Our Washington D.C. journey started with a beautiful, crisp morning and a soft, golden sunshine bearing down on our skin. It was a day promising to bring profound learning and personal growth.
We set off on a journey across the city, excitedly anticipating the adventure that awaited us. In the heart of Washington D.C., our day unfolded with profound lessons on leadership, resilience, and community at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
The Metropolitan AME Church is a historically rich church dating back to the 1800s. Historically, Metropolitan has been a significant center of faith, civic engagement, and community for African Americans in this community. Their devout religious fervor echoed throughout history as they have undertaken working in social issues of anti-slavery resistance, AIDS education, and voter registration. Highlighting its national influence and historical significance, many have roamed the halls of this church such as Fredrick Douglas, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and President Barack Obama. Additionally, the Metropolitan AME Church held the national memorial service for civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
We had the good fortune to have a conversation with Pastor Lamar. Pastor Lamar’s teachings on leadership emphasized the importance for leaders to serve selflessly, craft narratives that inspire, and exhibit vulnerability as foundational human traits. We were reminded that leadership goes beyond mere decision-making and includes the engagement of those we seek to lead and serve.
Reminiscent of our leadership posture check which challenges us to zoom out, we were challenged to spend time self-reflecting so we can be equipped with the ability to confront difficult issues. In Pastor Lamar’s words, “The Jesus of the Gospels was a fantastic trespasser of cultural and religious boundaries. Our speech, like our God, is not for Christians only.” Just like Christ’s teachings of challenging societal norms, we must lead selflessly and take a stand against things that go against our convictions, including social injustices. A call to action was made by Pastor Lamar to take back to our local communities to engage thoughtfully with the complexity of governance and engage in community advocacy.
Following our departure from the Metropolitan AME Church we made our way to the United States Holocaust Museum. Before we entered the museum, we were challenged to remember the importance of understanding the story of the most impactful genocide in the history of the modern world. Our experience here was somber, creating a feeling of emptiness and the need to find some kind of understanding to help us conceptualize the gravity of what we had just witnessed. The experience was visceral and nauseating. The story told in a specific room in the museum called “Daniel’s Story” was particularly heartbreaking; as it shared the true tale of a young boy who was living a normal life until it was ripped away by fascists in the Nazi regime, painting a picture of the terror and tragedy experienced by millions of Jewish people.
The rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the propaganda used to push a false narrative of ethnic cleansing was as clear as day. The museum retold stories of survivors of the Holocaust, causing all of us fellows to evaluate many different emotions as we walked through the museum. The pictures of the ghettos created to enslave Jewish citizens as Germany marched across Europe led to the creation of concentration camps to fulfill the Final Solution of Hitler were etched into our brains. Once the United States entered World War II in concert with our fellow Allied forces Hitler’s aggression was stopped, but not before the course of history was changed forever.
As one leaves the museum, you are left with a quote that ends with: “…then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”
This tugged at the hearts of the fellows, with the understanding that acting as a leader needs to always be acted upon even in front of the worst situations. The class has been developing the skills to think spectrally, with empathy to overcome fear and find the courage to love and trust.
We continued our learning with our official last stop of the day at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We were given the autonomy to choose the exhibits we wanted to see. To continue our learning about racial equity, many of us chose to experience the “Journey Toward Freedom Exhibit”, portraying slavery to a changing America. This journey took us through the history of slavery, from Africa to the slave trade in Europe and then New World, America. The exhibit started by navigating us through how many slaves arrived in Europe and America, and the intense struggles that African Slaves faced coming to the New World. Our history books have taught us about oppression and struggle. We rarely learn of the love. Love comes in many forms as we have learned on this adventure across our nation. The love the African American slaves had for their families, the love and bravery abolitionists had for the African Americans that they protected and helped, and the love that held together Civil Rights activists as they fought bravely for justice. The struggles our African American brothers and sisters have experienced continue to affirm the biases that exist in our present society. A culture that today, we, as agricultural leaders must continue to be curious about should we ever hope to close the racial divide. We closed out the official day with the original text of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on its last day of display.
His words are always inspirational. Class 53 took advantage of a free evening to do a bus tour of the national monuments. We soaked in more of Martin Luther King Jr.’s at the monument constructed in his honor, where we were again reminded that only love breeds love.
We were inspired by the courage of the six Marines depicted in the Marine Corps War Memorial, colloquially known as Iwo Jima. We soaked up the essence of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial and sat watching visitors experience the majesty of the Lincoln Memorial. Our leadership journey continues as we continue our vulnerability, our spectral thinking, and our curiosity.
Gratefully,
Manny, Bob, Kristi and the members of Class 53
Class 53
