Please click the link to watch Rev. Cynthia Snavely’s video recording of this sermon.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all … are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among (People), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that (hu)mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Those words are from our American Declaration of Independence.
The first shots of the American Revolutionary War had been fired a little over a year before this declaration in April of 1775 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Though the British did not remove their troops until 1782, and a peace treaty was not signed until 1783, the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia in 1781 effectively gave Americans the victory. Let me tell you a story of someone who helped that victory happen; someone you probably never heard of: James Armistead Lafayette, a Revolutionary War spy.
Vashti Harrison tells his story in her book, Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History. She writes, “Not much is known about James’s life before the Revolutionary War. He was born enslaved in Virginia, and his (enslaver), who managed military supplies, taught James to read and write so he could be a better worker.
“During the war against the British, James heard that any (enslaved person) who fought for the Americans’ Continental Army would be freed if the Americans won the war. He got his (enslaver’s) permission to enlist and in 1781 was assigned to serve under Marquis de Lafayette, a young French aristocrat fighting for the American cause. At first, James used his knowledge of the Virginian landscape to transport messages, but then James and Lafayette had a better idea. James could spy on the British.
“Posing as a runaway (enslaved person), James went to the British camp commanded by Lord Charles Cornwallis. James helped lead troops through the unfamiliar land. No one suspected that he could read and write, so generals and other soldiers talked about their tactics in front of him and he was given access to British maps and plans. Secretly, he memorized details and reported back to Lafayette. James became so trusted by the British that he was asked to spy on the Americans! He agreed, but gave the British only false information. Equipped with James’s accurate information about British troop size, strategies and morale, the Continental Army defeated the British at Yorktown, effectively ending the war. Imagine Cornwallis’s surprise when he entered Lafayette’s headquarters to surrender and saw James there!
“After the war, enslaved people who served as soldiers were freed. But James had not technically been a soldier, and he was not freed. He petitioned for his release but was ignored. It wasn’t until Lafayette wrote a letter commending James’s service that his petition was granted, and he was freed in 1787. James took the name Lafayette to honor his commander and friend. He lived the rest of his life as a farmer and family man, secretly one of America’s greatest heroes.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all … are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” but it took James Armistead Lafayette years after the American victory in the war for independence that he helped bring about to claim his own independence, his own liberty and freedom.
George Washington, who led the Continental Army in the War for Independence and who became the first President of the American democracy, enslaved people on his Mount Vernon estate. Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the American democracy, enslaved people on his estate of Monticello.
To many people living in the United States of America, it did not look like American democracy included them.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all … are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among (People), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….”
Nobody ever consented to be enslaved. Slavery would not officially be abolished in the United States until 1865 after another war was fought. Technically, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black men the right to vote, but states and localities found many ways around that.
Women gained the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920. That was after 1917, when after peacefully demonstrating in front of the White House, 33 women endured a night of brutal beatings. Native Americans were not granted citizenship and the right to vote until 1924, but again states and localities found ways to bar that right.
Our UU the Vote website says, “UU the Vote is a bold initiative created by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Side With Love team, providing UUs a thoughtfully crafted ‘plug-and-play’ opportunity to bring our democratic values to life in the crucial struggle to build a genuine multiracial democracy. UU the Vote engages people in voter registration, issue education, get-out-the-vote drives, voter protection, state leadership development, and more,” (from UU the Vote – Faith, Love, and Action. Together).
Again, from our Declaration of Independence: “…deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” Have you ever been at a march or a rally where someone took up the call and response chant, “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like”? Those rallies and marches are one way to show our consent or non-consent for policies. When I worked for Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, we regularly organized UUs to join others at rallies, visit Congressional offices, write letters to government officials and join with other organizations working for policies that were aligned with our values.
I have said more than once that I would not be as good a citizen as I am if I had not become a Unitarian Universalist. Other UUs have encouraged me to act. Please keep up the encouragement, because I could still be a better citizen, and as I think all of us know, it easy to become discouraged.
With members of my Florida congregations, I visited the Equal Justice Initiatives Legacy sites in Montgomery, Alabama. I signed up for their daily emails from their History of Racial Injustice calendar. Those daily emails can be disheartening, but they can also be reminders of those who came before us and did not give up.
This past Tuesday, February 18, the calendar noted that February 18, 1965, was the day that Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by an Alabama State Trooper. In the post for the day, it also said, “He died eight days later at a local hospital. In an impassioned eulogy, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. honored Mr. Jackson, saying: ‘I never will forget as I stood by his bedside a few days ago… how radiantly he still responded, how he mentioned the freedom movement and how he talked about the faith that he still had in his God. Like every self-respecting Negro, Jimmie Jackson wanted to be free…. We must be concerned not merely about who murdered him but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderer,’” (from On Feb 18, 1965: Alabama State Trooper Murders Jimmie Lee Jackson).
The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit begun in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy. Its website says, “The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society,” (from About EJI).
The Equal Justice Initiative’s messages are of course not the only emails or texts I receive. Other Unitarian Universalists have also connected me to organizations like Advocates for Trans Equality. Their website says, “Leveraging decades of experience on the frontlines of power, we shift government and society towards a future where we are no less than equal. A4TE was founded in 2024 as the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), two long-time champions for the trans community, merged together as one organization. A4TE builds on their successes to boldly imagine a world where trans people live our lives joyfully and without barriers.”
One of their texts encouraged me to protest the change to the Stonewall monument website.
Maria Tsvetkova reported for Reuters on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14: “Several hundred people with LGBTQ flags rallied at the Stonewall National Monument on Friday, a day after references to transgender Americans disappeared from the U.S. National Park Service website for the New York site commemorating a gay bar where resistance to a 1969 police raid sparked a civil rights movement.
“The monument’s website was initially altered on Thursday to refer to “lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ+)” people, deleting the letter “T.”
“Later in the day, the “Q” and “+” were removed, leaving the acronym as “LGB,” a usage that was more common in a less inclusive era around 1990….
“’The Stonewall Riots happened because trans people, particularly of color, rose up against state violence. You can’t even begin to tell the story without our trans ancestors and elders,’ transgender activist Raquel Willis said on X.
“More than 300 protesters gathered at the site on Friday. Del, a queer clinical psychologist from New Jersey who provides gender-affirming care, cancelled Valentine’s Day plans to ski and rushed to Manhattan after they learned about the demonstration.
“’It’s deadly for trans and LGBTQ youth, but it’s a problem for all youth, because it is frightening to see your peers being targeted and erased,’ Del said.
“’This is our place, this is our land, this is where our trans sisters threw bricks and fought for our rights, and we have to stand our ground,’ they added, standing at the monument with a brick in hand,” (from Protesters decry erasure of transgender references from Stonewall monument website | Reuters).
What does democracy look like? For almost 250 years of American history, it has looked like citizens standing up for their own rights and the rights of others. It looks like people not giving up hope even when hope seems hard to find. It looks like community. It looks like civic engagement. It looks like organizing. It looks like us.
I end with the words to a Holly Near song that those of us who went to our Unitarian Universalist annual meeting, General Assembly, when it was held in Pittsburgh a couple years ago sang together regularly.
“I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
There is hurting in my family
There is sorrow in my town
There is panic in the nation
There is wailing the whole world round
May the children see more clearly
May the elders be more wise
May the winds of change caress us
Even though it burns our eyes
Give me a mighty oak to hold my confusion
Give me a desert to hold my fears
Give me a sunset to hold my wonder
Give me an ocean to hold my tears.”
If you’ve appreciated this sermon, please text to give or visit our Give Now page to support the UUCSH Share the Plate efforts to assist those in need.