Gateway To The World

I grew up in Alabama, in a binary world of black or white. This environment provided very little stimulation for building a pathway to the global world. However, my love for reading, dreaming about traveling the world, meeting diverse people, and learning about their religions and cultures kept me focused. Years of learning and preparation helped bring my dreams to fruition.

When I ventured outside of my community to go to college, I left the nest, spread my wings, and took flight into the unknown. This was an adventure because I had never traveled outside of the state of Alabama. The culture shock of meeting diverse students, faculty, administration, and visitors on campus from the local to the global was my first adventure into the world of my dream. The turbulent experience during the Civil Rights Movement while I was a student at Alabama State University introduced me to the power of advocacy and prepared me to be a lifelong warrior for justice.

Winter Wonderland in Connecticut

After my rumble in the jungle facing down bigots and white supremacists in Montgomery, I migrated to the frozen northeast. Mother Nature welcomed me to the small village of Falls Village, Connecticut, with a blizzard that transformed the little New England village into a frozen winter wonderland. Even though it was beautiful, it was very intimidating. All activities stopped because the roads were dangerous and impassable. I understood the power of Mother Nature because she unleashed her wrath with terrifying tornados over the years I lived in the south. I respected her and knew from the past that she would soon leave for another victim.

For the first time, I found myself in a world where I knew every African-American family within a 10-mile radius. I had to adjust to being the only African-American in most settings that I found myself in my quest for knowledge. Even though it was often intimidating, there were opportunities for me to develop my listening skills so I could understand the unfamiliar Yankee accents, vocabularies, and cultural inflections. Believe me, transitioning from an overt binary southern racist culture and becoming accumulated to a binary covert racist culture in the north shattered my naivety that the north was free of racism. There were no football games and marching bands, adding insult to injury.

When I Crossed the Mason Dixie Line, I struggled to understand the politics and cultures of my new home. My adjustment was incomplete without the church. My family nurtured me into Christianity through the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Alabama. The closest church of this denomination was 40 miles from the village where I lived. I had never worshiped white parishioners in the south, and I was reluctant to risk being spiritually wounded. In spite of the past, I did not let a spirit of fear keep me from going to a local Presbyterian Church in my neighborhood. There, I became aware of a call to prepare for the next stage of my journey.

New York Theological Seminary became my portal into a new world. I was introduced to the seminary by a colleague commuting from Hudson, New York, to attend the Certificate Program in Christian Ministry. Indeed, my introduction to theological education and ecumenism opened the pathway for me to experience some of the rich diversity found only in the urban setting.

Dr. Wilbur Webster White, the founder of New York Theological Seminary, was intentional about providing an opportunity for individuals to prepare for theoretical and practical ministry in the urban setting. To fulfill his dream, in 1900, Dr. White moved his fledging institution from New Jersey to New York City. The school was located in midtown Manhattan where he could serve more recent immigrants from Italy, India, Korea, and China. It also provided opportunities for women, African-Americans, and other underserviced populations to receive a theological education.

The seminary's history spoke to my quest for education in a diverse and justice-oriented environment. What is equally as important is that it did not lack academic preparation. I met professors, students, and visitors from five of the seven continents. I heard many of their stories that connected me to local immigrant communities, religions, and cultures in New York City.

New York Theological Seminary was my launch-pad. I invite you to travel vicariously with me as I follow my dreams and actually venture through the gateway into the global world.