Doug Luginbill reflects on a Mennonite Mission Network civil rights learning tour that he took with Central District Conference earlier this year. During this tour he learned the broader meaning of “potlikker,” a word he and his siblings used during their youth.
This article was originally published in the Central District Conference July Connector, as “Doug’s Mug-Potlikker.” It is reposted here with permission.
Doug Luginbill is the conference minister for Central District Conference.
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While growing up on a hog farm in rural Pandora, Ohio, I occasionally heard my older brothers, in a fit of frustration, cry out, “You potlikker!”[1] Usually, the term was reserved for a particularly stubborn pig that was refusing to move along the aisle or up the ramp to the market truck. I never gave much thought to the origins of the word.
In May, seven folks representing seven different Central District Conference congregations participated in a seven-day civil rights learning tour, led by Mennonite Mission Network. It was a humbling, eye-opening and meaningful experience.
We heard the stories of newly-arrived asylum seekers, housed by Casa Alterna in Atlanta. We heard wisdom shouting in the street, lifting her voice in the square (Proverbs 1:20), as a woman drew attention to the plight of the homeless, the destitute, the immigrant, the human. We toured the National Memorial for Peace and Justice — a lynching memorial — and museums that told the stories of slavery, emancipation, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, civil rights and mass incarceration.
Lynda Blackmon Lowery tells about the march from Selma to Montgomery when she turned 15. Photo credit: Doug Luginbill.
We listened with fascination as Joanne Bland gave us a tour of Selma, Alabama, and told of being jailed 11 times by age 13, partly as a ploy to distract police from adults planning the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Joanne is co-founder and former director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma. We heard Joanne’s sister share her experience of celebrating her 15th birthday on that historic march. We mourned as we heard the detailed retelling of the Ku Klux Klan murder of three civil rights workers outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964. And we ate delicious southern food.
Leroy Clemens recounts the story of the murders of the three civil rights workers. Photo credit: Doug Luginbill.
It was during an evening meal at Open Door Mennonite Church in Jackson, Mississippi, that pastor Hugh Hollowell drew our attention to the broth from the smoky collard greens. “That’s potlikker on your plate. Use the cornbread to soak it up.”
The website bonappetit says, “Potlikker (or “pot liquor”) … [is] the brothy liquid gold left behind after boiling greens and beans—and its roots in Southern culinary traditions and heritage run deep.”
I had no idea that the slang term I used on the farm had another meaning and that its slang usage had roots in racism and the disparagement of the poor.
Learning tours, as I mentioned, are eye openers. They provide a new way of seeing, a different way of understanding and a recognition that there is much to learn. Learning tours can cause embarrassment and induce guilt. They are also stepping stones to freedom, reconciliation and wisdom.
Maya Angelou famously said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Community Center in Selma; Joanne Bland was in prison 11 times by age 13. Photo credit: Doug Luginbill.
Listen! Wisdom is calling. A characteristic of biblical sophia, or wisdom, is her invitation to listen. Sirach 6:33 and 36 state, “If you love to listen, you will learn; if you give your mind to it, you will grow wise. … Rise early and visit those you discover to be wise; wear a path into their door.”
At our CDC Annual Meeting in June, we were invited to experience God in feminine imagery. We were reminded of the importance of Safe Church policies and practices. And we were encouraged to imagine God and the church in wider and expansive, life-giving ways.
The Holy Spirit continues to move among us, drawing us toward greater wisdom that is deeply rooted in God’s creative, transformative and just shalom. Let us drink deeply from the rich, liquid gold of God’s potlikker.
[1] Yes, I learned to use the term, as well, although, I thought it was spelled “pot-licker.”
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