PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hickory Branch NAACP President Reflects on 2009
January 2, 2010
As Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman looked back at 2009, he says his first year as Hickory Branch NAACP President has been an eye opening experience, “Hickory, N.C. is not the most progressive city in the world nor the most just. Here I have witnessed the pervasive practice of genteel apartheid that prohibits change. Everybody finds 'their' place and stays in it. Many opportunities for pioneering civil rights exist here from the school resegregation movement that seems to be gaining momentum to the disparities in health care. We will continue to fight for equal rights and justice because it is our mission to do so.”
Hosting the 66th Annual NC NAACP State Convention in Hickory was an all consuming task for the first nine months of 2009. It is now behind him, and his reward is in the good reports that continue from those who participated. As the newly appointed NC NAACP Chair of Religious Affairs, he is eager to learn even more about the veteran civil rights organization.
Two personal experiences in 2009 broadened his perspective of the world, and his place in it as a person of color. In February, he traveled to Mexico with the Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America (CITCA) and Witness for Peace Southeast because North Carolina has become a hotbed of anti-immigrant sentiment in recent years.
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Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman is seen with Candida and her daughter Noelia who opened their home to him during his trip to Mexico |
In Mexico City the team met with economists, human rights activists and others
who focus on the impact of trade on Mexican farmers and others. The team also met with the US Embassy staff, and traveled to Oaxaca meeting with educators, indigenous leaders and others to learn about why people are leaving their communities to come north. They spent the night with a family in a rural area where people are migrating to North Carolina.
It was clear to him that serious structural problems exist in Mexico. In a country where the vast majority of people are plagued by wrenching poverty, largely forgotten by the imperialistic bureaucracies that motivate the best government that money can buy, these otherwise productive citizens are being forced to the margins. Serious threats to their civil liberties and human rights exist daily. Those threats are not all caused by drug trafficking as the media would have us believe. Rev. Spearman summarized the experience saying “I came home with serious doubts about the authorities' commitment to training police and guaranteeing the rights of the people in what is considered the backyard of America. Ten Merida Initiatives without structural change has wasted our taxpayer's money.”
He saw that those who have migrated to the USA would not choose to leave their home country if there were opportunities to provide for their families at home. “People of color all over the world are our brothers and sisters, and we share their struggle for justice and equality,” he said.
For many years Rev. Spearman had longed to know more about his ancestry to see himself in the bigger picture in the history of people of color. He owes a deep debt of thanks to his cousin Madeline Clawson for her willingness to trace his lineage back to his great-great-great grandmother Pleasant Fennell, and encourage him to get DNA testing to go even further. In December 2008, his DNA sequence determined that he shared ancestry with the Igbo people in Nigeria today. Rev. Spearman felt as if the Nigerian land and my great-great-great grandmother were summoning him home.
King Eze Charles Iheke passes wisdom onto Rev.T. Anthony Spearman prior to conferring the chieftancy upon him in Igbere, Nigeria. |
Through his connections in Rotary he contacted a fellow Rotarian in Nigeria for help in planning his trip, and to his surprise, Rotarian Lemmy Ijioma was an Igbo man! His willingness to help Rev. Spearman was more than he could have hoped for. In May, he flew to Abuja, Nigeria and Lemmy helped him travel the 600 miles to Igbere to meet his Igbo ancestors. He saw much poverty and lack along the way, realizing how far we have to go to bring equality and a decent quality of life for all people in the world.
In Igbere, Rev. Spearman received a ritual cleansing in the stream where you could “see the sun” to receive him as a son coming back home. They passed through a trail leading downward into the valley. Rev. Spearman described the life-changing experience, “ You could hear the sound of the rushing waters, and as we worked our way down you could hear the sound of women washing clothes in the stream. An Igbo brother assisted me to the area where I would cleanse myself and swallow a little of the water. It was a very sacred moment.”
Afterward, he returned to Lemmy’s village home to change for the ceremony where he would receive the status of Chief. He met with His Royal Highness Eze Charles Iheke and the village chiefs where many were stunned by his uncanny resemblance to someone called Chukwu. King Eze Charles Iheke then passed ceremonial Igbo wisdom to Rev. Spearman prior to conferring the chieftancy upon him. “Words are not adequate to describe what this honor means to me. I had been received home as a son and tribal chief, giving me closure in my ancestral journey”, he said.
Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman is seen wearing his ceremonial chieftancy attire with King Eze Charles Iheke
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These experiences give him a deeper commitment to the mission of the NAACP where they strive to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons, and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Rev. Spearman was deeply moved in May when he received the Human Relations Award from the City of Hickory Human Relations Council for his work in improving human relations in the Hickory area. “I share this award with all those who have labored with me with me in the struggle for justice and equality for all people. Every person on earth is a person of color, and beneath the color of our skin we are all the same” said Rev. Spearman.
2009 showed him a bigger picture of our world, and his prayer for 2010 is that we will continue to fight together for freedom and justice for all people.
For more information, contact Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman at 828-322-1196 or
tant98@aol.com. For more information about the Hickory Branch NAACP, go to
www.hickorybranchnaacp.org
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