posted January 12, 2009
National Black History Month and the national holiday recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday are means by which our nation has attempted to exercise the act of repentance for the communal, institutional, and individual sin committed by the majority white community against the minority African-American community. Not content to accept the occasional reference to a significant African-American in a history class, our Congress formally committed our nation to acknowledging the unique, powerful, and resilient history of African-Americans by designating the month of February as Black History Month and by recognizing the profound contribution of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is quite a history. It is a history that included the forced migration of millions of Africans to a hostile, foreign land, their brutal, dehumanizing enslavement in the “peculiar institution,” and their emancipation through four years of war that left over 600,000 Americans dead from either disease or the death blow of a fellow American, even a brother.
It is the history of a people who, once emancipated, faced antagonism the antagonism of a defeated yet vengeful Southern society that would not only proclaim the “Birth of a Nation,” but also birth the Ku Klux Klan, the White Camelia, and the White Citizen’s Council.
It is a people who, despite the Constitutional assurance of equality before the law and universal male suffrage, were legally, politically, and socially marginalized in a culture founded on the principle that all men are created equal and possess the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is a people who faced, according to Professors George Tindall and David Shi, 188 lynchings per year between 1890 and 1900.
It is also the story of a gifted and courageous people who led the charge at Ft. Wagner in the summer of 1863, suffering 50% casualties, and eventually received 16 Medals of Honor, the highest honor extended to a U.S. serviceman for valor in combat.
It is the story of a people who sent black men to Congress in the years following the Civil War, wrote state constitutions in many southern states, and built a network of schools and colleges to educate its youth, such that by 1910 an illiteracy rate of 95% had become a literacy rate of 70%.
It is the story of a people that flourished culturally, despite its marginalization, creating the uniquely American musical genre we affectionately call Jazz, singing to themselves, “What a Wonderful World,” and producing some of the finest contributions to American literature and poetry, dreaming of
“…a world where man
No other will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth…
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth,
And every man is free…” –Langston Hughes
It is the history of a people that, when faced with a choice between violence and nonviolence, followed one of America’s greatest leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the path of redemptive nonviolence rooted in the unconditional, agape love of Jesus Christ, a love, according to Dr. King, that is willing to “forgive not seven times, but 70 times seven to restore community…a love in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor,” his white neighbor. In the book of John, many of Jesus’ disciples withdrew, walking with him no more, because o f his “hard teaching” that He alone was the source of life, symbolized in the drinking of his blood and the eating of his body. When faced with a similarly “hard teaching” to love their enemies, those that would persecute them, the vast majority of African-Americans did not turn away as did the early disciples, but instead exemplified a courage, a perseverance, a patience and a self-control, as profound as any recorded in American history.
For their courage, their perseverance, their patience and self-control, our nation owes the African-American community a debt of gratitude. For we now live in a nation that is far closer to Dr. King’s dream, that our children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. So, let’s celebrate the opportunity to cast a spotlight on African-American history in February, the opportunity to find a description of not only congressman P.B.S. Pinchback in our textbooks but also entire chapters committed to the Harlem Renaissance, and the opportunity to take entire courses dedicated to the history of African-Americans. Above all, let’s celebrate the opportunity to praise God that our African-American brothers and sisters possessed the courage, unity, and commitment to the truth of Jesus Christ to embrace His call to love their enemies.
Bryant M. Black
History Department Chair
Chattanooga Christian School
Chattanooga
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