Belfast and Nashville are almost four thousand miles apart.  The cities are different in many ways.  However, when you look at their histories, the cities have a significant similarity.  Nashville, and Belfast went through a difficult very difficult time in the 1960s.  Also uniting the two cities is the fact that they have emerged into a more peaceful future.  Both cities have a history of struggle and resilience.  There is still work to be done on both sides of the Atlantic and true reconciliation is not yet a reality in either city.  Nonetheless, real progress has been made.

This joint progress was apparent at a conference I attended in Nashville, Tennessee in February, entitled the 'Peace Summit: A Reflection on the Past, A Call to Action,' sponsored by Fisk and Belmont Universities in Nashville and the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s in Belfast.  The conference looked at cities’ histories examining the hard road of peacebuilding.

The opening day of the conference was held at Fisk University which is known in the USA as an historically black college and university (HBCUs).  HCBUs are colleges and universities that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Most of these educational institutions were founded in the years immediately after the American Civil and are located primarily in the southern part of the United States.  While HBCUs play an important role in the American education system today, they were even more important before 1964 when educational opportunities for African Americans were severely limited. 

Sitting in the historic Fisk University chapel waiting for the conference to begin, one could feel the presence of Fisk’s most famous alumni, the late Congressman and civil rights advocate John Lewis hovering over the proceedings.  Though he was certainly a gifted orator, he was after all an ordained Baptist minister, Lewis became known as the foot soldier of the Civil Rights movement.  Lewis was literally on the front lines helping America to move to a better place.  As a longtime resident of Washington, DC, I was lucky enough to meet Lewis a few times.  He was a man of quiet dignity.  While Lewis was a serious man, he always had a quick smile.  If you were close enough to Lewis, you could easily see the scar on his forehead that he received when he was beaten as a civil rights worker.  He was well-versed in both the academic and practical aspects of conflict transformation.

As a student of conflict transformation, it was helpful to be reminded that the civil rights movement in both Belfast and Nashville were fuelled by the discipline of creative non-violence.  When civil rights activists in both cities went out into the street, they were supported by both a firm commitment to non-violence but also an impressive body of academic thinking.  Creating social change requires both thought and action. 

A highlight of the conference for me was a bus tour visiting the sites of the Nashville civil rights movement with many people who had lived through those turbulent days.  Visiting the sites associated with the Civil Rights movement in Nashville, reminded me of a group tour I had taken early on at Queen’s University as part of my academic work as a student in the Conflict Transformation and Social Justice Master’s Degree program, which focused on the Falls and Shankhill roads.  Seeing the sites in Nashville and Belfast where civil rights battles had been fought reminded me that these events were not just confined to academic discussions.

I was encouraged by the fact that many of the sites we visited in Nashville had state historical markers explaining the site’s history and significance.  The United States is in so many ways dealing with racial injustice, but by marking the significance of Nashville’s civil rights history we are taking a step in the right direction.  For those interested in learning more about the civil rights era, please check out Travel Tennessee’s guide to civil rights history in Nashville.

Queen’s University was ably represented at the conference by Professor Duffy, from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work and Mitchell Institute Fellow, Professor Richard English Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s, and Dr Peter McLoughlin is a Reader of Politics and Mitchell Institute Fellow. 

The contributions that Duffy, English and McLoughlin brought to the conference were diverse and significant.  However, one theme that came through in all of them was that history is very complex.  It is almost never neat and simple.  For example, Dr McLoughlin pointed out that while that while the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland was inspired in many significant ways by their American counterparts, there were important differences.  Most prominent among the differences is that the Irish civil rights struggle was taking place against the background of a constitutional question.

Many of the themes of the conference were brought together by Professor English in his address on 'Conflict and Peace in the 21^st Century.'  For me, the two key points of English’s address were that we often exaggerate what can be achieved through violence and that the implementation of a peace accord is as hard if not harder than waging the conflict.  The latter point is something that both Belfast and Nashville can testify to.

As with any good conference, the Peace Summit left me curious to explore more topics related to Nashville and Belfast’s civil rights history.  Some of the items that might lend themselves to more discussion in my mind include:

• How did Irish civil rights campaigners learn what was happening in America?  Was it mainly through TV coverage?
• Were American civil rights leaders aware of the impact their fight was having in Northern Ireland?
• Did Irish civil rights campaigners reach out to American leaders and discuss tactics and strategies with them?
• What role if any did Irish America play in conveying the story of American civil rights struggle to activists in Northern Ireland?

Belfast and Nashville have been sister cites since 1995 – three years before the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.  The conference was a clear reminder that two cities have come to conclude that the journey of peacebuilding, as hard as it is, is the only way forward.

In these uncertain times, we can all learn a lot from Belfast and Nashville.

Both cites have not yet achieved reconciliation, but they are moving in the right direct.  This is a development we should all celebrate. 

 

Martin Burns

Martin Burns recently graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast with a Masters in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice with distinction.  His dissertation focused on how Sinn Féin persuaded the Republican constituency to support the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.  He has worked as a congressional aide, journalist, and lobbyist and is a member of the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and a member of the National Writers Union.

 

The First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill in Nashville played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a training ground for sit-in participants and a hub for activism, particularly under the leadership of Pastor Kelly Miller Smith, who founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Council.