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Celebrating Black History Month, Pt. II: America's Changing Face
February 12, 2008
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In this, the second of our current series on Black History Month, we decided to fill in some blanks and answer some questions you might have regarding the whole reason for Black History Month. Why does it exist and why was the month of February chosen? Some historians may know that February is a month that has enormous significance in Black American history.
February was selected by Carter Goodwin Woodson, a noted historian, publisher and pioneer in American Black history. Woodson was born to parents who were former slaves. He spent his early childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age 20. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. As an accomplished scholar he was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the Black American population -- and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time. It was and is America's changing face.
Woodson selected February for several reasons. First it is in celebration of two historical figures, both of whom had a great impact on Black history: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Other noteworthy reasons the month of February is significant are:
* W.E.B. Dubois, who was born on February 23, 1868, was a Civil Rights leader and co-founder of the NAACP ((National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
W.E.B. Dubois
* The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed on February 3, 1870, giving Blacks the right to vote.
* The first Black senator, Hiriam R. Revels, took office on February 25, 1870.
* The NAACP was founded in New York City of February 12, 1909.
* Malcolm X, the fiery militant leader who promoted Black Nationalism, was shot and killed by Black Muslims on February 21, 1965.
As you know, today we live in a culture of instant gratification, where the attributes of patience and determination are often hard to find. While the spirit behind all those terms is still appropriate in 2008, the buzzwords conservatism and rugged individualism have taken on new meaning. While black is still and always will be beautiful to some, being black alone no longer puts bread on the table, music on the box or gas in the tank. And gas, in particular in 2008, has risen to the point where it is forcing some in our communities to have to make ugly choices between feeding the car or feeding their families.
Why America's Face Keeps Changing
America today is a nation that is changing face. Because of that, many of us find ourselves living through some turbulent times .Our country continues to be a conservative land whose people are preoccupied with safety, growth and economic stability, more selfishly perhaps than at any time in the last few years. What's wrong with that is, realistically, individual and corporate gains are coming at the expense of the downtrodden, poor and have-nots -- groups whose major constituencies are America's minorities. Many of these minorities are African-Americans with little or no hope. So just to maintain our current status quo, we must combine our efforts on a national basis.
But in spite of the many ongoing problems African-Americans face, there is hope. There has been progress. Record numbers of Black Americans have entered the suburban middle class. Some have risen much higher; several of the nation's biggest and richest companies -- Time Warner, Merrill Lynch, and American Express – are or have been, run by African-Americans. The most powerful woman in television, Oprah Winfrey, is black. The Secretary of State is a black conservative. For the first time in its history America has a serious, qualified African-American candidate running for president.
Another such symbol of progress occurred last year with the election of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Patrick swept into office as the state's 71st governor. After a richly symbolic inaugural ceremony he asked citizens to join a "common cause of social reform that will reach from the corner office to the corner of your block."
From a place where hope withers, through great schools and challenging opportunities, Patrick took office as America's second elected African-American governor, after Virginia's Douglas Wilder.
Deval Patrick and Douglas WilderAmerica's changing face now includes a change in how certain advertising agencies view the African-American consumer. This past decade produced uneven black economic development, but provided several lessons. While we as African-Americans may remain an underrepresented segment within the mainstream, the advertising community can no longer ignore us. While no one has accurately tallied the total annual buying power of the African-American consumer, by most estimates those dollars far surpass the myth of a poor black marketplace. Discretionary income controlled by African-Americans rose to more than $20 billon last year.
And while we pause to recognize and honor these historic moments, we must temper our own optimism with a measure of concern.
The reasons for this optimism can no longer be merely a mouthed sentiment. They cannot dismantle what political expedience and racial prejudice have erected. We must cast our buckets down here and now to stay in step, or else we will find ourselves in an 11th-hour situation of having to come together in order to play catch up.
As we celebrate February -- Black Music Month, 2008 -- one of the goals and obligations those of us who are a position of influence have is to work to better educate and assist those who seek career opportunities in radio and music and to help those already established in the field to reach higher levels of success. We also have to encourage our listeners to register and then vote. This is true empowerment.
Black History Month is also a time when those of us in radio need to recognize our responsibilities and take full advantage of our tremendous reach and influence, and combine that with forward vision. Today, in 2008, it's not just about race, levels of income or stature. It's also about self-help -- self-help in which the energy of the black middle class is channeled into a struggle against "the enemy within," specifically against the dysfunctional behavior that continues to plague African-American communities that encompass a large majority of our listeners. If we truly understand this and act on it, our lives will become more meaningful and our listeners better informed.
We must be ready and willing to take full advantage of some earlier lessons learned in the '90s, an era of responsibility that owes a great deal to the lessons learned in the era of excess.
The capacity of the human mind to live in a state of forgetfulness is where a lot of our problems begin. If we forget that we are connected, we have a real problem; we become disconnected. What happens to one of us still happens to all of us. When we remember that we are all connected, all kinds of interesting, positive things can happen. For one thing, this is an election year and various individuals, groups and lawmakers will be forced to take responsibility for promises they made and results we're seeking. And while we pause to honor this historic month, we must remember we are descended from people once forbidden their most basic and fundamental freedoms, a people desperate for hope and willing to fight for it.
Yes, we're moving forward, but we're still behind.
Word
(Next week Part III)
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