(ThyBlackMan.com) In the days following President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, the preparations for Black History Month felt especially joyful. That was a moment when the entire nation could see Black history and American history being written at the same time. The record-breaking sea of nearly two million multicolored faces of all ages and from every nook and cranny of America cheering together on the National Mall during the inauguration ceremony was a visual representation of the way the threads of our diverse stories were woven together, and everywhere one looked were reminders of how Black history and American history converged.
Historians pointed out that the Capitol and White House were built with enslaved people’s labor and the Mall itself sits on land that once held markets where people were sold. At a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial earlier in the week, then President-elect Obama, surrounded by monuments to our most revered leaders, reminded the nation of how the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on the same sacred ground. He told us the pool in front of the Memorial “still reflects the dream of a King.”
Aretha Franklin sang My Country ‘Tis of Thee at that inauguration, the Queen of Soul reminding all Americans of our nation’s original promise to “let freedom ring.” Civil rights giants Dr. Dorothy Height and Congressman John Lewis, the Tuskegee Airmen, and many other trailblazers for liberty bore quiet witness by their presence. Finally, there was the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery, who began by quoting a stanza of the poem and hymn we know as the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing:
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou, who has brought us thus far on the way,
Thou, who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray…
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
For all of us raised on those beloved words, the symbolism of hearing them there was overwhelming. For more than a hundred years, every time Lift Every Voice has rung out in a church hall, school auditorium, or community meeting, it enabled Black Americans to stand up and sing our own song about our faith in and struggle to make America’s promise real. Lowery didn’t recite every line that day, like those that speak of the bitter obstacles overcome and the blood shed along the way. He didn’t need to. We understood all that had been required for our Black National Anthem to become – at long last – part of the larger American hymn.
It goes without saying that the obvious contrasts between that joyful, hope-filled moment and this one are stark. We begin Black History Month this year with public observations of Black History Month itself – like so much else in our nation – under targeted and chilling attack.
Yet we still know that Black history, and American women’s history, and LGBTQ history, differently abled people’s history, Native American history, Latino history, Asian American history, immigrant history, and every other line of each of our American stories are all deeply embedded chapters in American history that cannot actually be rewritten or erased by any memos or executive orders. We also know that history continues to reward those hope-filled people who have been willing to struggle and fight to keep moving America forward. When the current dangerous chapter is over, the question remains of what we want the next chapter of our shared history to say.
Written by Marian Wright Edelman
Official website; http://www.childrensdefense.org
