On May 19, 2018, at 7a.m. PST, I watched along with the rest of the world, what was one of the most historic and meaningful events of the 21st century. The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. I celebrated with the royal family and more specifically, with African American women, an event that I don’t think any of us ever thought we would see – “one of us” wed an actual prince and become an accepted and celebrated member of the royal family of Great Britain and the Duchess of Sussex.
As I write this, I realize that women everywhere celebrated this event and for varied reasons. Working, modern women love Megan because she’s “one of us.” A hard-working, middle-class girl who made a name for herself on her own BEFORE she married a prince.
She is also a member of a unique sisterhood as a graduate of Immaculate Heart High School, a Catholic, all-girls High School in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Catholic school girls, everywhere (past and present), celebrated along with Megan that again, “one of us” made good. I celebrated along with my sisters in Christ of Immaculate Heart (I’m a graduate of St. Bernard’s High School, class of 1985), as they came out to virtually attend Megan and Harry’s wedding early that Saturday morning in their sweat pants, pajamas and fascinators. They inspired me to create my own fascinator in a spirit of solidarity.
I have always been a fan of Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s romance but to be honest, it took a couple of weeks and a few conversations for the full force of their union, and everything it took for their union to manifest, to settle in for me. Their love story is more than just the story of a “commoner” marrying royalty or that of an interracial couple. Their union and specifically Megan Markle, is the culmination of almost five hundred years of history, spanning 3 continents. It redeems the contentious history of three groups – African slaves, the English and their involvement in the slave trade and Americans, black and white. Their love story and marriage is really the story of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ.
From 1640 until 1807, England was a global leader in the sale of African slaves, the demand for which was fueled by the rise of sugar as a very lucrative, labor-intensive crop in the Americas. According to the British National Archives, “England, along with Portugal, became two of the most ‘successful’ slave trading countries, accounting for more than 70% of all African slaves in the Americas… an estimated 3.1 million Africans.”
Abolitionist in England were finally successful in ending the trade with the Abolition of Slave Trade Act in 1807, which stopped the trading of slaves on British vessels. This act was eventually passed due in part to the powerful oratory and dogged determination of William Wilberforce and the moral authority and personal testimony of John Newton.
John Newton had a unique understanding of the horrific conditions caused by the slave trade. Newton had been “pressed-ganged” or forced into service by the British Royal Navy and then traded to a slave ship, ultimately becoming captain of a vessel that trafficked slaves. One night while trying to save his ship during a violent storm, Newton had a conversion experience. He came to the conclusion that he was utterly helpless in this situation and that “only the grace of God could save him.”
Ultimately, Newton, with the help of God, was able to bring his vessel safely home. Based on that experience and many others, Newton gave his life to Christ and became an Anglican priest. Today, he is probably best known for penning the lyrics to the hymn “Amazing Grace” – where he speaks of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ that could “save a wretch” like him.
Ultimately, Newton, with the help of God, was able to bring his vessel safely home. Based on that experience and many others, Newton gave his life to Christ and became an Anglican priest. Today, he is probably best known for penning the lyrics to the hymn “Amazing Grace” – where he speaks of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ that could “save a wretch” like him.
The new Duchess of Sussex is the descendant of African slaves, many of whom were brought to this country on British slave ships. According to the DailyMail.com, Megan Markle’s great, great, great grandmother, Mattie Turnipseed, was born in Jonesboro, Georgia around the time of the American Civil War. Her 5th great grandfather, Joseph Betts, a “colored” farmer, was born in Madison, Alabama in 1820 and fought for the Union in the Civil War.
Since the 1800s, both England and the United States have inched closer to reconciling the way we treat our fellow man to the words of Jesus Christ and His mandate to “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind … and to Love thy neighbor as thyself.” [Matt. 22:37, 39 KJV]
In the United States, there has been an ebb and flow to this progression. We moved toward Christ’s mandate with the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which freed the slaves and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin respectively. However, we have almost always moved away from Christ’s mandate immediately after, falling back into old cultural norms that are at odds with the teachings of Jesus, as we did with Jim Crow laws in the south after the Civil War and the current racial hostility we see today in this country. The United States has truly struggled with living up to the Golden Rule, but England seems to have embraced it more.
I’m not saying that England has been perfect at this, but they have made a steady progression in the right direction. They ended slavery, first in England and then in their colonies, more than twenty years before the American Civil War, and it didn’t take a war to do it. And although there still are class distinctions in England today (and that is improving), race isn’t nearly as big of an issue there as it is here in the United States.
Having visited England twice, wandering the streets of London (and getting lost most of the time) I found Anglo Londoners to be very helpful and didn’t feel that being African American was in anyway a negative. Unfortunately, I can’t say that about Chicago or Los Angeles, cities that I’ve lived in here in the United States.
So when I watched Megan Markle, accompanied by her mother, arrive in a horse-drawn carriage at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, and be walked down the aisle by Prince Charles, to become the lawful wedded wife of Prince Harry before God, England, and all the world, I was overwhelmed with joy and in awe of the power and faithfulness of God to move the on behave of his people, to move the hearts of minds of kings. To raise up the lowly and to repair the breach, when we humble ourselves before Him.
I rejoiced as I virtually attended their wedding, not just for Megan, but also for Sally Hemmings, who was the Thomas Jefferson’s sister in law but because she was biracial and a slave, could never be Jefferson’s lawful wife, even though she bore him five children and he never married another woman. I rejoiced for all of the women who are the descendants of those brought over during the slave trade, who were the mothers and lovers of Anglo men, who could not be publicly or lawfully recognized as such because of the color of their skin and the evil hearts of men. And I rejoiced with the royal family, who over the years, have continually humbled themselves before God, making corrections when necessary, and agreed to receive and be made new, by the redemptive the Love of Jesus Christ.
I rejoiced as I virtually attended their wedding, not just for Megan, but also for Sally Hemmings, who was the Thomas Jefferson’s sister in law but because she was biracial and a slave, could never be Jefferson’s lawful wife, even though she bore him five children and he never married another woman. I rejoiced for all of the women who are the descendants of those brought over during the slave trade, who were the mothers and lovers of Anglo men, who could not be publicly or lawfully recognized as such because of the color of their skin and the evil hearts of men. And I rejoiced with the royal family, who over the years, have continually humbled themselves before God, making corrections when necessary, and agreed to receive and be made new, by the redemptive the Love of Jesus Christ.