Sankofa journey

By Luke Palmerlee

Luke Palmerlee and Ronnie Harris take off on a bus tour of Civil Rights sites with the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Sankofa journey.

In August 2009, I embarked on a Sankofa journey with an Evangelical Covenant Church group of 30. The Sankofa journey is an international, cross-racial prayer journey that confronts the social ills related to racism. Named after a West African word meaning “looking backward to move forward,” the Sankofa experience explores historic civil rights landmarks and seeks to move participants toward healing the wounds and racial divide caused by hundreds of years of racial injustice in the United States.

On this 72-hour bus journey, we visited critical sites of past and present racial injustice in Birmingham, Ala., Memphis, Tenn., and Albany and Atlanta, Ga. Each day participants were paired with someone of a different ethnic background. The schedule was grueling, including spending two nights sleeping on the bus, but the benefits and life lessons I learned far outweighed any discomfort experienced.

Admittedly, I was outside my comfort zone on many levels on this journey. For me, growing up in a suburban community with little interaction with African Americans I had not been forced to deal with issues of race or racism; my school, community and church were predominately white. In college and beyond I had opportunities to live and interact in a diverse community living on the north side of Chicago. I knew racism still existed in our society but as a white, middle-class privileged male, I could choose not to deal with it.

Through this journey I learned the stories, history and lives of my African-American brothers and sisters in Christ who are forced to deal with racism on a daily basis. I was challenged to make the choice to be part of the progress toward healing and reconciliation. We cannot change the past but we can learn from it and make the future a better place. One person may not be able to change our society’s views but that should not stop us from trying; we can make a difference within our circle of influence and that is a worthwhile goal.