God of all, who from the beginning of our days wanted your people to weave ourselves into tapestries that blend all the hues and types our faces and souls evince: We remember the riots, on this date in 1942, that attended the opening of the Sojourner Truth Housing Project, 200 units of public housing for defense workers and their families of African descent on East Nevada Street in Detroit. Violent opposition by white neighbors helped ensure that for decades, Detroit’s public housing projects would be segregated, and none would be built with the intention of integrating a neighborhood. Hearing such stories, and all the stories of Black History Month, when we ask ourselves what we would have done in these moments long in the past, and what we will do when we encounter injustice in our time, by your grace, may our answer be, “I would love my neighbor as myself.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Photo: Outside the Sojourner Truth Housing Project, February 1942)