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Looking Back, Moving Forward

In 2018, I stood in the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, looking at the floor and wooden pews. My eyes and fingers traced the intricate carvings that felt both new and familiar. The church is one of the oldest Black churches in the United States. Its original congregation was composed of mostly enslaved individuals and was formed in 1773. It had been constructed by the congregation in their “free” time.

My dad and I stood side by side looking at holes organized in patterns in the floor, a Kongo cosmogram. They identified the church as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The holes served a dual purpose as ventilation for those hiding beneath the floorboards and a source of comfort to those above ground. Anyone able to decode the carvings could breathe easy knowing that this church offered safe passage to all.

African symbols like these are all around Savannah, not just in the churches. While staring at the wrought iron heart on one of the city’s fences, I recognized one as Sankofa, an Adinkra symbol from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The symbol means “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” This fence showed that though those enslaved were in a strange land, constructing a new world, they would never forget the world they left behind.

I first saw the symbol in 2001 when I traveled to Ghana as a student at Agnes Scott College. During the trip, my Scottie sisters and I traveled to the shore to see the slave castles — fortresses that those taken on the Middle Passage stayed in before they were forcibly removed from their homeland. Many of those who passed through the castles had not made it out on the other side, lost to the bottom of the ocean.

For those of us whose families had been in the Americas for generations, we were the physical reminders that many of them had lived. In us, their souls and spirits live on. All of us on that shore were obligated to carry forth the memories of the lost and commit ourselves to the dream of a society where we all can be free.

The summer of 2020 saw a deadly pandemic needlessly taking thousands of lives, while at the same time, more images of Black people being murdered and threatened by police went viral. People finally unleashed. Protestors spilled onto the streets like a Skittles box full of resentment, indignation and overwhelming sorrow. What does it mean to dream of liberation when so much of the past still occupies our present? What does it mean to not just long for all the trappings of freedom but also fight to make it so?

Last summer, the administration and students at Agnes Scott grappled with that question and looked for the hard answers. The results of that hard work are shared in part in the cover story in this issue of the magazine. The college’s Division of Equity and Inclusion led the charge to develop a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan, which will continue to evolve to meet head-on “the intellectual and social challenges of our times.”

Like the Sankofa symbol, we have to look back to move forward. But we have to move forward. It is not enough to say that we believe:

• Black Lives Matter •No Human Is Illegal •Love Is Love •Women’s Rights Are Human Rights •Science Is Real •Water Is Life •Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

We have to plan for a future in which those things are not just slogans but also underpin a culture that sees and normalizes our individual and collective humanity. One that respects the environment we inhabit. We each play a role in ensuring the plan’s success. I am grateful to Agnes Scott for answering the call of students past, present and future. Committing to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion is not just about investing in our college but also in the future leaders tasked with moving us forward as a world. May this commitment serve as a reminder that though the hard work is just beginning, Agnes Scott College should always represent a place of safe passage for all who wander through its gates. — Brandi Collins-Dexter ’02

Bio: Brandi Collins-Dexter ’02 is a senior fellow at the advocacy organization Color of Change and a visiting fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is a regular commentator in the media on racial justice. Her book “Black Skinhead,” slated for release in 2022, uses a pop culture lens — and draws stories from the oral history of Black potential voters and stakeholders ranging from ages 17 to 108 — to understand the history and trajectory of Black political, economic and social power. CollinsDexter holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Agnes Scott College and a juris doctor from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.