Photo credit: Melanie L. Brown with Steed Media
William E. Hall is the pastor of St. James Lutheran Church in the city of Chicago. He is also the founder of the Acts of Love organization. He started Acts of Love in 2011. The organization has given out over 200,000 books since its inception.
What is Acts of Love?
Acts of Love is a human rights social service for young people who live within impoverished communities.
How many people went to Flint with you?
Five.
Why did you choose to give books to Flint?
We chose books to provide a river of knowledge for those who were poisoned by a contaminated river.
Why bring books instead of water?
Because some people find hope in reading. Books are a passport to the world. We wanted them to look past their pain and imagine a new life and reach for new possibilities that they discover while reading.
About how many books did you give out?
2,000
Where did you get the books from?
We received donations from people from all over Chicago.
What do you want to see done with the books given to families?
Our aim is to build many libraries in public communities, parents to read to their children and create literacy awareness in their home, we want them to be to have clean water and knowledge.
What did you experience with the children in Flint?
A sense of hope, resilience, and a “don’t forget about us.” A young person asked if we’re coming back. They don’t want to be forgotten.
Do you believe they enjoyed getting the books?
Absolutely. There was gratitude, they were excited, and excited by the titles of the books and had a sense of humility. The parents were happy about receiving the books, too.
What types of books did you give out?
We gave out thesauruses, dictionaries, Black history, chapter books, and early adolescent activity books.
What did you learn about Flint?
I learned that poverty is a continual weapon of mass destruction and Flint was an intentional mass genocide. Knowing the fact that people in mass communities in 4 miles north, south, east or west were not affected but Flint was is genocide. GM motor company had clean water which suggest that capitalism superceded human dignity. The fight is beyond water, the fight is for infrastructure development, fight for minority contracts for Flint to build the city and reconstruction of the educational system. We must reconstruct the pipes as well as access to quality education and resources for the poor.
The government and the state of Michigan should find a way to build home filtration systems in their homes. People need access to quality water now.
