“Black History Month”
February 2, 2011
I had really not intended to write anything at all about “Black History Month”, which commenced yesterday. Over the years, I’ve come to realize the hard feelings that get aroused because Black people want to celebrate the significant contributions made by Black people, not only within our own communities, but to our country and, in fact, our world. These contributions are normally given short acknowledgement, if any at all, in the history books selected by various school boards across our land.
A friend and fraternity brother of mine e-mailed a couple of links to news articles of local interest. One link gave information on local “Black History Month” festivities and featured a prominent picture of another member of my fraternity. It was when I was reading that article that I decided I had to write, yet again, a piece on “Black History Month”. There was nothing in the article itself that compelled me to write, but the ugly commentary that followed what ordinarily would have been an informative, albeit benign article.
What seems to be lost in any discussion about “Black History Month” is the history behind “Black History Month.” “Negro History Week” was started in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson’s goal was to educate Blacks about their cultural background, and instill in them a sense of pride in their race. Woodson sought to make the history of African-Americans be considered a more significant part of American history as a whole. Over the years, the contributions of African-Americans have been getting more mention in the history books, but when “Negro History Week” was started in 1926, they weren’t. I vividly recall history classes in elementary school in the 1960’s and 1970’s where the only mention of Black people outside of slavery was the one or two sentences about Crispus Attucks.
Historian John Hope Franklin said that it was always Carter G. Woodson’s hope that one day, there would be no need for “Negro History Week”, that it would one day “outlive its usefulness”. To those who expressed comments about the Peoria Journal Star’s article such as “When is White History Month?” and to those who complain that such commemoration is another example of “playing the race card”, it may appear that time has come. The election of the first African-American President of the United States supposedly ushered in the era of “post-racial America”. However, the rancor and vitriol that pervades comments about the “:Black History Month” article in the Peoria Journal Star indicates otherwise. Haley Barbour’s false claims of attending integrated schools in Mississippi and of befriending Verna Bailey, the first Black woman to attend the University of Mississippi would indicate otherwise. Barbour’s claims that the White Citizen’s Councils in Mississippi were a proponent of racial equality would indicate otherwise. Joy Massof’s egregiously erroneous textbook “Our Virginia Past & Present”, which states that “Thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson”, a claim countered as false by actual historians, would indicate otherwise. Michele Bachmann’s historically inaccurate assertion that “the very founders that wrote those documents (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America) worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States” would indicate otherwise.
Sometimes, we need to be reminded of the truth, no matter how ugly it is and how much it makes us squirm. Being uncomfortable with “Black History Month” indicates a larger problem with perception of others whose difference triggers resentment. Ronald Reagan once said:
“There is sin and evil in the world, and we’re enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might. Our nation, too, has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.”
Our main problem today is that we refuse to deal with that legacy of evil honestly. Because of this, we have yet to “transcend the moral evils of our past”. John 8: 31-32 states:
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
If we remain in His Word, continue in His Word, last in His Word and endure in His word, we are His pupils, His learners, and we will know what is true in things pertaining to God and the duties of man. That knowledge will set us at liberty from the dominion of sin. The animosity we display towards one another over a difference in skin color is hatred. We can try to deny it, but that is the truth. People will always come back and say “I don’t hate anybody, but…”. The qualifier, no matter what is inserted after that word “but…” indicates some willingness to hold on to an idea that puts one at opposition to the first part of the statement. 1 John 3:15 says:
“Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
The simple fact of the matter is that hate is not of God, and God does not want us to partake in it.
©2011 Ronald B. Cason, all rights reserved.
