Black History Month: “If We Don’t Tell Our History, Who Will Tell It for Us?”

Last updated on: February 2, 2024 at 8:59 am by Paul Louis Metzger

Black History Month: “If We Don’t Tell Our History, Who Will Tell It for Us?” 2024-02-02T08:59:56-08:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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In honor of “Black History Month,” I asked an African American friend of mine, Pastor Jeff Harley, to respond to a few questions. He graciously accepted the invitation. I had the privilege of teaching a doctor of ministry course in which Pastor Harley was enrolled as a student. Since that time, he has shaped my thought and heart in various ways. Pastor Harley has written for the journal I edit, Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. His perspective is vitally important, and I look forward to reading more of his work in the coming days. Here are the questions and his responses.

Pastor Harley, could you please tell us about yourself?

I am a fifty-four year old African-American male. I am married to Annette Harley, and we have three children: Aaron (16), Arianna (14), and Isaac (8). I was born in Trenton, NJ, and I grew up in the suburbs, a town called Lawrenceville, NJ. When I was ten years old, I matriculated to the Hun School of Princeton, which is a private preparatory school in Princeton, NJ. I went to Emory University in Atlanta. GA, where I studied Economics and Philosophy. I served in the Army, and I was an Army Intelligence Analyst. I left the Army in 1991, and I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. This led to me becoming homeless in Newark, NJ. I have been pronounced dead four times. The Lord Jesus Christ saved me in May 1993, while I was in a work rehabilitation program. I married Annette in August of 1997. I have a Master of Divinity Degree from Biblical Theological Seminary (Hatfield, PA), where I am also a Doctor of Ministry candidate. I am currently the Pastor of Harambe Baptist Church in Philadelphia, PA. I also serve as the Education Chaplain at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, which is also in Philadelphia, PA. I consider myself a Pastor/Prophet/Activist.

What does Black History Month mean to you?

Black History Month is very important to me because of its origin. Historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week” in 1926. Woodson chose this week in February because the birthdays of Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14th) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12th) were during this week. The reason that Black History Month is important to me is because of what Carter G. Woodson claimed. Woodson contended that the teaching of black history was essential to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of the black race within broader society. Woodson said:

If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization. (Journal of Negro History, Vol. 14, No.2, April 1929, page 239).

Black History Month ensures that my children and their children will memorialize the contributions of African-Americans, not just to America, but to the world. Moreover, Black History Month ensures that we remember the brutal kidnapping and enslavement of African people, and how we as a people are responsible for the success of America as a country, in spite of America consistently and continuously marginalizing, killing, and brutalizing us as a people. Black History Month is very important. Critics of Black History Month, including actor and director Morgan Freeman, contend that Black History is American History and that we should not regulate Black History to one month, and exclude a month to celebrate White History. Another criticism is that the celebration of Black History Month is racist. I disagree with both arguments.

First, history is written by the people who control the political, economic, and social resources. I went to some of the best schools in our country, but I never received any teaching about the history of Black people in America, outside of slavery and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Moreover, that teaching was from the perspective of White people and white culture.

Secondly, it is impossible for the minority culture, who does not control the economic, political, and social resources in this country, to inflict systemic and institutional racism. This coupled with the dominant culture’s historical and continuous marginalization and oppression of Black people in America makes Black History Month even more important, and essential to our survival as a people. Woodson says, “Integration dilutes our accomplishments. The greater culture would prefer to exterminate us” (Woodson, Journal of Negro History, p. 239; emphasis added). I think that this is even more true today. Therefore, Black History Month is very important to me because it ensures the survival of Black people in spite of persecution, oppression, and efforts to exterminate us as a race. Along these lines, the movie Hidden Figures is an important example of how we can be eliminated from the records if we don’t memorialize our stories. I watched the NASA program as a child. We were glued to our television sets when there was an Apollo launch. Yet it took this movie for me to know that African-Americans were that deeply involved. In addition, stories like the recent movie, Birth of a Nation (the Nat Turner story), will not be told by the dominant culture, so we must record them, celebrate them, and proclaim them; otherwise, we will be exterminated from history.

What is one account from “Black History” that inspires you?

There are many accounts from “Black History” that inspire me, but the efforts of the leaders of the “Black United Students at Kent State University” in February 1969 is the account that has inspired me recently. These college students were the first people to propose celebrating Black History for the whole month of February. Woodson was only able to get one week in February that was recognized by many Department of Educations in various states in the union. These brave students proposed celebrating Black History for the whole month in 1969. Then in 1970 the First Celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State University in February 1970. It still took six years for official recognition to occur. In February of 1976, as a part of the United States Bicentennial, the informal expansion of Negro History Week to Black History Month was officially recognized by the United States government and President Gerald Ford. I try to share with college students today, especially those in the “Black Lives Matter Movement,” that the contributions of college age students are very important; they should get involved in our participatory democracy. If it was not for the efforts of these students at Kent State, then we would probably still be celebrating “Negro History Week”, if we had a celebration of Black People at all. Their courage, vision, and tenacity inspire me today as we continue our struggles against racism, excessive materialism, poverty, and oppression.

Having spoken of “Black History,” please reflect upon “Black Future.” What are a few of your concerns and hopes for the future of African Americans?

I believe that the same spirit that inspired Carter G. Woodson, the Black United Students at Kent State, and the Civil Rights movement is key to our “Black Future”. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech at the “New Politics Conference” in 1967, in which he preached about the three great evils of our society: racism, materialism, and militarization. I believe that these three evils still exist today, and are a part of the DNA of American society and culture. Black people have demonstrated incredible faith and hope in the American Dream. Yet that dream has largely been a nightmare for Black people in America. In fact, our dream seems to be America’s nightmare. As Black people in America, our dream has been shattered. King asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” It leads to bewilderment, frustration, and a corroding bitterness. We see this in Black America today, and I see it in the contexts that I minister in daily. The levels of apathy and discouragement in the Urban ghettos are alarming.

W.E.B. Du Bois stated in 1906 that the problem of the 20th century was the color line. Eugene Robinson, Washington Post journalist and MSNBC contributor, wrote in his book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, that the issue of the 21st century will be the Abandoned. The Abandoned are the Black people who were not able to seize opportunities under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and were left behind in urban ghettos. The Abandoned have less hope of escaping poverty and dysfunction than any other group. Robinson states that in the 1960’s Black America had one common leader, one common issue (Civil Rights), and were basically one united group. Now 50 years later Black America is splintered into four basic groups:

The Transcendent Elite (Oprah, William Johnson, former owner of BET). This group transcends culture due to their wealth.
The Emergent/Mixed group. In the 1960’s mixed marriages were illegal in 19 states. Today, 1 in 5 marriages is mixed; this coupled with the emigration of Caribbean and African Nation peoples has created a mixed group.
Mainstream Middle Class. These are the Black people who could take advantage of EEO laws and Affirmative Action. They went to colleges and have moved from the cities to the suburbs.
The “Abandoned”. The group that was left behind is the “Abandoned”. They emigrated from Mississippi to Chicago in the great Black migration and moved into the housing projects. They emigrated from South and North Carolina to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, etc., to the housing projects in those cities. They still live in those areas, and the economic, political, and social opportunities have passed them by. They are the Michael Browns, the Tamir Rices, the Eric Gardner’s, and they are systematically oppressed by the prison industrial complex (New Jim Crow), drugs, poverty, racism, and the militarization of the police. The three evils of society—racism, materialism, and militarization—are keeping this group in poverty, oppressed and marginalized. There has never been a solidified and united thrust by White America to make justice a reality for African-Americans and this group. The “Abandoned” feel the brunt of that today. Today’s “Make America Great Again” rallying cry is just a resurgence of the hatreds, ambivalence and old prejudices that have always been there in America.

We, the Church of Jesus Christ, must take a deep long look at the Bible and our hearts. We must intentionally go to the “Abandoned” group and incorporate the Three R’s of Dr. John M. Perkins’ model of Christian community development: relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution.

First of all, we need to develop indigenous leadership in the “Abandoned” group.

Second, we need to set up what Dr. Paul Louis Metzger and I call “Prophetic Entrepreneurship” in these communities. We need to develop intentionally adult literacy programs, job training, affordable housing, living wages and other “Prophetic Entrepreneurship” endeavors under the Headship of Jesus Christ.

Third, we also need to go intentionally into these communities and bring the shalom of God. America must face the inevitable choice between materialism and biblical humanism. We must devote as much time/resources to the education of our children and the health of the poor as we do to our technology, buildings, and military.

These problems of racial and economic injustices cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power. As Dr. King said, “A civilization can flounder just as easily through moral bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy”. Lastly, I again quote Dr. King: we must become, “Creatively Maladjusted”. We have adjusted too often to being the victims of persecution, oppression, and racism. I choose to be among the creatively maladjusted. What about you?

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