Almost one hundred Friends from across the United States and one Friend from the United Kingdom participated in the First Annual North American Conference for Racial Justice and Equality within the Religious Society of Friends March 31 – April 2, 2006 at the Meeting House Conference Center in Burlington, New Jersey. Baltimore Yearly Meeting was one of four yearly meetings sponsoring the conference. Baltimore Yearly Meeting participants included eleven teenagers and three adults from State College Friends Meeting along with Friends from Adelphi, Annapolis, Bethesda, Langley Hill, Valley, Richmond and Washington Friends Meetings.

Friends worshipped together, shared the work they are doing to address racial justice and equality within their own Quaker communities and began developing a supportive network to sustain them in their work. Friends were sustained throughout the conference with worship in the Meeting House, which was built in 1783, and by music. Some of the music arose from the silence during Meeting for Worship. Some was composed by the gathered participants to name and celebrate the work of bringing racial justice to the Religious Society of Friends.

One BYM Friend commented that she perceived more anger than she expected from some Friends about racial justice issues. She said the conference raised many issues for her and left her somewhat saddened and with much to digest. Another BYM Friend felt supported and energized by the conference. She found the conference not always easy, but quite productive.

A BYM Friend also observed that the spiritual issues of racial justice among Friends came through “loud and clear.” Another found the conference helped his discernment of the relationship among practical steps to reduce barriers to participation of people of color in our meetings, helping individual Friends address their own attitudes and behavior with respect to race, and Friends’ efforts to change major systems in our society responsible for education, justice, employment and housing that currently impose unfair burdens on people of color.

In the carpool home, three BYM Friends recording these reflections on the conference:

It was refreshing to be with Friends with the same commitment to continuing to work on our own racism and to see an end to racism within the Religious Society of Friends.

I got ideas from others on how to do this work.

I saw that some monthly and yearly meetings are ahead of us.

I saw that struggle and conflict are inevitable parts of this work.

I saw that overcoming racism isn’t just about doing things but seeing things in a new way.

I saw that overcoming racism involves profound respect.

I saw that we need to remove the beam from our own eye.

When you say something that offends someone of a different ethnicity, then you can apologize because you feel bad that your comments hurt the person. It isn’t about whether or not your comment was racist, whether or not you did something wrong. Defensiveness isn’t called for, just caring about how the other person feels and letting them know you are sorry you said something that hurt them. People are very forgiving when they know you care.

Singing gospel together was great—I saw that Friends can be loud!

The latter part of the conference was devoted to considering next steps. There was discussion of the location and scope of future conferences. All participants were asked to make specific commitments to each other of steps they would take in the coming months to promote racial justice among Friends. Conferences organizers committed to send individual emails or letters to participants in a few weeks inquiring about progress in fulfilling those commitments.

BYM’s Working Group on Racism Among Friends told of their plans for a retreat and several workshops at BYM annual sessions. The Working Group has agreed to conduct the pre-session retreat focusing on the Annual Session theme of “Living in Harmony: Called to Live in Harmony With One Another and All Creation.” Workshops conducted, organized or inspired by the Working Group address race and Hurricane Katrina, raising Quaker children of color, the work of the Africa Great Lakes Initiative, raising non-racist children, and modern slavery as it exists in the United States and other countries.