Black History Month: An Overture

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

[Note: I rarely post twice a day. I broke this personal rule once before in the face of black peer pressure to toe the line on former Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Line not toed. Tonight, I felt duty bound to place my fatigue with Black History Month within proper context. Consider this essay an overture for the week, and month, ahead.]

Black History Month (Originally drafted on January 28, 2021)

February is Black History Month.

As many of you know, I have become disenchanted with Black History Month over the years. What began as a search for hidden and overlooked aspects of our national past has devolved into rite and ritual. Ceremony has its place but not so much dogma and closed-mindedness. To be honest, I would love to see certain words banned for just one year from the study of Black History -- racism, diversity, identity, power, oppression, mass incarceration, structure, white supremacists, structural disparities. There are other high worship words underused in the study of Black History -- triumph over adversity, resilience, self-reliance, success, opportunity, ambition, self-confidence, foresight and far sight, tradition, family, ancestral honor.

For just one year, I suggest banning the words of raging dogma. Teach us not another slave story or Harriet Tubman or Nat Turner or Frederick Douglas story. Let us hear only of stories of triumph, of great men and women, of those who persevered over the hill of prejudice into the valley of multi generational success.

Since junior high school, I have taught myself what I needed from Black History. I didn't require others to tell me of the faith of Rev. Lemuel Haynes, the steadfastness of Alexander Twilight, the perseverance of Macon B. Allen, the vision of John Mercer Langston, the larger than life ambition of Acting Louisiana Governor P.B.S. Pinchback, the drive of Daniel Brown and so many others.

I just read an opinion piece about Black History which appeared today in USA TODAY. The writer called upon America to teach Black history from Black Perspectives. I asked myself what could the writer possibly mean? If there are over 40 million black Americans, there are over 40 million black American perspectives.

Am I missing something here?

The writer was not as nuanced and complex about Black perspectives as I might be. The writer meant using Black History Month to "disrupt the official narrative" but what is the official narrative? Once again, every black person in America has their own authentic life narrative. There is no such thing as an official narrative. I don't recall a meeting where we voted on an official narrative. Do you recall the meeting?

By this point, the writer was beginning to lose me but I persevered and kept reading. Sigh.

What are Black Perspectives?

Power, oppression and racism

Black Identities -- other than heterosexual, Christian, middle-class Black men.

Black historical contention and the problematic aspects of Black History.

Now, do you understand why I am disaffected from Black History these days? I actually love Black History and derive much inspiration from our past. Where is the inspiration in learning Blackness is Oppression, Nothing else matters? Is Oppression the meaning of blackness? If Black Identity is "other than heterosexual, Christian, middle-class Black men," where are my Twyman uncles in Black Identity? Where are my Womack uncles in Black Identity? They are nowhere to be found. This writer has a strange agenda which would erase and cancel the black men whom I looked up to growing up from Black Identity. Can you understand why I have retired from blackness if blackness has morphed into some weird, strange dogma my grandparents wouldn't recognize?

My good friend Dan has said more than once that I should not just complain. I should do something constructive. Dan is right.

So, while I don't have the platform of a USA TODAY writer, I have a few folks who read this page. What I propose to do is create my playbill for a proper recognition of Black History. There are 28 days in the month of February.

I will honor Black History by sharing the perspectives of the first 28 black lawyers in U.S. History. Each day beginning with the first black lawyer, Macon B Allen, I will share the life story of a pioneer black lawyer. By the end of February, I hope you will see that there is far, far more to blackness than oppression, even during American slavery, Reconstruction and the Jim Crow South.

Imagine that.

My Ancestors — Family of Robert Daniel and Amy Wilson Brown. My Grandma, Rosa, is the baby in the front row. Picture circa 1899.

The Life Philosophy of My Younger Son

"I am whom I surround myself with."

--- January 30, 2021