I am the great grand daughter of a slave: Fannie Revere. One of her sons (David) was my maternal grand father. He fled the South and certain death at the hands of a lynch mob in the early decade of the Twentieth Century, because he stood up to a belligerent white male. He settled in Ohio and sent for his wife Mary and their young children.
As a child back in the south he was recognized as being “blessed” or touched by a divine calling. According to family lore, as a small boy he was always placed on a tree stump in the middle of the fields where he would preach to the farm hands as they worked. He could barely read and write but could quote scripture and by all appearances had the bible memorized. After several years up North he acted on his calling to become a preacher. And he built a congregation and church that still exists today.
He was a big, tall man. He talked slowly and clearly and was known as a “take no nonsense” tough kind of man with a great heart and a wicked sense of humor. In fact if you can recall the distinguished elderly Reverend Joseph Lowery who gave the convocation at President Obama’s Inaugural, then you are picturing the essence of my grandfather Reverend David Revere, who everyone in the family called “Papa.” He was old school and he was the Patriarch of our large extended family.
When he first settled in Dayton he created a milestone by becoming one of the first blacks to become a city worker when he became a garbage man… This is a typical history of an African American. It was just over one hundred years ago that the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution to insure that freed slaves and their descendants were treated as human beings with rights and not just property that could be abused or murdered. The United States gov established Civil Rights Acts in the fifties and sixties to insure that Blacks could vote without intimidation, and get housing and jobs without discrimination. Legislation had to be created to insure that those who continued to abuse, murder or discriminate against those same descendants of slaves or anyone else would be prosecuted under the full extent of the Judicial System. Is it no wonder that we are celebrating our first African American President?
It was less than sixty years ago that this country ruled to eliminate the “separate but equal” which included besides schools, bathrooms, water fountains, movie theaters, buses and trains. “Sit in the back; the balcony; go in & out the back door; risk death by looking at a white woman or standing up to a white man; be refused hospital care… the list goes on. I don’t dwell on these things, but they can not be forgotten for many reasons. History makes us who we are. History shows us how far we have come. History binds us all to this very unique American legacy and the fact that we can all join together and accept all the histories of all Americans makes us stronger and binds us together. And though as a people, (the American citizens) we may not be perfect, as no individual human can be perfect, but we are able to unite and create a movement for the betterment of our nation. I witnessed it during this election and it made me feel good.
I know a guy who is obviously made uncomfortable by “all this talk about the first African American President.” He feels threatened – a lot of white Americans do. They feel like they are being made to feel guilty because of America’s past treatment of its black citizens. Well, you should feel badly, not because you personally or your ancestors did something, but because it is a bad thing. Slavery and discrimination is horrible. Don’t you feel good when someone who has been hurt in the past, is then vindicated? Hello?
Unlike most of our fellow Americans, most Blacks do not have a direct tie with any country or motherland like Ireland, Mexico, Israel, Italy or Japan. Our ancestors were forcibly gathered and taken and then family units were broken apart and scatterred and any reverence or memories of the homeland was beaten out of them. So for us, America is it. And we know that historically we have not been embraced. It took a movement to get our rights. The country had to go to war to free the slaves. It’s a long time coming when your country finally acknowledges and loves you. So, yes, we cry when it happens because for some of us it has finally been proven that our country respects and loves us and we will be okay. This is not a detraction of non blacks. Rejoice in this also because it proves to the world that America may have had some dark moments but ultimately we can overcome them and then forgive and finally we can unite!!
The message is the triumph of love and fairness and forgiveness. Someone dreamed of this once. My mother could not take swimming lessons in school because her integrated high school’s Olympic sized pool wouldn’t let the blacks use it because it took too long to drain and refill it for use by the white kids. My mom had early childhood memories of hiding under the bed when the Klan came by and burned a cross on the front lawn because her “uppitty nigger” daddy dared to be a garbage man…GEEZ!! And I remember being called a “nigger” constantly by a couple white students in junior high. And we (me and my mother) were both born and raised in the North. I can only imagine how she would have felt if she had lived to see this day. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for the USA!! I can’t wait to go to Europe and wear my “stars & stripes” hat! When is the last time anyone could say that?
