Today let's talk history....I open with an excerpt from Dr. Yolanda Pierce's Blog (in response to her partner Dr. Lacewell) from the Kitchen Table which brought me out of the "Blog Funk" I've been in...here goes
"When I think of Black History Month, I think of the stories like Seymour's that have yet to be told; I think of the songs, and the histories, and the poetry yet to be written about the African American experience. I think of the current political moment we are in, as well as the 400 years of struggle from which it emerged. I think about the courageous educators like Carter G. Woodson, who fought to have Black history recognized as American history.
Like you, I wish that we had no need of a separate month to recognize these achievements. I wish that we would seamlessly weave the stories of all people at the margins into the very center of the history that we teach. I wish that the silenced and the voiceless would find expression in our country 365 days of the year. And I will continue to work towards that goal. I've dedicated my life to working toward that goal as I teach this material every month of the year."
Excerpt from The Kitchen Table..."Black History, Black Stories"
by Dr. Yolanda Pierce
Dr. Pierce's words were incredibly profound and serendipitous for me today. I have spent the last two weeks since my return from a very cold and excruciating Washington, DC researching Sojourner Truth, Myrlie Evers and John Hanson (the Black Man ...there was a White one too). I just yesterday expanded my research to Carter G. Woodson (I have read Miseducation of the Negro, but I was not aware of his struggles with the NAACP and Howard University) and today stepping up to the First true liberator of Black Folk, Harriet Tubman. She didn't just theorize, lead and hope....She FREED 300 or more slaves !!!!!!!!!
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I am often frustrated by the idea that "Black Leadership" is revered as the province of men (Martin, Malcolm, Mandela and Me (as the T-Shirt from my college days went). Although no longer a part of the American History standards for the state of California a study on WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington has just fallen to the desire of individual instructors. I observed the AP History teacher teaching it anyway and including Marcus Garvey as the three "Black Leaders" of the time. He lectured on the differences between their schools of thought. I turned him onto Dudley Randall's poem. He was not familiar. It was the least I could do watching from the sidelines.
There is however no noting of Harriet Tubman's HARD WORK woven into any standards or lecture. There is nothing even said of Isabella Baumfree bka Sojourner Truth who preached and lectured about Black Liberation and Women's Liberation before the turn of the century. She also "lobbied" (if you will) for the government to GRANT land to Freed Slaves moving west. We never got our 40 Acres, but she was seeking a remedy for the "Exodusters" leaving the South to begin their lives West. I am a graduate of Tuskegee University. I am not trying to diminsh the significant contributions of our menfolk. I am just trying to bring Harriet and Isabella out of "novelty/black fact status".
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It is not that I don't know who the aforementioned historical icons are. It is not that I haven't looked these historical icons up before in an Encyclopedia of old (I miss encyclopedias do you miss encyclopedias ?), but with my radio show and the desire to be an authentic master or reasonable expert on this information, I too am daily (365 Days) disappointed by the OMISSION of Black Stories in the pantheon of "American History". I recently read that when Sojourner Truth met Abraham Lincoln, he is said to have shown her his Bible that was said to have been given to him by "Black People in Baltimore". Maybe Obama was trying to make sure that everyone was at the Inauguration. I am more sure than ever I want to be a purveyor of the African American History Gospel, like Carter G. Woodson.
As a math teacher waiting on my afternoon classes I often listen to the same AP History Teacher teach from a text that is so profoundly deficient, that I want to yell out "Lewis Latimer !" like someone with Tourettes Syndrome as he teaches them about Thomas Alva Edison.
I quoted Dr. Pierce's words becauseI am thrilled, moved, inspired and renewed by them (check the whole blog at www.princetonprofs.blogspot.com). I am personally looking to change the world through this "acknowledged" knowledge and information that can at the very least enrich the landscape from which children and young people are taught (media, film and literary work) and at best become fully woven into the fabric of American History. One day it will all be taught seamlessly as a NATURAL part of the American Experience. I am working for that day !
all love
danna
2 comments:
I will take this post as a call to service. You bring up some incredible and often overlooked facts about the deficiency of information being passed on regarding our great ancestors. I want to be like you. Part of the solution.
Keep doing what you do Gurl. You are right on time.
This post is absolutely excellent! I love the way you brought it all together, and the encyclopedia reference was priceless. You know, I've told people that the Internet in our day was called Encyclopedia Brittanica. :)
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