The Threads in My Hand
by Howard Thurman
Only one end of the threads, I hold in my hand. The threads go many ways, linking my life with other lives.
One thread comes from a life that is sick; it is taut with anguish and always there is the lurking fear that the life will snap. I hold it tenderly. I must not let it go …
One thread comes from a high-flying kite; it quivers with the mighty current of fierce and holy dreaming invading the common day with far-off places and visions bright …
One thread comes from the failing hands of an old, old friend. Hardly aware am I of the moment when the tight line slackened and there was nothing at all — nothing …\
One thread is but a tangled mass that won’t come right; Mistakes, false starts; lost battles, angry words – a tangled mass; I have tried to hard, but it won’t come right …
One thread is a strange thread – it is my steadying thread; When I am lost, I pull it hard and find my way. When I am saddened, I tighten my grip and gladness glides along its quivering path;
When the waste places of my spirit appear in arid confusion, the thread becomes a channel of newness of life.
One thread is a strange thread – it is my steadying thread. God’s hand holds the other end …
Returning from New Orleans on this week from having shown “The Rev’s Denim” as a part of the “Diavontti Collection” Show, my Niece Michelle and I ran into sitting traffic at Cullman, Alabama. Ready for dinner, we found Puckett’s immediately off the highway and to our surprise a very wonderful 4 piece country music band was on the stage. Their final selection spoke a very new and pure and unadulterated Word of God to me in the refrain: “… some come with broken pieces and for some the die is cast. But we’re all part of God’s Mosaic, cause we’re all stained glass.” Sharing the story of receiving this Word and writing this song at the lowest point of his life, Michael Curtis followed us to the car sharing Life and Love in God!
Realizing that I am now writing while holding a set of “Threads” in my hand. Not simply as a 3rd Generation crafter of fine fabrics into garments royale… but of knowledge, of wisdom. Threads that —”quivers with the mighty current of fierce and holy dreaming invading the common day with far-off places and visions bright …”
This new thought, “The Gentrification of HBCUs” is now quivering with a mighty current of fierce… to the ‘HBCU Thread’… in my researching and writing hand. I cannot, I must not… let it go!
There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification… it is phenomenon. Gentrification processes changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and investment. A common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning, gentrification aims for displacement of incumbent residents.
While the key dynamics of ‘putting your finger on’ a true meaning of this word lies ‘in the eye of’ the gentrification scholar; from the African born in America’s Slave descendancy view, it is all about white wealth vs. black poverty… in the taking of what small portion of houses and land that we HAVE struggled as a people to attain. Sitting and watching our living being laid to waste. Even as scholars trace this ‘process phenomenon’ back to the middle ages where it becomes and remains across the ages about the Great Divide on Wealth vs Poverty, America, having built a national wealth upon the African Slave Trade must hold accountability for the gentrification shift to the Great Divide on White vs Black.
In 2019 Katherine Shaver made this statement writing for the Washington Post, “About 40 percent of the District’s lower-income neighborhoods experienced gentrification between 2000 and 2013, giving the city the greatest “intensity of gentrification” of any in the country. The District also saw the most African American residents, more than 20,000 displaced from their neighborhoods during that time, mostly by affluent, white newcomers.”
In 2021, Jerusalem Demsas as a Policy Reporter for VOX made this statement,
“White, wealthy neighborhoods that have refused class and racial integration have successfully avoided much scrutiny as gentrification has taken center stage in urban political fights. On the other hand, predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods often don’t gentrify due to disinvestment and centuries of racist and classist policies.”
After Bill Clinton left the White House, now for 20 years after moving his Foundation to Harlem, he can in 2024 celebrate his success as a Harlem NYC businessman. So, Nick Garber assessed the census and reported to Patch as his Headline: “Harlem Lost 10K Black Residents, Gained 18K Whites This Decade” (between 2010 and 2020). Go figure!
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