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Sebastián Hidalgo for Bates College Published on February 17, 2021
To Marshall Hatch Jr. ’10, the long painful moment in American history that is 2020 feels like Reconstruction revisited. Lately he’s been delving deep into the history of that period after the Civil War, “which at once was the highest high for African Americans,” he says, “and then the lowest low.”
In that era, Blacks held seats in Congress and in Southern legislatures, but angry white Southerners inflamed racial tensions chaos coupled with hope, American democracy at stake.
“The question during Reconstruction was, ‘What kind of country do we want to be?’” Hatch says. And the question arises again today. “These are incredible times to be living in,” Hatch says. “But there’s a lot to be dismayed about.”
Attending the inauguration in person is discouraged, but the delegation plans to be there in advance. We need to have voices of clergy courageously standing forth, more now than ever, and it just did not cross our minds to cancel this event, said Rev. Marshall Hatch, New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.
Pastor Hatch was at his West Side church Monday for service on Martin Luther King Day. He will be in D.C. by tomorrow. It is very important to have voices calling for health reconciliation, national unity and to wish the new administration well, he said.
The group will have a press conference and prayer in front of the National Cathedral, for what they are calling Saving the Soul of America.
A group of labor and church leaders, as well as three Chicago aldermen, offered a stinging rebuke Monday of John Catanzara, saying he should no longer lead Chicago’s largest police