We are in the midst of Black History Month, a celebration that typically commemorates black historical icons who paved the way for the success that is now a possibility for the current generation of minority youths. Yet, the most valuable part of recognizing past accomplishments is understanding how they affect life today.
Sadly, Black History Month now seems to represent another milestone in the miseducation of millions of young blacks and others who are being indoctrinated with beliefs that the causes of widespread self-destruction within the black community have their origins in slavery and Jim Crow. Based on this false premise, the great Martin Luther King Jr., Carter G. Woodson, Madam C.J. Walker and others’ inspirational dreams have been turned into a nightmare.
The great promise of the civil rights movement was to be a final remedy for these past structural injustices by electing blacks to positions of power and authority in the running of the cities, school systems, the courts, police departments and public housing authorities. What happened in cities like Detroit, Newark and Trenton, N.J., Philadelphia and Chicago?
Why are so many poor blacks failing in systems run by their own people? Why during segregation were black grandmothers and grandfathers not afraid of their own children as they are today? In many of these cities, poor blacks are being moved out of areas because of gentrification as housing prices increase. To blunt any possible protest of their mistreatment, they are being told by the black body politic that their problems are caused by institutional racism and now the new iteration of that excuse, police misconduct.
Many use black history to perpetuate the lie that black America’s future will be determined by actions taken by white Americans to remove the shackles of intuitional racism. These people are themselves accepting the notion of white supremacy and these voices must be challenged, not by a counter abstract argument but by a recitation of the facts.
Many make the argument that the recognition of Black History Month is critical to educating our black youth about their past. In fact, the majority of black youths today are unaware of the vibrant spirit of entrepreneurship that prevailed throughout the black community even during the most oppressive legalized segregation and racial discrimination. Few know about the strength of the black trailblazers that survived and thrived throughout this oppressive era.
Robert Reed Church, Sr., was a millionaire business leader and philanthropist in Memphis, Tenn. He was born in Holly Springs Mississippi, on June 18, 1839. In 1865, his second wife Louisa opened a string of beauty salons while Church acquired a saloon and added to his holdings a restaurant and a downtown hotel. During the race riots of 1866, a white mob shot him and left him for dead. Church recovered and vowed to remain in Memphis despite the anti-black violence.
In 1899, Church used his own money to purchase a track of land on Beale Street, where he built the country’s first 2,000-seat music hall, recreational and cultural center valued at $100,000 when it was built. W.C. Handy was employed as an orchestra leader. Speakers included the Fisk Jubilee singers and speakers like Booker T Washington. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to 10,000 people there. Church was not alone; there were twenty other blacks who were born slaves and died millionaires.
Free blacks helped create Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1847. They created more than 100 private schools. When 1,000 blacks were fired from the docks of Baltimore, Md., in 1868 for striking for better wages, they organized and financed their own railroad, the Chesapeake Maine Dry dock and Railroad Company, which operated from Baltimore to Maine for over 18 years. When blacks were denied access to inns and hotels, they built their own, the St. Charles in Chicago, the St. Theresa Hotel in New York City, the Calver and Carver Hotels in Miami. In Harlem, there was a real estate company in the 1930s that employed more than 300 people.
People are motivated to improve their lives when they are given a vision of success, not by constantly reminding them of injuries to be avoided. There are two ways to prevent people from achieving and advancing themselves. The first is to prohibit them by law, the second is to convince them that it is useless to try because the deck is stacked against them.
Robert L . Woodson, Sr. is Founder and President of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
