Reflections on Black History
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it has been faced. History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we literally are criminals.” ~ James Baldwin, “I Am Not Your Negro”.
Recently I was asked if I would be willing to speak to a group of Sierra Club leaders and relay my thoughts on what Black History means to me. Due to time constraints, I presented a truncated version of this essay.
As a young boy growing up in South Mississippi, Black history was a source of pride. I remember the first time I learned that there was a Black National Anthem. The words “Lift every voice and sing, till Earth and Heaven ring”…. were so inspiring. Yet at the same time, I wondered why we needed a Black National Anthem. As an adult, I recognized and took note of the 2 nations to which I belonged juxtaposed against one another.
I was taught about the impacts that black people had on sports and some of the things invented by black people. But as I matured and began to look back at the history of this country it became evident that my history wasn’t taught. I was taught a watered-down version of the past.
Growing up I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X…. The three historical figures of note in my youth. But even in those lessons at school I never learned that Rosa Parks didn’t just happen to sit down at the front of that bus on a whim, that her actions were part of a larger plan.
It was never explained to me the significance of the Dr. in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s title. That he was a critical thinker and had a doctorate degree in theology and took coursework in philosophy. But most importantly I was never taught in school that his view of how to go about the fight for civil rights changed over the course of his life and tenure as a social activist. I was never taught that toward the end of his life Dr. King delivered at least one speech in which he stated that he had realized that nonviolence would only take this country so far and alluded to the necessity of other means to progress beyond that point.
I was also never taught that Malcolm X changed his stance from being a separatist to a view of more universal brotherhood with all people after his Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca.
W. E. B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, Edgar Nixon, Marvel Jackson Cooke, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Meredith, Fred Hampton, Henrietta Lacks and organizations and events like the Black Panther Party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and its attendance at the National Democratic Convention, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the destruction of Black Wall Street, The MOVE Bombing, The Rosewood Massacre, The destruction of Seneca Village in Manhattan and Freedom Summer 1964. All of these individuals and organizations were either not taught or they were taught in such a way that only the negative was presented. There are countless others.
As I grew older and started to recognize the discrepancies in how and what I was being taught I began to look at what I hadn’t been taught. This was colored by the lessons my parents taught us as kids. Lessons like if you buy something from the store make sure you get a receipt so you can prove that you paid for it. Don’t talk back to the police. And probably most importantly that I could not do everything that my white friends did because I didn’t have the luxury of living carefree in a society that deems me suspicious and threatening simply because of the color of my skin.
As a black person in America, one lesson that is particularly hard to learn but that you don’t necessarily have to be actively taught is that people that look like you are more likely to be mistreated. That even the police that exists to “keep the peace” and protect communities can be added to the long list of things that threaten your personal safety and that of your community.
George Floyd was killed in May of 2020. From that date until May of 2021 over 1000 people were killed by police. Last year there were only 15 days out of the 365 that no one was killed by a police officer in this country. The larger issue is that this didn’t just start happening. The numbers aren’t higher in recent years. These numbers have been holding steady for decades now. Black communities have been pleading for and demanding change for generations. Those cries going mostly ignored because (one would have to conclude) our lives didn’t matter.
See Black History is simply that part of American history that no one wants to talk about. The way we treat it is like a tale of 2 separate countries. Let’s revisit 1964. That was quite an eventful year with civil rights uprisings and 2 key pieces of landmark legislation being passed, The Wilderness Act was signed into law on September 3, 1964. Just a few short months earlier the Civil Rights Act was enacted on July 2 of 1964. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this was a mere 2 days before the Independence Day holiday in which our country celebrates gaining our freedom and independence to govern ourselves as we see fit. Yet there was a necessity to pass federal laws so that black people, all people can be guaranteed those same privileges. That’s another interesting juxtaposition.
Additionally, I’d like to point out that while black people were fighting for the right to exist in this country there was a different segment of society so far removed from those struggles that they had the luxury to be worried about drafting a wholly different piece of landmark legislation. A process that took years to complete much like the fight for civil rights. I’m not condemning anyone for tackling the issues of conservation and preservation at that time or at any time. My intent is to ask you to view these two events as having happened concurrently and to consider the daily lives of those with boots on the ground doing the work in both instances. Recognizing that there is a very stark difference between the two. Doing so allows one to see the two very different countries I have alluded to. One in which citizens fight for their inalienable human rights while citizens of the other fight for the right to conserve and protect places, plants, and animals. Both exist within our wonderful republic.
There is another quote from James Baldwin that I’d like to share
“I don’t know what most white people in this country feel. But I can only conclude what they feel from the state of their institutions. I don’t know if White Christians hate Negroes or not, but I know we have a Christian Church which is white and a Christian Church which is black. I know, as Malcolm X once put it, the most segregated hour in American life is high noon on Sunday.
That says a great deal for me about a Christian nation. It means I can’t afford to trust most white Christians and I certainly cannot trust the Christian Church. I don’t know whether the Labor Unions and their bosses really hate me. That doesn’t matter, But I know I’m not in their unions. I don’t know if the real estate lobby has anything against black people, but I know the real estate lobby is keeping me in the ghetto. I don’t know if the board of education hates black people, but I know the textbooks they give my children to read and schools that we have to go to.
Now, this is the evidence. You want me to make an act of faith, risking myself, my wife, my woman, my sister, my children, on some idealism which you assure me exists in America, which I have never seen.”
And this takes me back to our 2 national anthems. Lift Every Voice and Sing juxtaposed against the Star-Spangled Banner. The first was adopted by a people that have endured hundreds of years of oppression in a country that our ancestors were forced to come to and forced to build. It waxes poetic about an ideal society in which all individuals are treated equally and celebrated. The second shows reverence for our country’s flag. When taken in its entirety the words of the Star-Spangled Banner reflect the same ideals that the flag itself stands for; that all men shall be free to govern themselves as they see fit and have land and a country to call home. The two anthems seemingly laud similar ideals yet they represent two very different realities.
This country has operated on the notion that there are two different sets of history that we should be aware of; American History and Black History. Black History is simply the history that no one really wants to talk about because, for the most part, it shines a spotlight on the bitter part of our past that reminds us that a romanticized view of our beloved country isn’t entirely accurate. The fact that we teach our children that the history of Black Americans is such that it needs to be taught separately from the way we teach American History is in fact a condemnation of and an admission of guilt by this country and its the treatment of Black people. So to me, Black history is all that I’ve detailed to this point and more but even more importantly it is a celebration of overcoming obstacles, oppression, and prejudice. It’s a celebration of the major contributions to our country’s culture. But most importantly it’s a celebration of me being my ancestor’s wildest dreams.
I’d like to add that I am incredibly proud to be a part of the Sierra Club. I’ve seen the organization attempt to lead the charge for environmental justice from the standpoint of being an organization traditionally concerned with the conservation and preservation of natural resources. That we have connected that with environmental justice and are beginning to reconcile the two and tie them to social justice is incredibly important to me. The work being done is vitally important to our country and rewarding and enriching to my own life.
