Page 9 - The Fayetteville Press Newspaper November 2025 Edition

The Fayetteville Press October/November 2025 Edition Page 9

Chicago's Streets Still Moving to America's Historic Rhythms

By Ben Jealous gence. And here we are, in the 2020s, facing our own
I started out this year, 2025, in Chicago, honored to give battles over who truly belongs.
the Martin Luther King Day address at Reverend Jesse It is tempting to despair — to think the cycle
Jackson’s big gathering. means we are trapped. But history shows something
The timing was unforgettable. As I stepped to the po- else. The “20s” are turbulent, but they force the coun-
dium on the South Side, Donald Trump was taking the oath try to face its contradictions. The “30s” bring reck-
of office in Washington, D.C. His inaugural speech was a onings, the “40s” wars of ideas and arms, the “50s”
drumbeat for a new era of hostility toward immigrants and fresh anxieties, the “60s” bursts of reform. And the
people of color. Mine, at that very moment, was a call for “70s”? Oddly enough, the “70s” tend to be the de-
Chicago’s Black middle class to choose solidarity with re- cades when the nation exhales and reimagines itself.
cent immigrants in resisting such hatred and violence.
That juxtaposition has stayed with me, and it came back The 1770s gave us the American Revolution and
into focus when I returned to Chicago more recently. This the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming that all
city has always been a stage for America’s great struggles. men are created equal and endowed with inalienable
From the marchers for labor rights at Haymarket in the 1880s, rights — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
to the rallies for civil rights in the 1960s, to the immigration The 1970s saw the end of the Vietnam War, the fall
raids and protests of this year, Chicago has a way of putting of Jim Crow, and the rise of new movements for
our unfinished business right in front of our eyes. women’s rights, environmental protection, and inclu-
Walking its streets in 2025, I was reminded of the 1920s. sion. If the pattern holds, the 2070s could be the mo-
Then, too, Chicago was alive with both promise and peril. ment when our grandchildren inherit a democracy
Jazz poured from clubs in Bronzeville, poetry from the pens closer to the promise in our founding documents.
of the Harlem Renaissance, and industrial might from the
stockyards. But alongside all that creativity came the sting Each American century moves to a similar
of exclusion — Prohibition raids, gangland violence, and the rhythm. The “20s” are always turbulent — testing
rise of a Ku Klux Klan that, for a time, had as many mem- our patience and our faith. But they also call forth
bers in Indiana as in Mississippi. courage, creativity, and the determination to build
A century later, the echoes are unmistakable. Today, Chi- often rhyme decade by decade. The 1820s, for example, something better.
cago is once again in the headlines as federal agents sweep saw Andrew Jackson’s populist movement rise to power.
through immigrant neighborhoods, as protests spill onto Lake It promised more democracy for white men, but it also As I tell my son, all the rising generations must
Shore Drive, as tensions around race, belonging, and identity unleashed brutal racism. Jackson’s appeal rested on dis- do is make sure American democracy survives to the
bubble to the surface. And just as in the 1920s, the people in possessing Native Americans through forced removal and 2070s. After all, in America, the “70s” tend to be
the streets are not simply “angry mobs” as the headlines of- fanning hostility toward Mexicans and free Black people. much better than the “20s.”
ten portray them. They are families fighting to be seen, com- That brand of populism was intoxicating for some, but
munities demanding dignity, and young people refusing to in- devastating for others. A hundred years later, the 1920s Ben Jealous is professor of practice at the
herit a broken status quo. played a similar tune: new cultural freedoms for some, University of Pennsylvania and former national
This is part of a longer American rhythm. Our centuries paired with an immigration crackdown and a Klan resur- president and CEO of the NAACP.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Power & Praise Ministries Fayetteville Cumberland County

302 Moore Street* Fayetteville, NC 28301 Ministerial Council, Inc.
“For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37 www.fayettevillemincouncil.org
Sunday 1360 HWY 401 Business * Raeford, NC Be Hold, how good and how
Morning Wednesday pleasant it is for brethren to
dewell together in unity!
Worship Service Bible Study PSALM 133.1
10:15 a.m. (7:00pm )
Wednesday Sunday School -10am Fellowship Breakfast
Meets Every 3rd
Study on Wednesday Sunday Service Saturday 8:00am at
(S.O.W.) 6:30 p.m. 11:00am
Transportation Solid Rock Bible Church
5464 Muscat Road
WIDU 99.7 FM Available Hope Mills, NC 28348
Rev. Dr. Fredrick Culbreth Senior Minister Radio Broadcast Church (910) 797-5879 * 424-9444
(910) 483-6505 Sunday at 10a.m. Bishop Dr. Jenson McFadden (910) 920-4038 Apostle Georgia Walker
Pastor Dr. Doretha McFadden President Any Minister of Christian
www.1st-baptist.com JensonMcFadden @yahoo.com 910-624-0929 Faith is Welcome to Join Us.

Masjid Omar Ibn Sayyid Abundant Life Church of God

2700 Murchison Road *Fayetteville NC 220 Pelt Drive * Fayetteville, NC 28301
All are invited and welcome!

Friday Prayer
(Jumuah) 1:30 PM
Sunday Public Lecture
1:30 PM
Sunday
www.masjidomaribnsayyid.org
Morning
Worship
Monthly Food (10:00am)
Distribution Sunday School Founder & Pastor
Imam Bobby Thomas Facecooklive
(910) 488-7322 4th Saturday 9am to 11am (9:00am)
Wednesday Night - Family Training Hour (7:00pm)
WIDU 1600 Radio Broadcast Saturday 2:30 pm

Heal The Land Outreach Ministries

414 Hall Street * Fayetteville, NC 28301
Church Phone (910) 491-0738

Sunday Morning Prayer:10:45- 11:00 am

Morning Worship:
11:00 am

Christian Education:

1st & 3rd Wednesday: 7:30pm
Bishop Larry O. Wright, Sr.
Pastor & Founder Joy Night:2nd & 4th Wednesday: 7:30 pm
Elect Lady Minister Deborah Wright