The Day America Modified
September 11, 2001 started as an exquisite Tuesday in New York. I had simply dropped off my mom, Dorothy, when information of the assaults on the World Commerce Middle broke. As a chaplain for the New York Police Division (NYPD), I had not but acquired orders from police headquarters, however I knew I needed to transfer.
I started praying with the households of cops and firefighters I knew within the Bronx. With transportation disrupted, I used my emergency automobile to move dad and mom and grandparents to choose up the youngsters from faculty. Then, round 10 p.m., I used to be referred to as to Floor Zero.
By then, first responders had spent the day attempting to avoid wasting their siblings from the fallen towers. They have been exhausted however nonetheless trying to find survivors. Within the midst of the devastation, we fashioned a circle: firefighters, medical personnel, cops, individuals of various races and religions, and me, a black girl, pastor and chaplain for the New York Police Division. We prayed collectively.
I’ll always remember this circle. In these days, race and faith didn’t matter. We have been one metropolis and one nation going through loss like by no means earlier than. Religion triumphed over tragedy.
Twenty-five years later, America should keep in mind what we knew in that circle. We should discover our approach again to changing into the UNITED STATESnot the divided states of America.
At this time’s race did not matter
Years in the past, I described 9/11 as “the race of the day did not matter.” I did not imply that the breed had disappeared. I knew I used to be a Black girl at Floor Zero and I understood the historical past I carried because the NYPD’s first feminine chaplain. What I’ve witnessed is that our widespread humanity turns into extra seen than our variations.
For weeks, I prayed with cops and firefighters, responded to traumatized 9-1-1 operators listening to individuals perish on the opposite finish of the road, and ministered to church members who had a daunting brush with loss of life. Finally, rescue became restoration. Households have been figuring out stays and I attended funerals every single day, serving to households bury first responders who had run towards hazard whereas everybody else was attempting to get out.
After six weeks, 42 days of grief, I keep in mind stopping my automobile and crying. One query has change into unattainable to disregard: Who’s there for the one that takes care of everybody?
This query helped to deepen what I name care of the soul. Those that look after others additionally want care. A soul has no race, ethnicity, or gender. It’s the sacred place inside us that wants hope, therapeutic, and renewal in order that we will proceed to be of service to others.
Black ladies have at all times proven up
I used to be the black NYPD chaplain at Floor Zero and a part of a for much longer custom. Black ladies of religion have at all times proven up when America is hurting. We prayed, organized, taught, marched, mothered, served, and constructed bridges, usually with out recognition.
I noticed this custom in my mom, Dorothy C. Johnson. She skilled oppression and poverty rising up within the fields of Monroe, North Carolina. But, like Harriet Tubman returning for others, my mom returned to show area staff so they may proceed their schooling. This similar spirit carried me to Floor Zero.
I noticed it within the Muslim and Christian ladies of Liberia who got here collectively throughout spiritual strains searching for peace, within the legacy of Coretta Scott King, and in numerous black ladies whose names could by no means seem in historical past books, however whose religion unites households and communities.
Black ladies are nonetheless on the entrance strains of religion. That’s why I’ve spent the final six years assembly with Black ladies ministers, connecting established and rising leaders with mentorship, sources, and alternatives. As this work culminates in October, I’m reminded that girls who spend their lives caring for others additionally have to be seen and supported. Black ladies have already helped America heal. We might help America heal once more.
When New Yorkers wanted therapeutic for his or her souls
The Wednesday after September 11, New Yorkers have been requested to return to work. I held a lunchtime worship service just a few doorways down from the World Commerce Middle. Individuals of various races and backgrounds arrived, scared. They wanted a spot the place their souls could possibly be soothed and their hope renewed.
Scripture speaks of individuals assembly Jesus and leaving “a distinct approach” than the one by which they got here. That is what I witnessed. They arrived in concern and left otherwise. It bolstered what I had seen at Floor Zero: religion and look after the soul are common.
After 9/11, I continued this lesson by forming the Religion Partnership, bringing collectively rabbis, imams, clerics, and different spiritual leaders. We exchanged pulpits, gathered at social and sacred occasions, and realized one another’s cultural norms. We selected to construct bridges as an alternative of letting our variations separate us.
From Floor Zero to international diplomacy
This work ultimately grew to become half of a bigger calling. In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed me as United States Ambassador-at-Giant for Worldwide Spiritual Freedom. I went from ministering at Floor Zero to serving on the worldwide stage, with 199 nations in my portfolio and a duty to defend individuals’s freedom to observe their religion.
The geography has modified, however not the precept. Each missions required what I name frontline religion: the willingness to indicate up when persons are divided, afraid, harm, or threatened.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, America feels unstable once more. There’s conflict overseas and division at residence, and an excessive amount of of our nationwide dialog focuses on what separates us moderately than what can carry us collectively.
I do know one other approach is feasible as a result of I witnessed it within the prayer circle at Floor Zero, in scared New Yorkers discovering peace collectively, in religion leaders coming into one another’s sacred areas, and in black ladies stepping ahead to heal and maintain communities collectively.
Perhaps it begins nearer to residence. What if ladies fashioned circles in our dwelling rooms and eating rooms and invited ladies whose backgrounds, beliefs or experiences differ from ours? What if we prayed, listened, and realized from one another earlier than returning to a divided world?
Twenty-five years in the past, I noticed a circle forming amid the devastation of Floor Zero. Individuals wanted hope and we supported one another.
America does not want one other Floor Zero to recapture that spirit. We will select widespread floor over dissent, religion over concern, unity over division, and hope over despair.
I nonetheless imagine within the therapeutic energy of Black ladies, the ability of religion to construct bridges, and our means to change into one nation once more.
The world was ready for us.
Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook dinner, referred to as “America’s Chaplain,” is the primary feminine New York Police Division chaplain, a former U.S. Ambassador-at-Giant for Worldwide Spiritual Freedom appointed by President Barack Obama, world spiritual chief and creator of 17 books. In October 2026, she culminates a six-year initiative supporting Black ladies in ministry with a convention in Harlem and the launch of Seasoned Salt and its documentary, No extra silence. Be taught extra about his work right here.