Practice from On Being with Krista Tippett on Podchaser, aired Thursday, 16th May 2019. Lucas is also a community organizer, writer, and a minister in the American Baptist Churches. Living the Questions Why 2020 hasn’t taken Rev. Such a contrast often ignores the broader movement and the underlying point that both men, more than any differences between them, wanted to end the suffering of their people. As a result, describing the failures of the civil rights movement is a way to lash back, and repudiating King is a way to show one’s self as more radical. He came to understand that his own life was one to be lived in service to the beloved community, and he gave himself to the struggle. He was born in Germany in a military family, grew up in Georgia (U.S.), and now resides between Amsterdam and the United States. He is a community organizer, writer, and a minister in the American Baptist Churches. For many, that narrative breeds resentment, and that resentment somehow manifests itself as a criticism of the movement. The Pause is our Saturday morning newsletter, a gathering of threads from the far-flung, ongoing conversation that is The On Being Project. Michael Brown was still alive in 2012, and the Ferguson uprisings had not yet occurred. Heschel’s poetic theological writings are still read and widely studied today. The movement was an attempt to confront white supremacy and the problems it caused. Lucas Johnson is bringing the art and practice of nonviolence into a new century, for new generations. In an environment where the world around you is convinced that you are less than human — and meant to be the permanent servant class of the nation — the small things you do to assert your humanity can require tremendous bravery. Lala Figueroa. While the elders I’ve come to know sometimes use the world failure when grieving for the suffering we still must confront, they are far more likely to express a profoundly radical commitment to hope. The long haul means that at one point we may be marching and at one point we may be teaching. Copyright © 2021. This gap is something I still encounter in conversations among activists and organizers — not only in the United States, but also around the world. The Pause. King was not the last one of us to be killed in the struggle; others were yet to die. 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