In Memory of Rev. Dr. Nelson Napoleon Johnson

Nelson Johnson embodied the best that humanity can offer; a strong intellect matched by a strong will, courage, compassion, and a life long commitment to standing up for the least among us. His life’s work more than matched his rhetoric, which is extra impressive given what a gifted orator he was. All of us whose lives he touched are left with an obligation to remember his example and, as best as we are able, to continue his mission.
Below are some images of Rev. Nelson living out the phrase “faith in action”.

In 2020, while we were all in lockdown, I spent a lot of time on YouTube trying to entertain and educate myself. One morning the algorithms sent me this video that featured Angela Davis, Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), Fanny Lou Hamer, and (much to my delight) a very young and wise Nelson Johnson.

A few more images.

Sincerest condolences from my wife, Margaret, and myself to Reverend Johnson’s family, to his extended family in the movement and at the Beloved Community Center, and especially to his equally amazing wife, Joyce Hobson Johnson. We share your grief, but also your gratitude for what a blessing this man was to everyone who knew him.

Thank you! We love you!

Relacing my shoes in the lobby of the Wake County Detention Center after my release. 5/13/2013, Image courtesy of O’Linda Watkins-McSurely.

It’s Monday, May 13, 2013. I’m sitting uncomfortably in what looks to be a converted school bus dressed in business casual with my hands secured behind my back in zip-tie handcuffs. I’m not alone in this predicament. There are twenty or so other riders seated around me with their wrists cuffed behind their backs. Some of them are veterans. Several of them are clergy. Some of them are union leaders or members wearing tee shirts displaying their union affiliation. Some are people whose lives, or the lives of loved ones, have been irreversibly affected by the North Carolina General Assembly's refusal to expand Medicaid as laid out in the Affordable Care Act. The rest ,like me, are just people whose conscience will no longer allow them to sit idly on the sidelines. We have all been arrested for refusing to disperse from the building where “government of the people, by the people” has somehow managed to insulate itself from the people, with devastating results. We are the third wave of Moral Mondays.
Altogether there are forty nine of us, about twice as many were arrested last Monday, nearly three times as many as the original seventeen people who were arrested in the very first Moral Monday. This is the first time that they've needed more than one bus to take arrestees to the Wake County Detention Center. Our organizers are very happy. The movement is growing.
The gentleman seated to my right is a recently retired Marine Major with an absolutely beautiful singing voice for which I am especially grateful. There has been a lot of singing today, and for me that is problematic. God may love us all equally, but God’s gifts are distributed unevenly and God literally knows that singing is not one of mine. We’ve been at it pretty much the whole time since we got on the bus. The Major’s is far from the only great voice on the bus and I love hearing the singing, but the self-consciousness that comes with trying to do it is making me far more uncomfortable than the handcuffs. I'm keeping my voice barely audible and letting the Major shine.
The doors are all closed and the bus is moving now. We're pulling out from the parking area underneath the General Assembly. As we pulls up to turn onto North Salisbury Street, we can hear the voices of the witnesses, organizers, and supporters who have waited on the sidewalks to share their appreciation for our service today. It must be close to 8:00 pm because there’s still enough light to see them through the steel lattice on the bus windows.
I can very distinctly hear my friend, mentor, and NAACP Branch President, O'Linda Watkins calling out my name and cheering me on. If it hadn't been for O'Linda, one of the original seventeen Moral Monday arrestees, I don't know if I ever would have warmed up to the idea of getting arrested on purpose. After a moment, she falls back into chanting with the rest of the crowd:
Thank you! We love you!
Thank you! We love you!
Thank you! We love you!
We don't just hear it, we feel it. We feel the warmth, the sense of kinship and community, the love. We can can feel it even as the sound has faded and the Bus is making its way down West Jones Street heading for the detention center. I am here to tell you today that the feeling never goes away.

That's what Arc Bend Images is about. It’s about recognizing and appreciating all of the movement., the principals (and we have some amazing principals), the organizers, the participants, the entertainers, the documentarians, and the witnesses. If you're participating in any way at an event, I want the images to say that I see you. What you are doing matters. Thank you, we love you!
And if you didn't know or couldn't make it, I want the images to say “Man, you shoulda been there!”.

Welcome to Arc Bend Images. Thank you, we love you!