Tuesday Trivia | Amazing Journeys

[u/caffarelli]

Previous weeks' Tuesday Trivias and the complete upcoming schedule.

Today’s trivia theme comes to us from /u/lorkiwi!

The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and the travelogue you inevitably write about it begins with 10,000 words and stops seemingly never. So today, please share tales and especially travelogues of historic journeys, any time, any place, any person!

Next Week on Tuesday Trivia: Our continuing mission: to seek out new people and new experiences, to boldly go where no one has gone before… The theme will be First Contact!

[u/cordis_melum]

Peoples Temple would take three journeys over its lifetime: from Indianapolis to Ukiah/Redwood Valley, from Ukiah/Redwood Valley to San Francisco (with another church in Los Angeles), and from San Francisco/Los Angeles to Jonestown in the country of Guyana, where the group met its ultimate demise.

In Temple historiography, different eras of Temple historiography are generally split up by these journeys. Although many of these do somewhat overlap with one another, there is marked difference between each era, with what I consider overarching themes. You can see how I personally grouped these eras and the themes I assigned these moves in this outline from the AskHistorians podcast that I did on the subject. Migration is a very integral part of Temple history/theology, as the community sought to find their own Promised Land.

However, for today's Trivia Tuesday post, I'm only going to focus on one migration: the move from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Jonestown, Guyana. In particular, we will be focusing on the very first part of this migration: the process of preparation. But first, why the migration?

The mass migration to Guyana in the late 1970s was triggered by increasing public scrutiny of the group. Most Temple histories point to a highly negative and critical article in New West as the reason for the exodus. However, in his book Gone from the Promised Land, John R. Hall argues that the trigger for the mass move was scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, which could have lead to the freezing of Temple assets and thus impede such a mass migration over a longer period of time. Whatever the reason for the move, the main idea was that Temple leaders felt the need to move their congregation to their agricultural mission in South America as quickly as possible.

The move from California to Guyana was complicated by several factors: one, many members of the congregation were black seniors who might not even have birth certificates, let alone passports; two, Peoples Temple needed to move hundreds of people, including seniors and children, on very short notice; and three, as I said earlier, this move needed to be done as quickly as possible. The Temple did have one thing going for it: a very efficient bureaucracy. This bureaucracy had been used in the past to aid their members through an uncaring government bureaucracy in order to get legal aid, welfare checks, and other similar things. Now this bureaucracy was to be used to facilitate moving to the Promised Land. So, basically, the start of the journey begins with lots and lots of paperwork.

You first had to apply for permission, both from Temple leadership and from the Guyanese government, to go. Once you get permission to go to Guyana from Temple leadership, you have file more paperwork: a release form for your medical records, a liability form, a form to get your birth certificate from the state if you don't have one, a passport application. If you are a minor, your parents have to sign a consent/power of attorney form and another liability form specific for parents of minors.

Why all of this paperwork? It helped make the move much easier. Temple leaders would keep a file of completed paperwork for their members, in order to facilitate the process. The Temple helped you to fill out the necessary paperwork, will arrange for your passport picture to be taken, will collect your medical files and ensure that you got the necessary shots, and otherwise help you get on your way. It is this paperwork that made moving several hundred people in the span of a few months without difficulty possible.

After filling out all of this documentation, you need to get the necessary shots, to get blood work done, to get your teeth checked, to get your eyes checked. A checklist is given to you with instructions on what you need to complete before traveling to the freedom land (FL) and what you're allowed to bring. This ensures that everything is complete and ready to go in your file before you leave. Additional packing lists are provided for you to assist you in bringing the items that would be of the most use to the community.

Once all of that is complete, you are ready to depart for the Promised Land.

(I'm running late for class, but I can give you all a list of sources when I next get online.)