Gerald Bell, Contributor
Growing up in the segregated south, Rev. Dr. J. Edgar Boyd of First AME Church (FAME) in Los Angeles vividly remembers the early Civil Rights era. He describes how the climate of racial hate he experienced in his youth was so pronounced that “even the poorest of white people thought they were the better of the most prosperous and well-intentioned black person.”
For Boyd this meant frequently hearing the malicious use of the “n-word”, being refused service in the marketplace, contending with racial discriminatory practices, among other incidents of hate.
“All whites–no matter who they were–their racial hatred was the thing of the day when it came to dealings with blacks,” said Rev. Boyd who was raised in a small town in Northern Florida. “That’s the matter we were dealing with back in the 1960’s and seventies and we’re still dealing with it now.”
The reality of such cruelty resonates with many African American pastors who lead flocks in Los Angeles and beyond. Several have echoed stories of living through pervasive injustice for no other reason than their complexion.
“My first memory of being treated unfairly because of the color of my skin was in elementary school,” recalls Pastor Terry Lovell Brown. “A big white fella chose to call me the n-word. He said it with such vitriol, anger and with such venom – it was like he was mad that I existed.”
Brown, who pastors both Liberty Baptist Church in Los Angeles and Judson Baptist Church in Carson, is a native of Houston, Texas. His story began with being born in what was labeled a ‘negro-only-hospital’. He goes on to tell that he attended a majority white student populated school as a child and the n-word incident made him feel like he “didn’t have a right to receive the same education” as his white peers. “That has been a lasting memory in my mind,” says Brown.
In the 2021 Hate Crime Report disseminated by the California Department of Justice, 597 anti-black or African American offenses were reported in California. More that 40 percent of those were motivated by racial bias. The report also indicates some 300 anti-religion offenses in California were reported to law enforcement.
While an undergraduate student at the University of California Irvine, Pastor Sonja R. Dawson of New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church was standing at a bus stop when a car full of all white passengers yelled the n-word at her as they drove by. She considers herself very fortunate that the incident didn’t escalate to a physical altercation and result her faced with bodily harm.
“It was really devastating because I had never heard the n-word used toward me as a racial attack,” says Dawson, a Compton native. “It frightened me, I felt violated, and I felt threatened.” She goes on to reflect, “I went home and talked with my parents because could not understand how some people that I didn’t know could be so upset with me.”
As a former prosecutor for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office for twenty years, Dawson has represented several victims of all sorts of hate. Even as a pastor she has counseled parishioners who have experienced more vicious encounters than her own.
According to an LA Focus 2022 “Stop the Hate” survey, local community respondents indicated that in recent times they have been called “monkey”, “low class n-word”, and other racial slurs. Proving that racial bias and hate is still very prevalent.
An FBI hate crimes data document released in 2021, stated that racial, ethnic, or ancestry-related bias motivated more than 6 in 10 incidents of hate in America. Additionally, religious bias was recorded as the motivation for 13.3% of national hate crimes. Around 3% of the religious hate crimes included in the report took place in churches, synagogues, temples, or mosques.
“All faiths are under attack in America by radicals and extremists,” said Alon Stivi, a security consultant to religious venues and community centers. “Historically, sanctuaries have been vulnerable to violent attacks—from bombings at Black churches during the Civil Rights era to more recent shootings in the U.S.”
Attacks on houses of worship and other public spaces have prompted many pastors to evaluate—some for the first time—if there is more that can be done to keep their flocks safe in church.
“Religious leaders who once preferred to leave security in the hands of the divine are taking precautions that seemed unthinkable years prior,” observes Stivi. He goes on to alert, “More congregants are carrying concealed handguns to services, too.”
The pastors recalled their experiences as part of a “Stop the Hate Campaign” in the wake of the rising hate crimes and incidents taking place around the country and the southland.
“All of us are God’s people and it is time for us to put down this hatred so that we can move and build a generation where we can have productive citizens in our community,” decries Rev. Dr. E. Wayne Gaddis, Sr. Pastor of The Greater True Light Church, and President of the Baptist Ministers’ Conference.
“As black people we had to walk with a shield on our back. We had to walk afraid simply because we have been called the n-word and we have been discriminated against,” Gaddis rails out. “When it comes down to discrimination there is no room for it.”
In the spirit of Black History month, Pastor Joshua Daniels of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in LA sites the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.”
“Jesus teaches us that we are to love one another,” continues Daniels, a Texas native who survived incidents of hate as a child. “The only way that we are going to be able to do that is we are going to have to show love to our brothers and sisters even those who don’t show love back towards us.”