Whither the Covenant?

On a brisk, sunny day last November, several of Boston's clergy gathered on the Common anticipating the start of something big. The kickoff of the ecumenical Covenant of Racial Justice, Equity, and Harmony campaign was an event designed to show Boston's true colors, so to speak. The interdenominational service wasn't expected to draw quite as big a crowd as the Pope's stop in Boston the month before, but the weather was better (it had rained on John Paul), and organizers hoped that a sense of urgency mixed with good will would attract at least 10,000 citizens to the scene. An enormous amount of activity and publicity had preceded the unveiling of this Covenant, and this day would indicate--for starters, at least--whether or not the idea would go over.

Among those who attended were many schoolchildren, an interracial couple here and there, a sprinkling of college students and young professionals on their lunch break, and assorted religious men, women, and lay faithful. Gov. Edward King and a few local politicians came, but Mayor Kevin White, who said he'd be there, was vacationing in Bermuda instead.

And, for some reason, between 6000 and 7000 other people weren't there, either.

The idea of a Covenant, now entering its second year, is no longer a novelty but a concept in the midst of change. Rev. Donald Luster of the Charles St. AME Church in Roxbury, a member of the Covenant steering committee, said, "We're in a process of trying to re-evaluate what has already been done and to try to ascertain where there have been some breakdowns. We haven't been going in a fluid motion," he admitted. While some downtown churches have maintained Covenant sponsored dialogues between people of different races, Luster said, "areas such as Dorchester and Roxbury have been difficult to maintain.

Getting the idea off the ground never promised to be simple. Canon Ed Rodman, minister to minorities for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, recently recalled the Covenant's genesis. "It really has two origins," Rodman said. One group, consisting mainly of "grass roots people" and ministers, hoped to turn the drive for racial harmony into a people's movement. The other, headed by members of the Roman Catholic clergy and Black Protestant ministers, wanted to stress the role of the organized church in promoting racial justice, Rodman said. The two were called to a meeting by Fr. Michael Groden of the Archdicesan Urban Affairs Office.

"It was a real confusing meeting, because people came with two agendas," Rodman said. "The Protestant churches which weren't predominantly Black"--including many influential Evangelical churches--"were not there...this was the third piece of the agenda. To placate those elements a second meeting was held, which was actually the first meeting of the Covenant," he said.

But the name which unified the concept and pushed it forward appeared with even less organization. "The reality was," Rodman said, "that in order to get this off the ground you had to have the backing of the hierarchy, as well as the politicians." That support materialized when Humberto Cardinal Medeiros and Bishop Edward G. Carroll, Fr. of the United Methodist Church in Boston, emerged from a meeting to face television cameras. When reporters asked about the fledgling ecumenical movement for improved race relations, the churchmen shook hands and began talking about a "Covenant." "After that happened [there was] a chaotic period of rushing for signatures and getting the buttons out," Rodman said.

By the time the Covenant service took place on the Boston Common in November, the organization behind it had become primarily the business of Roman Catholics and the independent Black clergy, Rodman said. "The energy for it came from the Catholic Clergy in Charlestown. Decision making around the Covenant became exclusive--although it didn't start out to be," he said, adding that the grass-roots element was largely left out. "From the very beginning communications broke down," said Rodman, who was in the unusual position as a Black minister in a predominantly white, established church. Rodman indicated that the presence of Jewish and Islamic participants in the Covenant service was like his own participation, window dressing.

That is until it came to paying for the project. Approximately 200,000 "Covenant kits" including copies of the statement and olive branch lapel buttons were distributed to churches, temples, and community centers throughout the Boston area. In spite of donated materials and labor, Rodman said, the Covenant committee was some $40,000 in debt as of January 1980. "Then they started turning to the churches they hadn't paid much attention to," he said. The Episcopal Diocese did contribute $5000 to the effort, "but not without protest," Rodman said. (Although he did not disclose the extent of the debt, Luster acknowledged that the Covenant is not seeing flush times. "In our zeal and our haste we weren't as frugal as we could have been," he said.)

Jeff Mauzy, an independent consultant the Covenant committee hired last week to integrate local artists into its programs, said that, at the present, the Covenant is funded by donations from churches, businesses, and concerned individuals. He believes that increasing communication between diverse neighborhoods through the Covenant is essential to creating racial harmony in Boston. "To me, racial prejudice is such a deep thing. I've learned it since I was two days old, on every level," Mauzy, a white man, said. "Artists can communicate on many levels, without using buzz words that can turn people off."

Among his plans for the Covenant projects are a series of competitions in which Bostonians can propose solutions to racial disunity. "Through offering actual cash prizes we can get the hardest core people to work on it," Mauzy said. "By getting people to work out of their own minds, they can deal with their own feelings as well." Mauzy also proposes an artists-in-residence program in the Cathedral Park housing project and a series of "non-hostile confrontations" in which one Boston neighborhood will invite another to visit for dinner and dialogue," so people can interact with each other and act like neighbors."

Mauzy strongly believes the Covenant can bring about "a long-term change in attitude" in Boston. He does not expect it to be an easy task, but one which will involve an extensive and widespread commitment. To focus on cases such as the death this summer of Black youth Levi Hart by a white police officer's gun, or the confrontation shortly thereafter between Black and White Dorchester gangs in which a white man, Gerald White, was fatally shot, is not the aim of the Covenant, Mauzy said. "If I were a member of the Covenant [committee] I think I might stay away from those." To react to specific incidents of racial violence, he said, "is troubleshooting rather than working on the level the Covenant wants to work on."

"I don't think a maliciousness is involved here," Rodman said, "but on the one hand you have the arrogance of the Roman Catholic Church and on the other the confusion of the Black protestant churches, wondering where to ally themselves. They chose to ally themselves with Roman Catholics instead of their Protestant brothers and sisters."

The canon, who did not sign the Covenant and wears no olive branch ("I'm not a hypocrite," he said), started the Boston Urban Coalition with other Episcopalians who wish to approach the issues of the Covenant from a different perspective. "You could say that on one level, the problem in the city is between Black folks and Catholics," he said. "But to think that they're the only ones who have a stake in the city--that's ludicrous." Rodman believes the Covenant organizers have erred in limiting the concept to the city of Boston, but said they have done little to implement their ideals even within the city during another year marked by racial violence. "The general notion fizzled out," he said. "They didn't do anything this summer except mount that ad campaign"--a series of print, radio, and television appeals emphasizing "colorblindness," courtesy of the prestigious Boston advertising firm Hill, Holladay, Connors, and Cosmopoulos.

No one from the Covenant steering committee was available to comment on Rodman's charge, but Mauzy said committee members are approaching business leaders, sports figures, and private individuals for help in carrying out the Covenant's goals.

The people most regularly involved with the Covenant also have full time pastoral or administrative duties and were unavailable for comment. The steering committee, which consists of Humberto Cardinal Medeiros of the Roman Catholic archdiocese, Bishop Edward G. Carroll of the United Methodist Church, Rabbi Herman Blumberg of the American Jewish Committee, Luster, Fr. Ernest Serino of St. Catherine's in Charlestown, Fr. Walter Waldron of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, and Dr. Virgil Wood, dean of the African-American Institute at Northeastern University, still meets at rotating locations each Thursday to discuss ways to make the Covenant work. As of last February, some 275,000 people had signed the statement, and programs for youth participation, a pulpit exchange between churches, and emphasis on social services were announced in a shiny new pamphlet issued this fall.

Luster maintains faith that the Covenant will succeed, even if it takes a very long time. "I don't see it as failing, because I've seen a few times when the Covenant has helped people do right and not feel bad about doing right. It was an opportunity to set the climate for people to be as moral and ethical as they possibly could."

If there is disappointment surrounding the Covenant, Luster blames the people who expected it to do too much. "I think people assumed the Covenant was going to be a Band-Aid for a multiplicity of evils," he said. "A covenant is a contract, a vow between a supreme being and a human being, or between human beings."

"The Covenant can be nothing more than a way to persuade people to enter into a different kind of relationship--one of respect--regardless of sex or color," Luster said.

But people in a racially tense city still doubt the Covenant's effectiveness. Two people with a lot of questions are Richard and Kathleen Doherty of Dorchester, whose 19-year-old son Michael died in a unique situation last March. Michael, a student at Boston English High School, was at the Columbia MBTA station when he noticed three white youths attacking a Black man. He approached them and told them to stop. The white youths turned on Doherty and chased him onto the Southeast Expressway, where a car struck and killed him. When it happened, the significance of his action was nearly unrecognized by public officials, the local media, and the Covenant committee.

Richard Doherty, talking about his son's death five months later, made no effort to hide his anguish and bitterness. "I didn't get anything from Archbishop Medeiros," Doherty, an Irish Catholic said. "I dont' understand it. He's put millions of dollars behind that peace coventry [sic], for the pins and all."

"Instead of that peace coventry they could've used Michael's death, for nothing--zero."

The Covenant

Because as People of Faith we believe we are sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters to one another;

Because as Americans we are committed to the fundamental constitutional principle that all people are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;

Because we know that Freedom for everyone is the only climate conducive to full development of the human spirit;

And because we have witnessed in our society and in our city enough of conflict and violence so as to threaten the very fabric of our freedoms and diminish the dignity of us all;

Be it here resolved:

(1) That we seize the moment for a new day of peace and harmony in our common existence;

(2) That in our deeper reverence for the God who commands us and for the nobility of humankind that impels us, we denounce every form of violence in every neighborhood, we lay aside the weapons and words of political conflict, the taunts and jibes of insidious disrespect;

(3) That we reject outright any and all special interest groups and leaderships that serve only to deepen our divisions and entrench us, angered, into separate camps;

(4) That we perceive the legitimate struggles for equal justice and rights for everyone not as a cause that divides us, but as the imperative that unites us;

(5) That we not only respect but even celebrate the richness of our varied cultures, manners and traditions as they each, and together, contribute to the unique tapestry of our city;

(6) That in prayer, in attitudes, we foster a new mood of healing and forgiveness so that we transcend not only our differences but even our grievances;

(7) That here and now, at this time and in this city, we stand committed to bring fulfillment to a dream that must compel us all: "When all God's children, black people and white people, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants will be able to join hands and sing...'Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last!!!' "Free! right here in Boston. Free! from violence. Free! from hatred. Free! from fear of one another, Free! to live together. Free! to learn together. Free! to build together. Free! to celebrate together. Free! to pray to God together.

May God our Father witness our covenant, and out of the harmony of our differences may He grant us unison, in will and wisdom, to keep it.