Anti-Racism Team Update 2/25/21

Opportunities to Listen and Learn this week:

Did you know that Memorial AME Zion Church on Clarissa Street was founded the same year as our church? Read the words of founder Rev. Thomas James (1804-1891), formerly enslaved, speaking about Rochester, a city he called home.

“Our white friends are inclined to leave us to our own resources, overlooking the fact that social prejudices still close the trades against our youth, and that we are again as isolated as in the days before the wrongs of our race touched the heart of the American people. After breathing for so considerable a period an atmosphere surcharged with sympathy for our race, we feel the more keenly the cold current of neglect which seems to have chilled against us even the enlightened and religious classes of the communities.”

You can find a full account of Rev. Thomas James’ life here.

Watch The Black Church from PBS.

Listen to Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group leader Melanie Funchess on Monday March 1 at 7:00pm “ Racism and Mental Health Disparities in Our Community.” Contact Susan Stanger at SLStanger@yahoo.com for Zoom and Password information.

Inform our anti-racism efforts moving forward by taking Third Church’s Anti-Racism Survey here.