Happy Black History Month Yall!
Happy Black History month yall! I am so glad that I get to share this beautiful month with you that never really ends and is more than just one month. During this Black History month we’re going to focus on the truth; the real, undeniable, unshaken truth and we are also going to falsify lies like the false narrative that Black history began with slavery, ended with the Obamas, and is a privilege that Blacks get to enjoy. It is instead a right….a right to tell the truth about how we are woven into the fabric of the American dream/history.
As I look back at my childhood, I can remember growing up in school and being fed lies on top of lies about my history. So much of what I learned was taught to me in a very “hurry up let us get this part of the syllabus over with” fashion. Most of what I learned about my history was about slavery. I began to think, surely, there is more to my history than this. I remember the intention that I felt was being pressed upon me was meant to leave me feeling sad, hopeless, inferior, ashamed, and downright angry. I wanted to believe that there was more to my history than suffering. What happened to the feeling of pride that many other cultures, nationalities, and races had towards their history. It wasn’t until I got to college did I really begin to learn and be taught about my history and Black history. In my discovery, I learned that I was being robbed, all these years, of my joy, my pride, and my magic…there was so much history out there about my history that would make anyone proud.
I did not know growing up that I was born to a group of people who had the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western hemisphere. The Haitian revolution inspired the birth of many simultaneous Revolutionary movements. AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT….IT DOES NOT END THERE.
Did you know that before there was a Rosa Parks, there was a Claudette Colvin. There were several women before Rosa Parks who refused to give up there seat on a bus and among them was none other than Claudette Colvin. Nine months before Rosa Parks launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott, on March 2, 1955, the fifteen year old schoolgirl refused to give up her seat to sit in the back of the bus. She was jailed because of it, and she and four other women challenged the segregation law in court in the Browder V. Gayle court case which later became the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in both Montgomery and Alabama. (pbs.org)
I wish I knew of this story in history when I was a teenage girl going through that awkward phase in life. And not really feeling like I belonged anywhere, if I had known that a teenager could be so fearless, I probably would have challenged my younger self to be braver and less afraid of the unknown. Had I also known about Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first female candidate for president in 1972 of the United States, maybe I would be well on my way to becoming the first Black female President. Or had I known about Dr. Mae Jemison, who in 1992 became the first African American woman to go into space aboard the space shuttle, Endeavor. Where in a 8 day session Jemison worked with U.S. and Japanese researchers, and was a co-investigator on a bone cell experiment, who knows where I would be. The sky seems to be my only limit. It is important for everyone including our youth to learn about Black history because it is a part of American History. We have to understand and early on that black girl magic is real, that black excellence is real, that black unity is real, and that black wealth is in fact real. If we do not believe in that than well stand for anything and everything that is not the truth. As always I thank you for reading. Until next time, take care and be true.
