Why Do We Celebrate Black History Month? A View from Charity

This is an honest question. And it begs for an answer. Let’s look at a quick history and then how charity fits into the answer.

Black History Month began first as Black History Week, an initiative of Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the Association for the Study of African American History. The son of freed slaves, Woodson earned a doctorate in history from Harvard. He noticed that black children were not learning anything about their ancestors in the early 1900s public schools. Woodson organized events first for Negro History Week in February 1926, a month chosen because of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and Frederick Douglas’s assumed birthday of February 14. The initiative took off like a rocket. Eventually, West Virginia in the 1940s and Chicago in the 1960s expanded the celebration into Negro History Month. In 1976, the Association for the Study of African American History made the shift to calling the initiative, Black History Month.

Famous Black persons who made history were somewhat acknowledged along the way like Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, Washington Carver—luminaries in science and politics were ‘safe’ for white children to learn about and for Black children to claim as models. American presidents, beginning with Gerald R. Ford, commemorated the Month with statements and attending official events. President Ronald Reagan said that “understanding the history of Black Americans is a key to understanding the strength of our nation.”

The motivation for Black History Month is really a deeply spiritual one. Whenever a segment of any population is oppressed, its literature, music, culture, traditions, and even its religion go underground with it. The wider population remains ignorant of these gifts, does not utilize them, does not recognize God’s hand in them. Essentially, God’s immeasurable creation is limited by this wider population’s ignorance and the oppressed group’s concealment of these gifts. If I do not ‘see’ you or ‘know’ you, I do not know where you came from, what makes you who you are. I do not relate to you. It’s that simple. History is not always glorious. We need to know why there were race riots especially in the 60’s in our country. We need to know why the poll tax—that taxed any black voter in the south—had to be done away with. We need to understand lynchings and mob violence, the terrors of the KKK, the struggle for the Civil Rights Act, the unfair trials of black criminals. In knowledge, there is power. We need to know.

Segregation kept the gates locked. It kept whites from knowing and appreciating Blacks. We were, in effect, drawing limits around a limitless God. Once the gates were unlocked, however, we came together often at great cost and overwhelming violence. 

If you study the oppression of any population, you will notice the same lingering evils in control. March will be Women’s History Month for the very same reason we have Black History Month. I hope that our experience of maturing in relationship with African Americans will help us in the growth and understanding of Hispanics, and Middle Eastern people and any other group making its way into our nation and universe.

Unfortunately, religion has been co-opted in the exploitation of African Americans more than we would like to admit. Some of it may have been due to a lack of understanding and certainly much of it was done through fear. It is a sordid part of our religious history that we cannot sweep under the rug. When it came to the attention in some women religious communities that slaves were part of their very early history, these communities set about researching this reality, uncovering in long-shelved ledgers and documents, names of families who served motherhouses as slaves. Some slaves were brought as part of wealthy girls’ dowries when they entered the communities. These communities have contacted existing progeny of these families and offered restitution, even placing monuments on the motherhouse properties recognizing the existence of the slaves and organizing ceremonies and rituals welcoming the families and asking for forgiveness. Friendships began with this effort. 

A recently published book, titled The 272, by Rachel Swarns, details the narrative of how 272 slaves were sold by the Jesuits at Georgetown University to literally save the university. I have not read the book yet but have it on loan from a friend. The university and the Jesuits have commenced a program of restitution a few years ago. Many secular universities, both public and private, held or sold slaves for economic reasons.

Reflection

Most African Americans that I know are not about anger or vengeance in celebrating Black History Month; they simply want to unearth the gifts that have been buried for so long. That was Woodson’s legacy in the first place. Celebrate black gifts so we could all appreciate what they have given us, especially under duress and oppression.

Reflect on the meaning of this month. 

• Can you see that Black History completes American history? The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is full of stories and passages about oppression of peoples. Select some to read and reflect on.

• Ask the Spirit for insight on how you might face your prejudices and take action to challenge them.

• Do something out of the ordinary like attending a Gospel Choir Concert; watching and discussing a black-themed movie; visiting places in your city such as museums that provide education on the Underground Railroad, black art, famous black leaders. Take your children to enjoy these offerings and to learn from them.

• Read some excellent books by black authors that will inform your thinking and widen your heart. Read black novelists and black playwrights and poets, especially current ones.

• My suggestion are books I have read: Caste by journalist Isabel Wilkerson. An amazing book describing the evil of caste systems which still exist in India. She points out how caste systems broke whole generations of blacks in America and assisted in fostering the Nazi programs against Jews. Read her first book, a winner of many literary awards, The Warmth of Other Suns which narrates the story of our Great American Migration from the south to the north as experienced with several black families. 

• A book I am about to read is Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evans and the Love Story That Awakened America. It is the story of how this couple fought for civil rights which ultimately cost Medgar his life. Joy-Ann Reid is the author.

Celebrate Black History Month, my friends. Be enriched.