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The Rainbow Flag
Presently, perhaps the primary use of the rainbow emblem is
with regard to LGBTQ people. The rainbow flag was created in 1978 by artist Gilbert
Baker. Upon Baker's death in 2017, a California state senator remarked that Baker
(b. 1951 in Kansas) “helped define the modern LGBT movement.”
In June 2015, the White House was illuminated in the rainbow
flag colors to commemorate the legalization of same-sex marriage in all 50
states, following the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision.
The rainbow flag is now seen around the globe as a positive
representation of the LGBTQ community.
The Rainbow Coalition
Earlier, the rainbow was used in a different manner. In
April 1969, Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party founded an antiracist,
anticlass movement called the Rainbow Coalition.
That original Rainbow Coalition was a multicultural political
organization that included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (poor whites),
and the Young Lords (Hispanics), and an alliance of major Chicago street gangs to
help them end infighting and work for social change.
Hampton (b. 1948) was assassinated in December 1969—and that
is the climax of Judas and the Black Messiah, the 2021 American biographical
crime drama film about the betrayal of Hampton by an FBI informant.
Many years later, in Nov. 1983, Jesse Jackson launched his
campaign for the 1984 presidential election, claiming to be fighting for the
rights of a “Rainbow Coalition” of Americans—including Blacks, Whites, Latinos,
Native Americans and Asian Americans; men and women; straight and LGBTQ.
The Rainbow Division
As many of you know, for ten years now my wife and I have
been members of Rainbow Mennonite Church (RMC) in Kansas City, Kansas, (KCKS).
Before we attended there for the first time in 2011, I sent an email to the
pastor, asking, among other things, about the name.
We had heard that RMC was a church that welcomed and affirmed
LGBTQ people, so we wondered if the church’s name was related to that stance.
It turned out that there was no connection.
RMC is now located on Southwest Boulevard, but the church’s
first location was on Rainbow Boulevard, a KCKS roadway that was renamed that in
1919 in honor of the 42nd U.S. Infantry Division.
That 42nd Division was formed 105 years ago, in
August 1917, at the beginning of U.S. engagement in the First World War. It was
created by combining military units from 26 states and D.C.
Douglas MacArthur said that such an organization stretches
“over the whole country like a rainbow.” As a result, the 42nd came
to be known as the Rainbow Division.
Several of those who served in the 42nd Division
were from the small city of Rosedale (which was annexed by KCKS in 1922).
Rosedale welcomed local veterans home from the war with rainbow colored
bunting, and then Hudson Road, a major street in Rosedale, was renamed Rainbow
Boulevard.
In 1957 a Mennonite church was organized in Rosedale. When
it merged with another Mennonite congregation in 1964, the name was changed to
Rainbow Boulevard Mennonite Church. Then when the church moved to its present
location in 1969, “Boulevard” was dropped from its name.
Mennonites have mostly refused to serve in the military, and
during WWI many conscientious objectors were harshly treated and some were
jailed. Thus, it is somewhat ironic that our church’s name comes from the
“Rainbow Division,” the 42nd U.S. Infantry Division.
Nevertheless, we members at RMC are proud of our name and
the larger meaning of what “rainbow” signifies.
And most of us believe that “The moral arc of the universe
is long and bends toward justice.” Maybe that moral arc, which is shaped like a
rainbow, is also colored like a rainbow and is, indeed, bending toward justice and
equality for all the diverse people represented by the colors of the rainbow.
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