Retreat from Comfort
By Dr. Scott Gartlan, CRC Member
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project is a coalition of local organizations and people committed to the Community Remembrance Project of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. The purpose of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project, in partnership with EJI’s nationwide remembrance project movement, is to expose and concretize the horrors of white supremacy and the legacy of racial terrorism. The work centers around the African American experience of racial injustice, works to empower African American community members who have directly borne this trauma, and invites the entire community to use truth to give voice to those experiences and explore their legacies. Our community must also do the difficult work and confront the history that continues to shape the present. Two documented racial terror lynchings in Mecklenburg County occurred: Joseph McNeely, August 26, 1913, and Willie McDaniel, June 30, 1929.
With this history and purpose in mind, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project Steering Committee met at the Belmont Center on Saturday, May 1 as part of a planning retreat — the first in-person meeting for this group in more than a year.
We kicked off the retreat with check-in questions about how we were doing in general, and about our commitment to this project. Each of the ten Steering Committee members shared personal and touching experiences and stories about their lives the past year. Some shared about the isolation of the pandemic, others reflected on the challenges of raising young children this school year or the excitement and anxiety of returning to in-person life. We all acknowledged how fortunate we and our families were to be in good health during a time when many are still dealing with the tragedies of the pandemic.
From there, everyone committed to support this Remembrance Project. While this group had been meeting regularly since a fall trip to Montgomery in 2018 to explore EJI’s new National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, each Steering Committee member recommitted to this work by stating their commitment aloud. Maybe it was the experience of visiting the birthplace of Bryan Stevenson’s vision for justice on the May 2018 trip or the relationships that were established from the conversations and travel, but the force of spirit to see this project through has remained strong.
After the reaffirmation of commitment, we discussed the various ways this project aspires to engage the broadest possible community we can conceive. As an example of that engagement, local artist Hannah Hasan joined the retreat to read her poems written in remembrance of Mr. McNeely and Mr. McDaniel. We closed our eyes as Ms. Hasan’s words transported us to a place of deep reflection and beauty. It was somber and emotional, and yet there was a feeling of hope as eyes opened again. Ms. Hasan shared her process in writing these powerful poems as a journey through family and generations. She placed these men’s lives in a universal context, one that deepened the experience of knowing what happened to them. Her words helped center the project again in the lived and discomforting experience of the racial terror lynchings of Mr. McNeely and Mr. McDaniel.
This in-person meeting brought a fresh sense of community and renewed enthusiasm for our shared purpose and future goals. We look forward to working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee and the broader community to actualize the vision of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project.
The Steering Committee is composed of individuals from local organizations including the Arts & Science Council, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, Charlotte Teachers Institute, Community Building Initiative, Levine Museum of the New South, The Lee Institute, Race Matters for Juvenile Justice, UNC Charlotte, and community volunteers. Thanks to the hospitality of Willie Ratchford and his team at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations for hosting our group and for participating in the discussion.
