Black History Month - Remembering The Past, Shaping The Future, Part 2

Part II -- Remembering The Past, Shaping The Future

In this, the second of our current series on Black History Month 2009, we wanted to review the reasons for and answer some questions about why we celebrate Black History Month. First of all, why February? February is a month that has enormous significance in Black American history.

The month of 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. There were other significant people and events that took place in Feburary: A noted civil rights leader and founder of the NAACP, W.E.B. Dubois, who was born on February 23, 1868. 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. Malcolm X, the fiery militant leader who promoted Black Nationalism, was shot and killed by Black Muslims on February 21, 1965.

As you know, last month we celebrated a defining moment in our history- the election of the first African-American President, Barack Obama. We live in a culture where even though the attributes of patience and determination exist, they are often hard to find. While the spirit behind all those terms is still appropriate in 2009, the buzzwords "hope" and "change" have taken on new meaning.

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 tough economic times. Our country continues to be a conservative land whose people are preoccupied with safety, growth and economic stability, more today perhaps than at any time in the last few years.

The problem 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 reason for hope. There has been progress. Record numbers of Black Americans have entered the suburban middle class. Some have risen much higher in several of the nation's biggest and richest companies -- and for the first time in its history, America has Barack Obama -- a serious, qualified African-American president.

Not only is America's face changing, its dream is changing. Affirmative action has opened some doors and some of us plowed though -- ambitious, determined and prepared. For a few, the dream has been achieved. But can we secure the dream for our children?

If you were born in the baby boomer generation, you were born into a world divided by color -- black and white. Given their timing and their race, the white world offered little and expected even less, Fortunately, all that is quickly changing. Education, the great equalizer, now has colleges and universities, which once completely shuttered our parents, not only considering our children, but are recruiting them. They are not only recruiting them as athletes, but also as scholars.

Some will say the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was the first major force for educational change. Following its passage, the government put pressure on white institutions to either admit black applicants or face losing federal funding. The incentive opened doors, first at the undergraduate level, then at the graduate level and ultimately, at the professional level.

Blessed with ambition, determination and strong families who instilled the value of education, we have become first-line beneficiaries of a program dubbed Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action opened doors that never should have been closed in the first place. But Affirmative Action was part of America's changing face.

America'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 again in an 11th-hour situation of having to come together in order to play catch-up.

The Power Of Empowerment

As we celebrate February -- Black Music Month, 2009 -- one of the goals and obligations those of us who are in 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.

One of the most fascinating stories of American history has been the willingness of African-Americans to struggle for a future that they themselves might never experience and had no reason to believe would ever be realized. America's slaves struggled and endured so that their children would one day know freedom. Once free, illiterate African-Americans who would never cast a vote fought for their children's full citizenship, which meant equal access to education, public facilities and the ballot box.

Black History Month is also a time when those of us in radio need to recognize that our responsibilities extend beyond the music. We must take full advantage of our tremendous reach and influence, and combine that with forward vision. Today, in 2009, 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 can become more meaningful and our listeners better informed.

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, 2009 follows an election year in which various individuals, groups and lawmakers should be forced to take responsibility for promises they made and results we're seeking. So while we pause to honor this historic month and year, we must remember we are descended from people once forbidden their most basic and fundamental freedoms, a people desperate for hope, willing to work and fight for it.

During Black History Month, as we remember the past and prepare for the future, we would do well to begin getting the next generation ready to compete. That is the ultimate form of economic empowerment.

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