Black
Americans made plenty of history over the past year.
In addition to their traditional
role as victims of White supremacy and ingrained racism—think George Floyd and the litany of other victims of police violence and as the targets of a seemingly endless supply of Karens berating people for simply living their lives—African Americans have also seized
the moment to profoundly change society.
Most powerful is the on-going
Black Lives Matter Movement that took to the streets for months to confront
the daily terror that People of Color face at the hands of authority and would not back down. Not only did that movement spread to every corner of the country,
it enlisted as allies people—especially young people—of every race and ethnicity. A Norwegian
Parliamentarian has just nominated the
movement for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Other examples include the Rev.
William Barber’s Moral Monday movement and the New Poor People’s Campaign representing a re-birth of the Civil Rights
Movement. Black folks ran for office at all levels in every
part of the country and often triumphed
despite desperate opposition and voter suppression. Kamala
Harris’s election as Vice President may
have been the most apparent
manifestation but the sophisticated
and comprehensive voting rights campaign and the voter turn-out operation by Stacey Abrams and a legion of
others carried Georgia for the Biden-Harris ticket and elected two Senators in a deep red, Deep South State including Raphael Warnock the pastor of Martin Luther King’s old church and Jon Ossoff, a young Jewish
film documentarian and journalist. Together with Kamala Harris presiding in the chair they shifted control
of the Senate to the Democrats. For her achievements
Abrams, too, has been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
The Biden administration has
nominated Blacks to top rank positions including Lloyd Austin as Secretary of
Defense, Marcia Fudge as Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development
and others to the Cabinet Rank positions of Environmental Protection Agency Director, Ambassador to the United
Nations, and Chair of the Council of
Joint Economic Advisors. In addition
many Black have been or are expected to be appointed
to top sub-cabinet positions and
have key positions on the White House staff.
Closer to home for Illinoisans Lori Lightfoot became Mayor
of Chicago last spring carrying 49
of 50 Wards. She took office just in time to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter Protests, and a serious crime wave. Now she is wrestling with the militant
Chicago Teacher’s Union over plans to return
to in-person learning.
Meanwhile in the Illinois legislature the Black Caucus got a landmark criminal
justice reform act passed in the veto
session. The measure laid down a schedule to ending cash bail, requiring police
body cameras for all law enforcement
agencies, new procedures for certifying officers, and not requiring signatures of police misconduct complaints. Howls of outrage are still being heard over
these reforms. And in the new General Assembly Representative Chris Welch replaced long-time Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.
On the Coronavirus front, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett led a National Institute of Health vaccine
development team that developed the
Moderna vaccine. Covid-19 has disproportionately ravaged the Black community
where many are employed in service occupations which cannot be
done from home and which exposes them to the public and possible infections. Many
work in health care including Doctors, nurses, technicians, aide, and other staff. Their heroic
work like that of first responders and other essential personnel has come at a heavy cost.
Of course this just skims the surface of a tumultuous year. And it does not even include notable
achievements in the arts, media, sciences, religion, philanthropy, community service, and family dynamics. Black history has been unfolding all around us. And
it always has. For too long it was suppressed both to strip
African-Americans of a sense of rootedness
and self-worth and to protect
White folks from feeling that they
were not the only thing that counted.
That is what Black History Month was intended to address. The roots of the annual
observance stretch back to 1926 when
Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History announced the second week of February to be Negro History Week. Woodson,
who died in 1950, spent the rest of his life promoting historical awareness in
both academia and the community. There was plenty of resistance in the first case and the revelation of an untapped hunger
in the second.
In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and especially
the Black Power movement of the 1970’s
Black history finally began to take hold as a recognized academic discipline and as part of the curriculum in public and
private schools. The first Black History
Month was celebrated at Kent State
University in Ohio. By 1976 President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month, during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial.
Since then Black History month has
spread and now usually adopts a theme each year. This year the theme is The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity,
most apt since those families are
under enormous strain.
By the early 21st Century the media
and many corporations seemed to have
coopted the month in an attempt to pander to the Black community and inoculate themselves against charges of
institutional racism. Ubiquitous Black History Moments on television promoted hero worship of
individual “pioneers” often without any context to a broader struggle or the experience
of ordinary Black people. It has also
drawn criticism for “ghettoizing”
Black history and confining it to a silo
without connection to American history as a whole. Actor
and director Morgan Freeman declared
“I don’t want a Black history month. Black history is American history.”
I’m well aware of these pitfalls as a White writer, amateur historian, and hope-to-be
ally. Yet I think there is still
much to be learned if Black History can be placed in its broadest context and include the struggles and sacrifices
of the many as well as iconic figures. That’s what Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout will
try to do for the rest of the month.
We will be assembling a wide variety
of posts from many years on this blog, updating them as necessary and
adding new ones. Feel free to respond with criticism, questions, and suggestions.
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