Re: Direction
Dear Friend, ?
Labor Day weekend in the United States, summer’s end; we’re back-to-school and back-to-work, but—with all that’s going on that’s so very wrong—how do we make things right for our children?? What do we tell our children?? What do we tell ourselves?
When educators gathered for the annual National Association of Black School Educators (NABSE) convention in Chicago a while back, their keynoter, Dr. Adelaide Sanford, was expected to rally them with a stirring call-to-action.? ?What wasn’t expected was that she would first bring her audience to tears. ?
As she reminded them, the scholars of ancient Africa were the priests.? “Excellence is part of a totality that includes... the temples, pyramids, sacred writings.? For people of African ancestry there can be no educational excellence that is separated from cultural excellence.”? To educate those who have been so cruelly miseducated―their potential systemically blocked— means recognizing potential “in spite of the lack of observable achievement.” And, in recognizing opportunity, too, where one might think there is none. ?
Then, turning a bend—confirming and confronting the painful sense of loss she knew her audience was feeling—she waded on, into the deep, to re-orient their sense of direction. ?
“Now, in reality I don't know my name.? I don’t know the name that my ancestors would have given me.? I can never go home, for I don't know where home is.? And though I return each year to the warm, moist, fertile shores of West Africa, I can never go to the town or village that is home.? I look at you and I wonder, was it your mother who was separated from my grandmother on the shores of West Africa?? My grandmother went to Mississippi, maybe her sister went to Brazil, maybe her brother went to the Caribbean. Are you my cousin? ?
“And if you ask me this evening to stand here robed in the garments of my immediate ancestors and charge me to hold in my hand some symbol of their spirituality, and if you said to me 'talk to me in the privacy of our language,' I would stand here naked, mute and empty-handed.
“But I am not beaten or broken by that.? Rather I seek to make all of us into the perfect formation of the flying geese.? Always going in the same direction, but willing to substitute the leader.? Looking for a leader who breaks the current of air so that it doesn’t beat heavily on the followers behind.? And when that leader becomes fatigued, that leader flies to the end, but the formation doesn’t change.? The next leader comes up.? It’s his turn to lead and my turn to follow.? And I would say to you that though the leader changes and the follower changes, the formation and the direction must never change.” ?
With that, Dr. Sanford guided her audience back on course.? “With you tonight my spirit revisits you, revisits your majesty, and your creativity.? It reclaims it with you as we go out to reclaim the genius of our children.” ?
And ourselves. ?
50 BOOKS THAT CHANGED?THE STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICA: a recommended reading list
BOOK #20: The Mis-Education of the Negro?(1933) Dr. Carter G. Woodson, PhD
With publication of The Miseducation of the Negro in 1933, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, PhD changed how we view the American way of education.? He, literally, wrote the book on education still quoted and relevant nearly a century later: ?
Starting out after the Civil War, the opponents of freedom and social justice decided to work out a program which would enslave the Negroes’ mind inasmuch as the freedom of body had to be conceded.? It was well understood that if by the teaching of history the white man could be further assured of his superiority and the Negro could be made to feel that he had always been a failure and that the subjection of his will to some other race is necessary the freedman, then, would still be a slave. ? ?
The problem of holding the Negro down is easily solved. When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary. ?
With that, Woodson―Harvard’s second African American PhD, 1912; the first being Dr. W. E. B. DuBois in 1895― also documented the reasoning that led him, in 1926, to found Negro History Week (now Black History Month).? ?
As significant as this iconic assessment of America’s educational system and mindset remains, a lesser-known quote is the real headline: the call-to-action and conscience for 2023.?? ?
It is strange, then, that the friends of truth and the promoters of freedom have not risen up against the present propaganda in the schools and crushed it. ? This crusade is much more important than the anti-lynching movement because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.
? ?? ? ?? ? ?*?
Pictured: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, PhD; the first edition cover of The Mis-Education of the Negro, 1933. Associated Publishers ?
领英推荐
ON THE SHOW & PODCAST
COERCED, Erin Hatton
My series,?12 Shows THEY Don’t Want You to Hear About 12 Stories THEY Don’t Want You to Know, continues this Labor Day weekend with Erin Hatton, author of the book, COERCED: Work Under Threat of Punishment. ?
Want to understand the intricacies of labor? Interested in the impact of today’s power dynamics on the workforce, and the relevance of these issues in our modern society? ?This interview with Erin Hatton, author of "Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment," is a must-listen. Her research opened my ears and eyes WIDE to the current state of work, power, and the ‘structuring’ of inequality in America.
THE JANUS ADAMS SHOW airs and streams live Saturdays at 11:00 AM (ET) on WJFF Radio Catskill. Click 'LISTEN LIVE' on the home page. ?
AND ONE MORE THING . . .
Wow!? The March on Washington.? Who would have thought it would have such heightened significance 60 years after the fact.? My thanks to all those who welcomed me to discuss my personal reflections on the March and the “10 Life Lessons" I learned that day, August 28, 1963.
Christianity Today, "The Bulletin" with Rev. Dr. Nicole Martin: the full podcast and a bonus?YouTube clip of me reading?those "10 Life Lessons."
The GrioTV with Eboni K. Williams, TheGrio.com? KALW "Your Call” with Rose Aguilar, KALW Public Media? KPFA "The Talkies" with Kris Welch KPFA Public Media 9/1/23
The Washington Post:?An oral history of the March on Washington, 60 years after MLK’s dream
WJFF “Radio Chatskill” with Tim Bruno, WJFF Radio Catskill 8/28/23 The Women's Media Center:?The 1963 March on Washington: ‘I Was There’
Harambee! Janus * Harambee is a Ki-Swahili term popularized by the Kenyan Independence Movement meaning "let's all pull together!" ?
Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, historian, keynote speaker,?
Dr. Janus Adams?is publisher of BackPaxKids.com and host of public radio’s “The Janus Adams Show” and podcast.