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African Americans Must Reclaim Black History Month

By: Mychal Denzel Smith

Posted: February 12, 2011 at 12:14 AM

How did we allow it to devolve into a celebration of handpicked and anointed heroes, stripped of their historical relevance and made into hollow representations of themselves?

I remember the first time I was called a nigger. It was during sixth-grade phys ed class, after a disappointing game of touch football. One of my white classmates took offense at my aggressive style of play, and I took offense to him shoving me in response. When I confronted him, verbally berating him with every curse word I knew, he retaliated by calling me a nigger.
My fists clenched on their own as the adrenaline coursed through my veins and my steps became quicker, all thoughts of peaceful conflict resolution tabled for the moment. The only thing that saved him from an epic beating that day was a girl from another class witnessing my pursuit and swiftly moving to restrain me, my fists and my emotions.
I recall another, less volatile, childhood memory that was instrumental to informing my ideas about race and racial identity. Conversations on myriad topics took place on the school bus I rode as a high school student, and race, as thorny as it may have been, was never excluded.
There was a set of white twin girls who seemed obsessed with looking and acting "black," as far as they understood the concept. They had no shame in asking the black students what would be required of them to achieve their goal. They asked me -- but with hesitancy, because they presumed I was biracial: "You're not all the way black, are you? You don't talk like it."
It's no accident that these memories come to me most vividly during Black History Month. Every year, as the first of February rolls around, it brings renewed discussions about the purpose, necessity (or lack thereof) and viability of Black History Month, conversations that are surely intensifying in the age of Obama.
Attacks come from all angles. Some opponents believe it condescending to have only one month when black history is the national focus, while being ignored the other 11 months of the year. Still others, uninformed of Black History Month's origins, recite tired jokes about using the shortest month of the year to celebrate black history, which must have been a deliberately racist move on the part of white people. My personal favorites, however, are those people who simply don't believe there is enough notable black history to warrant an entire month of discussion.
But I think I've come to understand the apprehensiveness toward Black History Month. It has nothing to do with the length of the month or the lack of interesting history to investigate; rather, it concerns the fact that -- as I did in the childhood stories I just shared -- African Americans have allowed white people to dictate the contours of blackness.
The celebration of our history and culture that Carter G. Woodson envisioned when he founded Negro History Week has been not only co-opted but completely hijacked by pressure from mainstream white America. Yearly, images of handpicked and anointed heroes are trotted out in classrooms and other public spaces, stripped of their historical relevance and deep abiding commitment to the construction of black culture, and made into hollow representations of themselves.
As a result, blackness is being defined and dictated to us by government and media -- institutions that have historically excluded voices of color -- instead of growing authentically from our bodies and minds.

The name and image of Martin Luther King Jr. is now used to sell automobiles. Malcolm X's legacy has been reduced to the context-less slogan, "By any means necessary." W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington have become known for little more than a debate that amounts to "bootstraps" vs. "the talented tenth," approaches to improving conditions for the black community, while the fullness of their legacies and nuances of their positions are lost. And as Danielle L. McGuire's book At the Dark End of the Street shows us, the narrative that we have come to accept about Rosa Parks being no more than a tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat on a bus because her feet hurt is disrespectful to her important work standing up for the human rights and dignity of black women.
This happens in all mainstream discussions of history as facts and figures are diluted so that they fit seamlessly into a narrative that is palatable to a large number of people. Meanwhile, it is a narrative that does the least to incite true debate or threaten the privilege and standing of those in control of it. The process is particularly dangerous when it comes to black history because little attention or respect is given to the historic contributions of black people in the first place. To further diminish those contributions by reducing them to mere platitudes is contemptible.
The worst part is that black people have been complicit in this process. How often do our scholars, invited to speak and make media appearances during Black History Month, allow the standard depictions of these historical figures to go unchallenged, perhaps to ensure that they will be asked to make more appearances in the future? How many T-shirts/mugs/pens/hats -- plastered with the words and faces of our most celebrated heroes (along with a few conspiracy theories) -- have been manufactured and sold for a quick buck on 125th Street in New York City's Harlem, with no further thought or discussion given to their true meaning?
At one point this may have been acceptable as a compromise to ensure the exposure of black accomplishments to the wider world. However, passively accepting outside definitions of blackness can no longer be an option. We can and should reclaim Black History Month and use it to reimagine, redefine and shape anew what we mean when we refer to ourselves as black.
We have to push to include those who have constantly been moved to the margins as a consequence of identity and archaic cultural beliefs. We have to work to be more inclusive of historical figures such as Bayard Rustin, the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, who is only recently becoming more well known as we begin to open up the historical "closet" where openly gay individuals have been forced to reside.
There must also be room within the narrative to discuss the contributions of women such as Jo Ann Robinson, who was instrumental in organizing and doing the legwork needed to make the Montgomery Bus Boycott a success. It's important that we dismantle the "black heterosexual superman" narrative that too often has dominated the telling of our history. And it must be done on our terms, because self-definition is vital in the building and maintaining of a vibrant culture of which we can all be proud.
This process shouldn't be confined to February, to be sure, but I see Black History Month in sort of the same vein as education: It should not take place exclusively inside the classroom, though those four walls can be used as a structure allowing for some of the most intensive and thorough investigations and sharing of ideas. But that happens only when we decide that it's time for us to reclaim ownership of Black History Month and, by extension, ourselves.
Mychal Denzel Smith is a writer, social commentator and mental health advocate. Follow him on Twitter.  

School Choice and equality

Millions of Parents as Felons?: But Only Blacks Go to Jail

By Dr. Terence Fitzgerald

Ms. Kelley Williams-Bolar, is an Akron, Ohio resident, poor, law abiding, single mother of two daughters (14 and 16 years of age), student in education at Akron University, and now a convicted felon for deciding to break “the rules” and falsify proof of residential documentation in order to bypass the school designated by the local school district. Instead of going to schools that are unsafe, violent, provide below standard academics, and consisting of a population approximated between 92-93% Black, she took it upon herself to send them to a school in the Copley-Fairlawn district where her father resided.

Within this district, the schools her children attended for two years were meeting state adequate academic progress benchmarks and had a population of White students between 73-82%. How do we know this sort of colossal atrocity that impairs the moral compass that guides our society occurred? It so happens that the rich White suburban school district hired a private investigator to unravel the dastardly deed. What do you expect though? The district has even gone as far in the past to pay $100 to anyone giving information on students who were attending the schools illegally. It was evident to all on-lookers that the school district was doing everything possible to keep outsiders out. Well, Ms. Williams-Bolar was sought, arrested, and convicted of tampering with records. She was sentenced to five years in prison. The judge in the case reduced the time down to 10 days, 80 hours of community service, and three years probation.

(Numerous other blogs and websites have discussed these issues and one has a place you can sign up in protest (see here).

Brian Poe, the Copley-Fairlawn Superintendent reported that the case cost the district $30,000 of lost tuition and $6,000 for investigative purposes. He denied that the mother was singled out due to her race. In the words of Representative Wilson of South Carolina, “You lie!”

Today, a persistent ideology is looming where Whites and an increasing number of middle to upper class Blacks blindly believe that racism no longer exists in the 21st century. However, evidence otherwise dictates that racism, oppression, and control, does exist and is persistent to survive the tides of time. Moreover, Joe Feagin scholarly noted that since slaves were first stolen from Africa, White’s intent was to not only physically enslave them through force, but by creating a system that transcended through generations to advantage Whites through the social and psychological control mechanisms that targeted people of color, subsequently holding them to their placement on the second class tier upon the White constructed racial ladder of hierarchy. This transcends still throughout all major institutions within the U.S., such as education.

Research has noted that the increasing residential segregation of Whites is closely related to their schools of choice. Simply put, heavily White suburban areas are mostly chosen by white parents due to the low number of Black and Latino populations within the area and within the schools. By blocking and alienating the abilities of Blacks, and Latinos from attending these schools, Whites are able to continue to benefit from the existence of the sites and strangleholds of White power. As in the past, within the 21st century, these “normal” actions that enable the power and privilege of Whites in part are fueled by the old White racial frame. Therefore, Ms. William Bolar is simply a casualty of “The Machine.” This racist machine constantly reminds us that there exist two unequal worlds today. 

Spitual Event at the US Naval Academy

The past weekend I was accompaning agroup ofstudents and children to the Naval Academy where we are preparing for a Black History Bowl and Black Saga Competition.  While there we talked about leadership, students did some public speaking and we studied Black History facts.  One of the facts that we stressed was that of the first black personto graduate from the Naval Academy.  This gentelman was Wesley Brown.

Little did we know what our future would hold.  Two young midshipmen took us on a tour of a brand new facility recently named after Wesley.  What a wounderful facility(athletic). After watching the start of a track meet, I intrusted the students to head back toward the bus. As we are existing the building, a handsome gentlemen in a wheel chair was being brought through the door.  While we moved to the side, we recognized that the man coming throught the door was the same man we were standing under the picture of.  Mr. Wesley Brown.

The students and Mr. Brown immediately embrace each other with there spirits. We asked the group of people who was with Mr. brown how often does he come back to the Academy and they said" about every six months".  Forme and the students, what a moment.  To be there for something new put together by the school system and the Academy, to get the students for 7:30 am studing and meeting the first to graduate from the Academy was special.

Enlarge Courtesy of Brown family In 1949, Wesley Brown... shown here in an Army uniform... became the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. He originally wanted to go to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Courtesy of Brown family

In 1949, Wesley Brown... shown here in an Army uniform... became the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. He originally wanted to go to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Program cover for Brown's commencement ceremony shows it took more than a century for the first black to graduate from Annapolis.

Enlarge U.S. Naval Academy Hundreds of hats sail into the upper reaches of the hall at an Academy graduation, a scene Brown vividly recalls.

U.S. Naval Academy

Hundreds of hats sail into the upper reaches of the hall at an Academy graduation, a scene Brown vividly recalls.

 

June 25, 2005

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949. He was the first African American to do so.
Five others had tried: three during Reconstruction and two during the 1930s, but all were forced out by intense racism and even violence.
Brown, who began his military career with a stint in the Army before applying to the Naval Academy, also suffered great discrimination. A group of upper classman conspired against him, giving him undeserved demerits that nearly led to his dismissal.
But others came to his defense, inside and outside of the academy, allowing him to succeed. He retired as a lieutenant commander after 20 years of Navy service.
His story, and the story of the integration of the Academy are the subject of a new book, Breaking the Color Barrier, by historian Robert J. Schneller, Jr.