We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.   (From the Preamble)

The audience, sitting on folding chairs, packed tightly into the basement fellowship hall of St. Joseph’s CME church, listened intently to Miss Pat Jackson, a charismatic middle-aged woman, dressed in a fuchsia suit with a striking, perfectly tied, red silk scarf, as she told them about the Northside neighborhood and church she grew up in. As far as I could tell, many of the assembled– members of a UCC church just down the street from St. Joseph’s– were hearing about the history of the historically African-American neighborhood and church for the first time.

Also among the audience was…