Tracy Lee-Anderson’s Post

Transcript

The only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somebody, somewhere, somewhere stood up, stood. It was risky. It was risky, stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't, pop when it wasn't. And because that somebody stood up a few more, stood up more. So this is something that we need to clear up. The first thing that we did as as as free folks was not to just go and start the church. They started organizations that helped each other in the community. And they were called benefit societies or mutual aid societies. And he joined those things. And you pay. A fee. Not a big fee, obviously, but you pay the fee that would go into the coffers for the organization. Now what was the fee for? The fee for was. For members to get in times of distress. Or funerals. So they made a system which they actually ported from West Africa because this is what goes on in West Africa with those masking societies that you see. So they made it so they made these institutions so they could take care of each other. In times of need. So when you talk about the free African society in Philadelphia? African Union Society and Rhode Island and New England. And you talk about the New York African Society for Neutral Relief in New York. You understand that two things are consistent with those, and that is the mutual aid and benefit that we have for each other. The recognition that we are African. Positions that exist before the black church exists. So what happens when we create these churches is 2 things that I'm Cheryl has has started it. But the fact is that on the paperwork. The record for people and their rights at the time. Said Christian men. It didn't say white men. So Christian was in the record books, this assumption that those that that are they were all be white. And obviously that change.