The Joshua Generation: Rev. G.W.C. Richardson and Gwen Patten
First Recorded
December 29, 2010
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Rev. G.W.C. Richardson and Gwen Patten, two Black-American veterans of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of racial justice in the South. In this conversation, the friends reflect on Barack Obama’s place in the civil-rights narrative and consider the historical and contemporary challenges of being Black in America.
This story was produced by Alero Oyinlola.
This story is a part of the American Pilgrimage Project, a conversation series that invites Americans of diverse backgrounds to sit together and talk to each other one-to-one about the role their religious beliefs play at crucial moments in their lives. The interview was recorded by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.
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Transcript
G.W.C. Richardson: And I was the teenage recruiter for our branch NAACP, which ended up getting me in a lot of trouble, especially with the KKK. They started their observing me, watching me, following me, and harassing me, to the point one night where they caught me walking home on Highway 82, and beat me up, and threw me off a bridge in a creek to be left for dead. But the Lord will have it that my belt loop on my pants got hung on a tree, which kept me out of the water. So, after a while I came to and went home, and my mother was very frightened. So, she got me out of the city and took me to Fayette, Alabama, to go to school. And later on, I came back to Gordo and graduated, and went to Selma University. And met my wife there, and after a year we got married.
Gwen Patten: Well, you know reverend, when you ... I've heard you give a sermon or a eulogy, speaking of your belt.
G.W.C. Richardson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gwen Patten: The belt was there to hold you on. I remember you talked about some kids going to school-
G.W.C. Richardson: Yeah.
Gwen Patten: ... and every time they would go, they would have to duck under to miss that branch.
G.W.C. Richardson: Yeah.
Gwen Patten: And so, I can see how you make the connection. Everything in life has a spiritual collection ... I mean, connection ... to why things happen to you; that there's a purpose involved.
G.W.C. Richardson: Well, you yourself had a lot of civil-rights history. And, why don't you share some of that with me?
Gwen Patten: I don't want to talk too much about my civil-rights experiences, except that I did write Obama when he thought...when he was calling himself "The Joshua Generation." And my...it was heavy on my heart, and I said, "I need to straighten out this young man," because see, I'm old enough to be his mother.
G.W.C. Richardson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gwen Patten: And I said, "No, no, no, darling. You are not the Joshua Generation. Joshua and Caleb have already been here, otherwise you wouldn't be president. The walls of Jericho, the walls of racism, the walls of desegregation and Jim Crow were torn down by my generation and your generation." And, I include Dr. King in that generation, you know. Well, Dr. King will be the Moses Generation.
G.W.C. Richardson: Yeah.
Gwen Patten: Moses and Reverend Abernathy. And then, me and you, our generation, we're the Joshua. Like, you ran for mayor, they trying to kill you, and so forth. We brought those walls down. And then, our people got caught up with the bling bling. Got caught up with the golden calf.
G.W.C. Richardson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gwen Patten: Got caught up with ball, got caught up with the materialism.
G.W.C. Richardson: Yeah.
Gwen Patten: The bling bling. Not just the little inner-city kids, the middle-class quote-unquote black folks with the Lexus. And, there's nothing wrong with driving a Lexus, but when that becomes your centerpiece of how you define yourself, independent of the Lord, then you're all caught up in the bling bling. And so I said, "And here we are, we're in ruins. We're in decay. We in the depths of immortality. President Obama, you are Nehemiah. I want you to study that prophet, because the task is for you to clean it up, and to restore the temple of values, of righteousness, of dignity, and respect."
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