Resistance and Activism in 2026: A Black History Month Celebration

On a February evening, the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Black Methodists for Church Renewal (TWK BMCR) gathered virtually for "Resistance and Activism in 2026," an interactive workshop that honored Black history while confronting urgent contemporary challenges.

Rev. Marilyn E. Thornton opened with prayer, drawing from "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and affirming that all people are "marvelously and wondrously created in the image of God." The program began with an image of the Obama family, representing what Rev. Thornton called "a singular moment in world history of which Black people are the foundation."

Rev. Thornton shared the legacy of Carter G. Woodson, who chose February for Negro History Week in 1926 because it's the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass—not because it's the shortest month. What began in six school systems spread nationwide within three years, becoming Black History Month in 1976. The celebration is now 100 years old.

Woodson, the second Black person to earn a PhD from Harvard, wrote in "The Miseducation of the Negro" that Black people had been trained to "know their place" so thoroughly they would cut a back door rather than enter through the front. This analysis framed the evening's central question about resistance in 2026.

The workshop featured Amanda Gorman's poem for Renee Nicole Good, killed by ICE in January 2026. Her words—"somewhere in the pitch-deep of our grief crouches our power"—challenged participants to find strength in collective mourning. Tondala Hayward, campus minister at the University of Memphis, described the impact of federal enforcement in Memphis, where international students stayed home out of fear. "It just seems like you're going backwards instead of forward," she said.

President Glenese Scales identified "silence from the top" as echoing historical moments when leadership chose complicity over courage. Rev. Sheila Peters noted that "sometimes we are more quick to hurt each other than to address the power that is being oppressed."

Participants shared diverse forms of resistance: writing, social media advocacy, organized action through MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope), and creating new protest songs. Rev. Keith Caldwell described confronting Mayor Paul Young during his State of the City address, invoking Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail against critics who said it wasn't "the right time."

The discussion culminated in a concrete proposal: developing Sabbath school curricula to teach what Tennessee Governor Lee has made illegal in public schools. Rev. Caldwell suggested a 6- to 12-module program using church spaces. Rev. Russell Morrow grounded this in history: "Almost every HBCU was established by the church."

Participants envisioned demonstration schools starting as early as summer 2026, utilizing retired teachers, existing resources like Freedom Schools models, and the power of storytelling. The energy was palpable as conversation became action planning.

As President Scales noted, this work is "history in the making." One hundred years after Woodson launched Negro History Week, the TWK BMCR demonstrated that celebrating Black History Month means ongoing commitment to justice—choosing resistance over resignation, activism over apathy, and love over fear.