truth quest

In this final episode of the summer series TRUTH QUEST, our travelers make their way to Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In March of 1965, civil rights protesters were met by a lineup of armed police (many on horseback) with attack dogs and billy clubs who ordered them to turn back. When the marchers refused, they were brutally attacked on a day that became known as Bloody Sunday. SNCC Director John Lewis (later Congressman) was viciously beaten and nearly died that day. We take a ceremonial walk across that bridge. We proceed to Birmingham, known in the 50s and 60s as "Bombingham," where Martin Luther King  (along with Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth) were imprisoned in 1963 for their civil disobedience. We hear a reading of King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Osahon Obazuaye). Several months after King wrote his letter, a bomb exploded on a Sunday morning as the congregation gathered for worship in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls. A fifth, Sarah Collins, lost her sister and best friends but survived the blast. All these years later, she met with our group in the memorial park across from the church and shared her story. Ken wraps the series with some reflections, from several fellow travelers and then some concluding reflections of his own. SHOW NOTES

Meet our contributors.

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.

Ken invites John Williams back to the podcast, this time to talk about the summer series, TRUTH QUEST. John and Ken review the origins of the Civil Rights (C.R.) Tour of the South, and John's journey from his law practice to his first C.R. Tour. His experience became a catalyst for leaving his law practice behind. A vision was born to introduce others to the history of race in America - to educate, inspire and transform. The Center has grown exponentially, influencing not only Fellowship Monrovia but churches, non-profits, and individuals across the nation by means of the tours, workshops, Table Talks, and curriculum development. In this conversation, John reflects on his personal meeting with the late Civil Rights icon and Congressman, John Lewis. John Williams has been in "Good Trouble" ever since, along with Ken. SHOW NOTES

Meet our contributors.

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.

In this second installment of Ken's special series, TRUTH QUEST - Exploring the History of Race in America, we launch the Civil Rights tour of the South in New Orleans.  The Whitney Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of slavery in Louisiana. You'll hear an in-depth description of the exhibits, displays, and elegant plantation house and how those displays impacted our team of pilgrims. In this episode, we are invited to a team "debrief," in which several share their personal responses to a history that has been hidden until now. Then Ken takes us to the French Quarter on a bustling Saturday evening in the heart of the New Orleans. Under the tutelage of master-guide, Leon A. Waters, the team wanders down the Mississippi River and Washington Artillery Park, to Jackson Square, by the St. Louis Cathedral, the Federal Courthouse, and the Slave Exchange, along the narrow streets filled with iconic architecture, surrounded by eager crowds, street vendors and musicians, lively multitudes lined up for the annual Pride Month Parade - New Orleans style.  SHOW NOTES

Meet our contributors.

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.

After a short break, the TWO KENS are back. Ken welcomes Ken Fong to talk about a sermon he preached recently at the historic First Baptist Church in Pasadena. His subject is The Parable of the Good Samaritan. After listening, Kemp was deeply moved by Fong's creative take on the familiar story. It corresponded powerfully with Kemp's experience on the Civil Rights Tour of the South in June and on the production of the seven-part summer podcast series he calls TRUTH QUEST. Fong understands Jesus to focus not just on the Samaritan's sensitivity and generosity to a victim who traditionally held him in contempt, but the lessons about privilege and vulnerability and the healing and wholeness that comes from the margins. Ken Fong pays tribute to the Truth Quest series as Ken Kemp embraces the pulpit work of his retired pastor friend. SHOW NOTES (complete list of TWO KENS podcasts)

Listen to the series: TRUTH QUEST: Exploring The History of Race in America

Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast || THE TWO KENS

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In this final episode of the summer series TRUTH QUEST, our travelers make their way to Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In March of 1965, civil rights protesters were met by a lineup of armed police (many on horseback) with attack dogs and billy clubs who ordered them to turn back. When the marchers refused, they were brutally attacked on a day that became known as Bloody Sunday. SNCC Director John Lewis (later Congressman) was viciously beaten and nearly died that day. We take a ceremonial walk across that bridge. We proceed to Birmingham, known in the 50s and 60s as "Bombingham," where Martin Luther King  (along with Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth) were imprisoned in 1963 for their civil disobedience. We hear a reading of King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Osahon Obazuaye). Several months after King wrote his letter, a bomb exploded on a Sunday morning as the congregation gathered for worship in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls. A fifth, Sarah Collins, lost her sister and best friends but survived the blast. All these years later, she met with our group in the memorial park across from the church and shared her story. Ken wraps the series with some reflections, from several fellow travelers and then some concluding reflections of his own. SHOW NOTES

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.

Ken invites John Williams back to the podcast, this time to talk about the summer series, TRUTH QUEST. John and Ken review the origins of the Civil Rights (C.R.) Tour of the South, and John's journey from his law practice to his first C.R. Tour. His experience became a catalyst for leaving his law practice behind. A vision was born to introduce others to the history of race in America - to educate, inspire and transform. The Center has grown exponentially, influencing not only Fellowship Monrovia but churches, non-profits, and individuals across the nation by means of the tours, workshops, Table Talks, and curriculum development. In this conversation, John reflects on his personal meeting with the late Civil Rights icon and Congressman, John Lewis. John Williams has been in "Good Trouble" ever since, along with Ken. SHOW NOTES

Meet our contributors.

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.

In this second installment of Ken's special series, TRUTH QUEST - Exploring the History of Race in America, we launch the Civil Rights tour of the South in New Orleans.  The Whitney Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of slavery in Louisiana. You'll hear an in-depth description of the exhibits, displays, and elegant plantation house and how those displays impacted our team of pilgrims. In this episode, we are invited to a team "debrief," in which several share their personal responses to a history that has been hidden until now. Then Ken takes us to the French Quarter on a bustling Saturday evening in the heart of the New Orleans. Under the tutelage of master-guide, Leon A. Waters, the team wanders down the Mississippi River and Washington Artillery Park, to Jackson Square, by the St. Louis Cathedral, the Federal Courthouse, and the Slave Exchange, along the narrow streets filled with iconic architecture, surrounded by eager crowds, street vendors and musicians, lively multitudes lined up for the annual Pride Month Parade - New Orleans style.  SHOW NOTES

Meet our contributors.

Listen to the entire series - TRUTH QUEST: Exploring the History of Race in America - in their own words.