Rose Nyounway ’27, 3.10.25
I chose the Food, Faith, and Justice course because I wanted to explore my faith and understand the impact of social justice through an interfaith lens. Coming to Baltimore, I had high and fixed “expectations”, especially on attending a Black Church. I longed for the sense of belonging, warmth and community that I had experienced growing up in a Christian family back in West Africa. My Sunday mornings were filled with joyful chaos of preparation that led to long 3 hours service which concluded or began with me getting warm hugs and embraces from church mothers and grandmothers.
This expectation was created and affirmed after Barbara, another student who has taken this course, consistently shared with me how a hug she got at the Liberty Grace Church of God felt just like a grandmother’s hug where she got the feeling of familiarity, home, assurance and a sense of belonging. I was eager and I longed for that same experience. I imagined walking into the church and feeling instantly at home after I had gotten the hug Barbara described. But after embracing several people, I realized that I had confined myself to nostalgia, searching for something familiar instead of embracing the richness of the new experience that I was in. After a short retrospection, I let go of my expectations and opened my heart to the depth of the Black Church, without trying to see it through the lens of what I expected it to be.
The sermon delivered by a guest preacher, Rev. Dr. Alvin Hathaway, retired pastor of the Union Baptist Church and a renowned faith leader in Baltimore, was a call to reflection for me and my peers. His sermon themed: “Never Forget” with text taken from Exodus 1:8 was a warning of the danger of forgetting history. The new Pharaoh’s ignorance of Joseph or the history of the Israelites led to 400 years of enslavement, just as the new President’s failure to acknowledge the struggles and success of Black people has caused him to create a system that would erase protections, dismantle safety nets, and terrorize marginalized communities. Rev. Hathaway’s sermons reveal so much about the rich history of Baltimore city and the firm participation of Churches and religious organizations in the Civil Rights movement.
I was astonished by how little I knew of the history of Baltimore and how much I was able to learn and understand from just 30 minutes in the Black Congregation that I confined to just what I expected. We learned that Baltimore is the birthplace of many civil rights battles, and has long been a witness to both oppression and resistance. Rev. Hathaway spoke of freedom fighters like Rev. Harvey Johnson, who in 1883 sued a steamship company in a test case that laid the foundation for many test cases that were carried out by the Civil Rights Movement. He also highlighted the work of Justice Thurgood Marshall whose lawsuit against University of Maryland led to the establishment of the Law school at the University that enrolled Juanita Jackson Mitchell whose participation in the Civil Rights Movement is highly recognizable.
Rev. Hathaway’s message was one of the most impactful, historical and meaningful sermons that I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life and as I sat in the pews, reflecting on his words, I realized my experience that morning had become something deeper than what I originally sought. I did not find the one hug that felt like home, but I found something even greater. I discovered the impact of the Black Church in liberation movements, a faith that would sharpen my understanding on social justice, and a community that stands firm in the face of adversity.