Heirs and Ancestors ~ A Celebration of Black History Month

On February 24, 2024 I was asked to give a speech in commemoration of Black History Month. The Portland, Oregon non-profit organization, Love Is King, invited me to take part in their annual observance of the occasion by joining a community march across the St. Johns Bridge over the Willamette River. The event called Walk the Walk is a reenactment of the historic 5-day protest led my Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from March 21st to March 25th 1965.

The organizers walked more than 50 miles from Selma Alabama to Montgomery, the state capital, to demand voting rights for Black citizens. This journey was originally prompted by the violent assault on a similar demonstration led on March 7, 1965 by civil right activist John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He along with Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and 600 followers attempted to cross the Edmond Pettus Bridge. They were set upon by more 150 Alabama State Troopers and Sheriff’s Deputies armed with clubs, whips and tear gas. This tragedy known as Bloody Sunday resulted in the injuries of  58 demonstrators. Lewis suffered a scull fracture.

By attacking a group of unarmed protestors the events of this day elevated the outrage of ordinary people nation wide.  The measured and peaceful response of the march that followed led by King a few weeks later, prompted the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. Through nonviolent protest the activists demonstrated their resolve to take action in order to achieve substantive social change.

In remembrance of the Civil Rights Movement the Walk the Walk march across the St. Johns Bridge asks the people of Portland to keep in mind the legacy of those whose dedication and sacrifice have made the freedoms we enjoy today possible. In my remarks I asked the assembled crowd to remember they are both the heirs of a proud history and the ancestors of future generations who will one day follow our example. Here is what I had to say.

Give me a few moments and let me tell you a story. It is in the month of February that we remember our ancestors, for we are the heirs to their legacy of greatness. In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, the 2nd Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard university put us on the path that brings us here today, almost 100 years later. It was his vision, his charge for us to remember the greatness, of the Black Americans that came before us.We must remember.

We must remember that when Europeans first came to this continent in 1492 a Spaniard of African descent named Pedro Alanson Niño was the pilot of Niña, one of the three ships on the voyage of Christopher Columbus. We must remember that among the colonizers of North America was a Black man named Juan Garrido, a Conquistador who was the first person to plant wheat in the New World in what is now Mexico in 1513. We must remember. The leader of the first free Black community in North America, Captain Francisco Menendez was the defender of St. Augustine Florida the oldest city in America. We must remember that Phillis Wheatley, first Black American to publish a book of poetry spoke of freedom and liberty to inspire those same ideas in the minds of men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We must remember that Crispus Attucks a Black man was among the first to die for the cause of American liberty at Boston Massacre in 1770. We must remember that more than 5,000 Black men fought in the American Revolution. And one man named James Armistead, a spy provided secret information that allowed the Continental Army to defeat the British at the Battle of Yorktown 1781. We must remember that in the first exploration of the newly established United States of America in 1804 a Black man named only as York was a vital character in the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It was not far here that York became the first Black American to cross the continent and reach the Pacific Ocean. He was America’s first great explorer, we must remember.

Throughout our history as a nation Black Americans have played vital roles in every aspect of our eternal mission to form a more perfect union. Through the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s we fought to live up to noble legacy of the past and demand for ourselves the birth right to which we are all entitled as citizens of a free nation. It was our heroes like Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Martin Luther King Jr. who endured the indignities, the beatings, the abuse, and the murders that inspire our presence here today.

Together we gather to walk in solidarity to share among us as neighbors, friends and family our memories of those who have made this day in which we celebrate our freedom possible. We must remember that it is in the imperfections our nation that we find our greatest strength to aim higher, to reach further to aspirer with greater conviction and resilience toward a brighter future. We are not only the heirs of those who came before us, we are the ancestors of all those who will follow after us. It is in our actions today as we walk together united in common purpose that they may one day learn from our example. And when it comes our time to join the enduring legacy of our ancestors, one day our heirs will honor us. But first we must walk our walk.