By: Alexis Gagnon
Class of 2018 What Love Can Do centers around Henry Goody Jons, the mixed-race son of a young slave girl and her Louisiana master. Jons is faced with the decision to identify as white and escape slavery or embrace his black heritage and remain a slave. Jons identifies with his African American heritage and returned to his community as a pastor after the Emancipation Proclamation. Prejudice and hatred, are a stronger form of slavery than physical bondage. While not physically bound,, prejudice and hatred limited these African Americans from living full, safe lives from the Emancipation Proclamation to present day. A few years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Jim Crow laws were enacted, legalizing segregation and prohibiting the African Americans in this collection of stories from exercising their rights. Even though they were faced with hatred and prejudice, they refused to stop living their lives. An astounding ideal to go by, presented by Henry Goody Jons, gave them the tenacity to live: “When you take on real love for people, you actually take on God, for God is Love.” As mentioned in the memoir, prejudice and hatred is a greater form of slavery than bondage itself. It is a mental prison that can turn physical if one is found in the wrong circumstances at the wrong time. However, despite his prior circumstances, Henry Goody Jons was always able to give his fellow African Americans the strength and perseverance to give love to others. That strength helped heal the community’s wounds then and could continue to heal the wounds our country suffers from today.
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