Why We Have to Celebrate African American History Month

By Frank Bolden

February 20, 2005

[ Audio (mp3, 5.7Mb) ]

Good morning.   Here at Christ Church, during the month of February, we join in the nationwide celebration of African American History Month.  The operative word in that sentence is “celebration”, which connotes joy, happiness, a pleasant commemoration.  And there is much in the rich history of African Americans in this country to be happy about.  We as a nation can take great pride in the many contributions African Americans have made in the development of our country, contributions that have helped to mold and enhance and even protect every aspect of who, what, and where we are as a people in the United States today, contributions that include the moral, social, religious, cultural, and economic fabric of our society.   We have also made tremendous progress in recording and commemorating that story.

Today, because of great communication technology, but also partially as the fruition of 79 years of celebrating negro, black, and African American history, we hear about the contributions of Condoleezza Rice,  Colin Powell, and Charlie Rangel.   We profit from the leadership of Richard Parsons, Ken Shenalt, and Ann Fudge.   And we cheer the performances of people like Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, and Hazel Clark.  And on, and on, and on.  Our lives are also enriched many times a day by inventions by African Americans which led to processes and comforts we could not even imagine living without – inventions such as the traffic light, the elevator, the dry cleaning process, peanut butter, and (get this one!) cellular telephones – all inventions and comforts that in most are cases are patented by African Americans.  

Why then, one might ask, do we still take time, here in 2005,  why do we still have to celebrate African American History Month?  The answer is that in spite of the great progress that we have made, there still remains much work to be done – not only in celebrating African American History, but more importantly in making the American dream accessible to African Americans.  We know, from previous celebrations here at Christ Church, of the gaps that exist between African Americans and Caucasians in our country in many, many areas, such as health care, education, earning power, rates of incarceration, home ownership, etc, etc, etc.   These gaps continue to exist, and in some cases are widening instead of closing.  A really poignant point is the plight of young African American males.   In this country today it is still true that there are more African American males in the criminal justice system, under indictment, incarcerated or on parole, than in college.  This is not something in which Americans take great pride.  The question of what happens to these dreams deferred is important to the continual prosperity of our country, and really deserving of our attention and our prayers.

To me, one of the most important things that must be addressed, and that each of us here at Christ Church can play a role in solving, is the pernicious, crippling attitude of superiority, that constantly, perhaps even unknowingly undermines all hopes of progress in closing gaps of opportunity.   Old codgers like myself have a lifetime history of dealing with these attitudes and adjust to them in various ways – sometimes positive, sometimes not.  When I dress up and put on my suit and tie and adopt my lawyer's persona, I experience less of these attitudes than other times, but they're still there nonetheless.  Like the time when I was leading the acquisition for my company of a multimillion dollar company, and one of the lawyers on the other side said to one of my colleagues, “why don't you talk to Frank – he's pushing kinda hard on this deal”, and my colleague pointed out to him, “look, Frank is the leader of this team – why don't you talk to him?  I can't talk Frank into anything!”  Or like the time when were going to buy a refrigerator.   It was a Saturday morning, I put on my dungarees, my sneakers, and my jacket that said “Johnson & Johnson Law Department”, and we went out to one of the local chain stores.   The salesman was telling us about all these refrigerators and what they had to offer to us. He looked at my jacket and said, “You work for Johnson & Johnson?”  I said “yes”.   He said “You work in the Law Department?”  I said “yes”.  He said, “Are you a messenger?”   I said “no”.  And he didn't know it, but he lost any chance of getting that sale. 

Or the time we were on a cruise.   This cruise started in Istanbul and went around the Mediterranean, and we were having tea one afternoon with a couple from Indiana.  He was a very successful salesman and he was telling us about all of his exploits and accomplishments, and he said, “Where are you from?” and I said “New Jersey”.  He said, “Are you from Newark?”  I said, “no”.  He said, “Oh, are you a garbage man?”  And I said “no”.  I didn't tell him what I was, since I didn't want to burst his bubble, but I couldn't figure out why he assumed that I was a garbage man.   Why not a teacher? Why not a doctor? Why not a lawyer?  But we just let that go.   And there are many, many other stories like that.   As I said, these events occur daily in the lives of African Americans – and they're extremely debilitating.   Not to people like me, because I've had a history of dealing with them, but to our youth they are extremely crippling.   To our young people in high school, in college, in corporate America who daily are discounted – unfairly – under the rubric of affirmative action, equal opportunity, and now diversity.  The arrogance and the ignorance behind this feeling of superiority must be eradicated.  

We here at Christ Church are not without influence.   Each of us, on a person by person basis, can help achieve that goal.

Let me leave you with why it's why it's very important for us to do that.   My granddaughter – the most perfect granddaughter in the world! – is four years old. If you ask her, “Sydney, who loves you?” her answer would be “Everybody!”, and it's true because she is very lovable.   Last year she relocated to the Midwest from Connecticut in the last month of school.   And she came back to spend some time with us this summer. She was upstairs, Penny was getting ready to put her to bed, and she was playing with Penny's cosmetics.  She said, “Oh Grandma, this is powder.  Good.  I can use it.”  And Penny said, “Honey, with skin like yours you don't need powder.  That's for old people, like me.”   And she said, “No Grandma, I need it”.  Penny said “Why?”, and she said “Because it makes me white.”  Penny said “Well, why do you need to be white?”  She said, “because they won't play with me if I'm not white.”    I can't tell you how much pain that sentence has caused Penny and me this year.   I also can't tell you how deeply the scar of racial rejection has been imprinted on the mind of my granddaughter.   That's why it's important for us to celebrate African American history.   Yesterday, her brother was born over at Morristown Memorial Hospital.  Kendall Frederick Bolden.   And it's our priority, it's our wish, it's our prayer, that he never has to experience the type of pain that she did.  It's our prayer that one day black children and white children can appreciate each other and play together.  It's our prayer that one day white American adults and black American adults can appreciate each other and live and work together in the pursuit of the American dream.   It's our prayer that one day people in this country will be judged on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin.  

That's why it's important for us to celebrate African American history, and we invite you to join us in doing just that.  Thank you.