A Lesson on Unity
Dave’s belief in the possibility of forging a #UnitedCity in Kankakee is informed by his experiences in Pembroke Township, the rural and predominantly African-American community in southeastern Kankakee County. The segment below is from Dave’s book, Pembroke: A Rural, Black Community on the Illinois Dunes, which chronicles the remarkable history of the area and details significant moments from the first week that Dave spent in Pembroke as a teenager:
It was our last evening in Pembroke, and Sacred Heart did not have a revival scheduled, but parishioner Agnes Strong DeLacy was willing to come to Old Hopkins Park anyway and sit for my second interview of the week. There is a good chance that she was more interested in driving over to meet us than actually sharing her insights, as the 94-year-old woman had just purchased her first new car: a bright purple Dodge Neon that looked as cheerful as the driver herself.
Ms. Strong DeLacy told us that she grew up on a farm in rural Mississippi. As a teenager she moved to Chicago where she lived for fifteen years before relocating once more to Leesville. “We didn’t have electricity and running water,” she said of her new home. “We had a lamp and kerosene.” The primitive conditions mattered little to Ms. Strong DeLacy who was elated just to have a garden again. There she grew vegetables for her family, and when the town built a canning factory for public use, she began pickling goods to sell. “They had big vats and salt,” she explained. “Trucks would come and take [the goods] on to Chicago.” Although the factory closed a few years later, she continued to sell her produce up north.
We learned that Ms. Strong DeLacy’s passion for gardening was connected to her family background. Her great-grandmother had been forced to work on a farm as a slave, but three generations later, Ms. Strong DeLacy owned her own land and cultivated it using horticultural skills passed down her ancestral line. This history was a source of strength and confidence for Ms. Strong DeLacy and enabled her to speak comfortably with us about sensitive issues that might otherwise be avoided.
She said that too often during her lifetime she had felt the sting of racial prejudice, but she nonetheless believed harmony was possible because we had too much in common. “I don’t care how black your hair is, how red it is, how brown it is,” she said. “If you live long enough, it’s going to turn white.” To her, problems arise when people “don’t want to listen to each other. . . . We have to listen to what people say, and think about it.”
Ms. Strong DeLacy was also at ease speaking about her own mortality: “Don’t wait until I’m dead to come put all these flowers on me.” Instead, we should bring them to her now because “those people in the graveyard can’t smell them.” Before the interview ended, Ms. Strong DeLacy asked us to take out a piece of paper. “Put down your names,” she said, “and when I get to God, I’ll tell Him to look out for you all.”
Agnes Strong DeLacy taught Dave that unity is possible. But before you even get to the consider the topic, you need the confidence that comes with understanding one’s own unique identity and history. Only after honestly seeing and calling out our differences can we build on where we are alike. Dave believes the same applies to leadership and crafting unitive policies in a diverse community like Kankakee.
