The Upward Push of Racial Memory | May 3, 2026 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton
- The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
…against that failure something wars, always pushing, always making its claim felt. It is the claim of the building blocks, the built-in demand of the mind, the insistence of the organism, the upward push of the racial memory…
I was drawn to this quote today, as usual, mysteriously…intuitively. It is from Dr. Howard Thurman (but possibly influenced by Loren Eisely). We are in a time of apparent failure…the failure of our species to achieve peace, equality and justice in our current time…and perhaps ever! It is a time when we are reacting with anger, with hurt, even at times with rage. It is this natural response to our current reality that I think Thurman is describing here.
I spoke with a friend this week who was deeply captured by this response…by a sense of outrage that I have rarely encountered. It was an outrage at the recent Supreme Court decisions, among many other pieces of evidence that our dreams for peace and understanding…for justice for All Peoples and Beings as a part of this wondrous creation is being obliterated. My friend asked me if this were an appropriate response…since they were using profanity and very forceful, angry language. I answered without hesitation, Yes! This is, I believe, a very appropriate response to the unfolding of the current reality. Yet, there was something this person said that alluded to the above quote…against that failure something wars…I think that is what I was witnessing in the testimony of my friend. It was the recognition that within the racial memory there is a force…the insistence of the organism to rise up making its claim felt…and providing hope for the triumph of peace, justice and love. Hear this insistence in this song by Odetta:
Oh my God
… You can run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
… Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down…
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
… You can run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
This is an example of the strength and hope that is part of the racial memory…in this case embodied in the African American spirituals. And it is this claim that I would like us to remember today…this is the memory that we cannot lose sight of. It is the claim that is the built-in demand of the mind and I would add spirit that can tether us…can ground us…can remind us of our place in the universe as children of our creator…as royal persons. Of course, one of these sources of strength has been the actual racial memory. Now Loren Eiseley, an anthropologist, was probably referring to the human race as he investigated a crack in the earth. In his book, The Immense Journey he described his descent into the crack…the Slit in the earth. He wrote:
I worked my way downward, the light turned dark and green from the overhanging grass. Above me the sky became a narrow slit of distant blue…The Slit was a little sinister – like an open grave, assuming the dead were enabled to take one last look…
He is speaking of the racial memory in terms of our evolutionary existence…our evolution as animals, originally in the sea…then land…then as mammals. As he descended into the Slit, he became part of this evolution. He was not, however, someone who was stuck only in his evolutionary view…his archeological digs, but was also concerned with current society (that is in the 1940s):
Let it be admitted that the world’s problems are many and wearing, and that the whirlpool runs fast. If we are to build a stable cultural structure above that which threatens to engulf us by changing our lives more rapidly than we can adjust our habits, it will only be by flinging over the torrent a structure as taut and flexible as a spider’s web, a human society deeply self-conscious and undeceived by the waters that race beneath it, a society more literate, more appreciative of human worth than any society that has previously existed. That is the sole prescription, not for survival — which is meaningless — but for a society worthy to survive.
This vision of building a stable cultural structure above that which threatens to engulf us…a torrent of lies and hate…is powerful! Eiseley seemed to anticipate our own time. He is asking us to fling a spider’s web over the structure we are building in order to counteract the waters which race beneath it…resulting in a society worthy to survive!
I think that is what we thought we were forming in 1944 when this church was founded…and certainly what we thought we were working towards with the Civil Rights Act of 1954, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (which has now been decimated) and then again in the 1970s with the passage of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act (also being decimated). I put these decisions and pieces of legislation together because they are part of the evidence of the upward push of racial memory…the building blocks of our life’s work. I am speaking of our history as peoples, fighting for justice and peace in our world. I shared an example of this last week when I highlighted Fellowship Church pastor, Francis Geddes and there are many more examples of individuals and groups that have been part of this racial memory. For example:
If we listened carefully to the clip entitled Can’t Turn Me Around, we can see the parallels to our current time. There were slips of paper dropped from an airplane (social media posts?) and billboards calling Dr. King a Communist (AOC and others are now being called communists by Trump). How could we match the commitment of the Selma March? Where is that upward push that was felt during the civil rights movement…the commitment made by people to fight for a society that is worthy to survive?
Is this what a community like Fellowship Church can be? Of course, I don’t expect us alone to organize thousands of people for such a march, but Thurman and Fisk often spoke of this community as a gathering of people devoted to listening for the sound of the genuine…the voice of hope and love…of solidarity of all peoples as children of the all-pervading presence. And we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before…certainly the species from which we have evolved, but also those that are part of the memory of human history…the racial memory. Thurman wrote in the book Footprints of a Dream of the founding of Fellowship Church as the movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of people…a movement that causes them to act against the spirit of their times and in a moment of dedication is:
…given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges
and to kindle a hope that inspires.
Drawing on the strength of that racial memory, this is our call as people. To access the wisdom and courage of our ancestors and those with whom we share this brink of time. We are being called to support those that are striving at this moment to dare a deed that challenges and kindle a hope that inspires. One such person is Justice Elena Kagan, who voted against the recent decision regarding voting rights. She said:
I dissent. The Voting Rights Act is—or, now more accurately, was—“one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation’s history.” It was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers. It ushered in awe-inspiring change, bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people’s representatives in Congress. Only they have the right to say it is no longer needed—not the Members of this Court. I dissent, then, from this latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.
Kagan is one example of one who is keeping fresh before her the moment of her high resolve. She is calling on the building blocks of the mind and soul that are part of an internal force that is making its claim felt. And this is how we will get over…how we will be able to overcome the seeming failure…the inability to access the upward push…the push for truth, for justice, for peace…the push that is deep within for all to access…that we may sing and never get tired.
How I got over
How did I make it over
You know my soul
Look back and wonder
How did I make it over?
Tell me how we got over Lord
Had a mighty hard time coming on over
And I want to thank him
for how he brought me
And I want to thank God
for how he taught me
Oh thank my God how he kept me
I'm gonna thank him
'cause he never left me
Then I'm gonna thank God
for giving me a vision
One day, I'ma join the heavenly choir
And I'ma sing and never get tired
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