MLK50: Justice Through Journalism is observing Black History Month through the lens of love, with a series of stories on couples uplifting each other and the community.
By Cheryl V. Jackson
At a time when African Americans are facing what seems like a deluge of attacks, including voter suppression, bias in health care, police shootings and other forms of race-based aggression, black love can provide strength, says the Rev. Floridia Jackson.
“When I think of black love, I think of everything it takes to be black in a hated space, to be black in a space of disdain. Black love itself is magic because you keep on pushing,” said Jackson, 48, director of The Memphis School of Servant Leadership, a Christian-based nonprofit that provides community classes. “For us, as a community, it’s psychiatry, it’s psychology, it’s everything.”
“We need black love to help us get up every day.”
“We need black love to help us get up every day.”
Over the years, Jackson and her spouse, Treace Griffin, 47, a salesperson at Cricket Wireless, have celebrated their love with a plethora of dates:
There’s Feb. 14, 2007, when they decided to become a couple.
There’s May 8, 2010, the date of their public wedding she calls an act of civil disobedience since same-sex marriages were not recognized in the state.
And there’s Jan. 7, 2016, when they were legally married.
“We celebrate every last one of them! You hear me?” Jackson said.
Those recognitions provide fuel to stave off indignities leveled at them daily.
“I’m in full-time ministry, and every day I don’t know what I’m going to be faced with or what attitude or who’s going to push me over,” Jackson said. “You just don’t know. And [Griffin will] have customers that come in and say, ‘I just passed a f — — on the street,’’’ Jackson said. “You just don’t know from day to day. So we celebrate every moment we can.”
That’s the case even when they aren’t together physically.
In January, Griffin was horrified to discover she failed to request to be off work for their wedding anniversary, so she enlisted a friend to take Jackson to a celebration lunch on her behalf.
The West Memphis couple met 20 years ago when Jackson, on her way to see a movie, on reflex extended her arm to prevent Griffin, headed for lunch, from stepping into the street and in the path of a car. They started talking and Jackson asked her new friend if she wanted to join her on the movie trip.
That impromptu date turned into a summer fling that ended when both realized they had unfinished business in other relationships, Griffin said. Then after seven years, they reconnected, running into each other at a restaurant.
“I knew I needed her in my life.”
Griffin, who had continued to long for Jackson, ended her relationship with her then-girlfriend that night.
“It was a sign when I saw her,” Griffin said. “I always knew she was going to be in my life, whether we’d be friends or if we’d get back together.”
“I knew I needed her in my life.”
Griffin is the more reserved of the two: “I’m not very talkative with people, and she’s never met a stranger,” she said.
Her wife is big into helping others celebrate love.
Jackson has officiated more than 60 same-gender weddings, including in Arkansas and Mississippi. Some love stories stand out; among them, that of a 67-year-old man with cancer, desperate to marry his 27-year-old love but thwarted by a county clerk who refused to recognize them.
The man’s son approached her to perform the ceremony.
“He was the staunch Bible-thumping Southern Baptist, white-privileged and angry at his father,” Jackson said of the son. “He said, ‘I don’t understand it, but I love him.’”
They tied the knot that November, but the elder man died before they could see their first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, she said. “Broke my heart! They were so in love.”
"love" - Google News
February 20, 2020 at 06:02PM
https://ift.tt/2Pbtf3l
Black love is … - mlk50.com
"love" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39HfQIT
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Black love is … - mlk50.com"
Post a Comment