-- Malcolm X
January 1st is an important date in African American history for many reasons; I will share three from the 19th century:
In 1804, January 1 was the day in which Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed independence of Haiti; this on the heels of the freedom movement led by Toussaint L'Overture. Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas; clearly, this was and is NO accident. The poverty and decimation of Haiti following the earthquake of 2010 is surprising only to those of us unfamiliar with history. Before establishing independence in 1804, Haiti ranked as one of the world's richest and most productive colonies. Upon gaining their independence in 1804, the French demanded 150 million francs as "severance pay" and the country struggled to pay this illegal and illegitimate debt for the next 80 years. Clearly, in the case of Haiti, freedom was not free. How is a country's (and people's) demands and quest for freedom met with financial payment? And, even more importantly, what impact has this had on an independent Haiti-- especially within an historical context? During this time, Haiti also suffered from international isolation as other countries refused to invest and/or trade with the country. More recently, the country has suffered in economic development, sanctions, political destabilization, and corruption.
In 1808, a U.S. federal law went into effect banning the importation of African slaves; thus abolishing the international slave trade. However, this did little to stop slavery as it continued to spread across the United States with the addition of new states to the Union. While the international trade may have stopped, the national trade was alive and well. Ultimately leading to the Civil War in 1861.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the "Emancipation Proclamation" which was intended to free those enslaved. However, several points should be made: first, the Proclamation only freed slaves in rebel states-- these states had seceded from the Union and did not recognize any federal laws; second, the Proclamation did not apply to slaves in border states, thirteen parishes in Louisiana (including New Orleans), and many counties in eastern Virginia and West Virginia; and third, Lincoln was disinterested in freeing enslaved Blacks, his primary objective was to preserve the Union. Given these points, hailing Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" is quite a conundrum. Clearly, the importance of history and public memory are always contemporary issues especially as we consider the distant past.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."
-- Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
The importance of history, and African American history in particular, is paramount to understanding the history of the United States and for gaining a perspective on race relations as well. Some people ask, even some of my current students, why do we need Black history and/or what is the purpose of Black History Month? One need only look at the annals of history to understand that no story will be complete if we leave voices on the margins. By and large, African American voices have been pushed to the margins and it is with great effort that Blacks themselves have gained agency in forcing that their voices be heard. If you want to see the challenges to retelling history, pick up any standard "American History" textbook used in elementary and secondary education. Read the table of contents, skim the chapters, and ask yourself if sizable gaps exist in how the stories are retold-- and, thus, remembered. If we allow public memory and knowledge to be misinformed, then what will this mean for our children and our children's children? Mrs. Rosa Parks was not "too tired" when she refused to give up her seat; what she was tired of was giving in. She was a member of and had worked for the NAACP since the early 1940s; Martin Luther King did not start the Montgomery Bus Boycott; JoAnne Robinson had been arrested as early as 1949 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and had committed herself to challenging and unearthing segregation laws in Montgomery and this was coordinated through her work in the Women's Political Council (which was established 1946); and a bus boycott was not a novel idea given that it had transpired already in other cities (such as Baton Rouge, LA in 1953).
What classroom has provided us with this information? NONE that I have ever sat in. Education is the pursuit of knowledge and it is up to us as individuals and communities to know and comprehend what has transpired in the past so that we have a better understanding of who we are, where we are, and, as Dr. King asked, where we're going from here. But, what is clear from the Montgomery Bus Boycott-- and other activities during this time-- was that people organized around issues that impacted their communities and committed themselves to demand and create change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days. For 381 days, Blacks refused to ride Montgomery city buses, they car pooled, walked, and biked in getting to their destination. All of these efforts were maintained while the city of Montgomery outlawed car pooling and placed tremendous economic and political pressure on Blacks to resist participating in the boycott.
As W.E.B. DuBois has asked in 1923, where would America be without her Negro people?
Study your history... know our stories... I appreciate Black History Month... but my Black History is everyday... it flows through my body in my blood. I am trying to become who I am... I have people in me... We need to get lifted in 2012... what are you waiting on?
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