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EGACY

“The Black Experience” Neville Garrick & Helen Singleton, UCLA 1970.

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Feb. 6, 2019

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

Don’t get what’s wrong with blackface?

Here’s why it’s so offensive

Editor’s note: News broke on Feb. 1, ironically the beginning of the 2018 Black History Month, that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) may be a racist following the discovery of his 1984 medical school yearbook with photos on his page depicting costumed individuals dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and another in blackface.

Northam has resisted widespread calls for his resignation after first admitting Friday that he was in a racist yearbook photo, then denying he was in the picture and finally acknowledging he used blackface while taking part in a Michael Jackson dance contest.

We, like, many in Virginia and across the nation, also urge him to resign.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement: “We amplify our call for the governor to resign. Our confidence in his ability to govern for the over 8 million Virginians has been eviscerated.”

Similarly, Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Timothy Kaine, and U. S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, all Democrats, phoned Northam after his Feb. 2 news conference urging him to resign.

If you wonder why Northam is now a dead man walking, at least politically, it is because these hateful photographs are reminders of the climate individuals of African descent have had to endure for many years. Like the Alexandria (VA) Branch of the NAACP noted, any incidents causing or promoting hate must be held to the same standard regardless of the party or potential political implications.

Please read below for a VOX history lesson on why blackface, the mocking of black people, is never ok.

JENEE DESMOND-HARRIS Put down the black and brown face paint. Step

why? (You know, the ones who are thinking as they read this, “You say it’s racist but I can tell you right now I’m not racist, so it’s fine if I wear it! Come on, get over it! Stop with the political correctness! I don’t understand how this is offensive! It’s a joke!”)

For the “why” crowd (and for anyone who feels moved to have a dialogue with one of its members), here’s an explanation of what, exactly, is wrong with wearing blackface, ever.

Liz Pettit holds a sign during a rally Saturday calling for Gov. Ralph Northam to step down.

PHOTO: Stephanie Hagan/CNS away from the bronzer 12 shades darker than your skin. That is, if you’re at all interested in not being a walking symbol of racism.

Wait, what’s wrong with blackface? A lot of people, thankfully, don’t need this question answered.

Numerous incidents each year serve as reminders that a giant gulf remains between people who understand that blackface is in bad taste, or are willing to defer to black people who tell them so, and people who are still asking “But

The history of blackface Blackface is much more than just dark makeup used to enhance a costume.

Its American origins can be traced to minstrel shows. In the mid to late nineteenth century, white actors would routinely use black grease paint on their faces when depicting plantation slaves and free blacks on stage.

To be clear, these weren’t flattering representations. At all. Taking place against the backdrop of a society that systematically mistreated and dehumanized black people, they were mocking portrayals that reinforced the idea that blacks were inferior in every way.

The blackface caricatures that were staples of Minstrelsy (think: Mammy, Uncle Tom, Buck, and Jezebel) took a firm hold in the American imagination, and carried over into other mediums of entertainment.

Blackface has also been seen in Vaudeville Shows and on Broadway. Yes, black actors sometimes wore blackface, too, because white audiences didn’t want to see them on the stage without it.

We have blackface performances to thank

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Celebrating Black History Month and the ‘Black Experience’

The LEGACY

2 • Feb. 6, 2019

News

To fully appreciate black history, the U.S. must let go of lingering Confederate nostalgia PERSPECTIVE BRADFORD VIVIAN As a nation, the U.S. is debating the meaning of Confederate symbolism and history.

That debate is closely tied to how the U.S. commemorates, or fails to commemorate, the full spectrum of black history.

In my research I explore why people choose to remember some parts of the past and not others. I have also studied how communities choose to forget portions of the past in order to overcome longstanding conflicts.

Based on this work, I would argue that nostalgic versions of Confederate history inhibit our ability to memorialize AfricanAmerican historical experiences and achievements as centerpieces of U.S. history.

Forgetting and forging ahead A commitment to starting over and creating a new future is a deepseated part of the U.S. experience.

Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in January 1776, as American colonists debated whether to declare independence from Great Britain. He proclaimed that a “new era of politics” and “a new method of thinking” had begun.

“Common Sense” urged colonists to forget monarchical history and culture so that they could embrace a radically new historical narrative. The doctrine of American exceptionalism that Paine helped to create – the belief that the U.S. is not only different, but exceptional – depends upon an ideal of renewal. It suggests that Americans are joined together in the constant creation of a new history and a new politics.

Paine’s rhetoric argues that

forgetting old customs and conflicts does not necessarily mean destroying the past. In fact, the verb “forget” descends from an Old Germanic construction that suggests losing one’s hold on something. Basic English definitions of the term – “to treat with inattention or disregard” or “disregard intentionally” – describe a voluntary decision to no longer grasp something, not destroy it.

People today don’t literally remember the Civil War. Neither can they literally forget it. The terms “remember” and “forget” are metaphorical descriptions of different attitudes toward history.

As I’ve shown in my research,

sometimes communities decide that previously beloved narratives of the past have become divisive and deserve to be set aside. People often attempt to resolve conflicts rooted in history by adopting an attitude of forgetting. For example, Athenians in the fourth century B.C. restored democracy after a civil war with an act of political forgiveness. Warring parties brokered peace by swearing “not to recall wrong.” More recently, former Soviet states have removed monuments of communist leaders since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Asking Confederate advocates to forget in the name of a greater good does not mean asking them to erase the past. It means inviting them to

the work of truth and reconciliation, and foregoing the Lost Cause – a historical mythology that insists the Confederate cause was noble and heroic. Confederate memorials symbolize a form of white supremacy that sought to violently erase the heritage of kidnapped and enslaved Africans and their descendants. They honor efforts to destroy the history of millions, while celebrating a wildly distorted version of the Confederate past.

Forgetting that distorted vision of history would not erase an authentic past. It might create opportunities for understanding post-Civil War

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Feb. 6, 2019• 3

(from page 1) for some of the cartoonish, dehumanizing tropes that still manage to make their way into American culture.

Beyond that, blackface and systematic social and political repression are so inextricably linked that, according to C. Vann Woodward’s history The Strange Career of Jim Crow, the very term “Jim Crow” — usually used as shorthand for rigid anti-black segregation laws in force between the end of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement — derives from an 1832 blackface minstrel number by Thomas D. Rice.

There’s no way around it: this particular costume choice has a terrible track record.

Contemporary blackface No, minstrel shows don’t really happen anymore, but keep in mind that it hasn’t been all that long since blackface in its original form existed. And it was regularly seen on television as recently as 1978 in “The Black and White Minstrel Show”.

If respect for people who had to live through a time when blackface went hand-in-hand with day-today hateful and discriminatory treatment isn’t enough to keep you from wearing it, consider this: there’s a case to be made that it’s tied up with some of America’s worst racial dynamics.

David Leonard, chair of Washington State University’s department of critical culture, gender, and race studies, explained it this way in his 2012 Huffington Post essay, “Just Say No To blackface: Neo Minstrelsy and the Power to Dehumanize’: Blackface is part of a history of dehumanization, of denied citizenship, and of efforts to excuse and justify state violence. From lynchings to mass incarceration, whites have utilized blackface (and the resulting dehumanization) as part of its moral and legal justification for violence. It is time to stop with the dismissive arguments those that describe these offensive acts as pranks, ignorance

says, ‘I didn’t mean it that way,’ well, their real question should be not ‘Did I mean it?’ but, ‘Am I causing harm?’”

Al Jolson from the 1927 movie “The Jazz Singer”, the story of a jewish musician who chooses to pursue a jazz career by using blackface. and youthful indiscretions.

Blackface is never a neutral form of entertainment, but an incredibly loaded site for the production of damaging stereotypes...the same stereotypes that undergird individual and state violence, American racism, and a centuries worth of injustice.

See the connection?

He said that, today, blackface reinforces the idea that black people are appropriate targets of ridicule and mockery and reminds us of stereotypes about black criminality, and danger. This, says Leonard, can serve to support implicit bias and discriminatory treatment and in areas from law enforcement to employment.

Plus, in a society that allegedly values racial integration, isn't there something unsettling about the idea that the closest thing to an actual black person at your party could be someone smeared with face paint and wearing an Afro wig?

Leonard says this creates a false sense of diversity in at atmospheres that include “everything but the actual person, the community, and the culture.” Does that sound like somewhere you’d be proud to be?

It makes no difference whether you feel racist in blackface

A common refrain in defense of blackface is that it is all in good fun, a joke, harmless, or not done with the intent to bother anyone. Some have even gone farther. Reason's Thaddeus Russell once wrote that the practice could be understood as a positive thing: “We will likely never know what motivates contemporary blackface performers. But those who reject the beliefs planted in our culture by Puritans and Victorians might consider the possibility that, like the originators of the practice, they are joining a 200-year, unconscious struggle for freedom.”

But here’s the thing. Not feeling racist when you’re wearing blackface does nothing to change how it affects those who see it (and today, thanks to social media, that doesn’t just mean your trick-or-treaters, or the guests at the party you attend — it means the world).

Your innermost thoughts don’t change the impact blackface has on the people of all races around you, or the way it reinforces stereotypes and the idea that blackness is, at best, a joke.

“In many ways, one’s intent is irrelevant,” said Leonard. “The harm, whether it’s harm in terms of eliciting anger, or sadness, or triggering various emotions or causing [black people to feel] both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time, is there. When someone

Not getting what’s wrong with blackface isn’t an excuse In “Just Say No to Blackface”, Leonard wrote that some people feel they should have the option to live in ignorance about what’s wrong with blackface. That itself, he argued, says a lot about how racism works: “The ability to be ignorant, to be unaware of the history and consequences of racial bigotry, to simply do as one pleases, is a quintessential element of privilege. The ability to disparage, to demonize, to ridicule, and to engage in racially hurtful practices from the comfort of one’s segregated neighborhoods and racially homogeneous schools reflects both privilege and power. The ability to blame others for being oversensitive, for playing the race card, or for making much ado about nothing are privileges codified structurally and culturally.”

So, maybe you don’t know anything about the history of minstrelsy, and maybe you don’t know anything about the pain and trauma of living in a society that imagines blackness as comical or criminal.

That, according to Leonard, is the problem. The question, to ask yourself if you claim ignorance is, he said, “Why do you not know, and what have you done to make sure that you continue to not know?”

After all, embracing the chance to mock, dehumanize, and to dismiss the feelings and demands of others, all while re-imagining history so that only things you deem wrong are wrong, is a pretty great way to perpetuate a racist society that treats black people like crap.

Finally, if you really cannot understand what’s wrong with with blackface, challenge yourself to figure out what seems so right about it. Leonard suggests that blackface fans ask themselves, “Why do I derive pleasure from this? What’s the investment in doing it, and what’s the investment in defending it?”

The LEGACY

4 • Feb. 6, 2019

(from page 2) to memorialize the full scope of history in more honest and equitable ways.

Can you help?

“Richmond’s beloved mother-activist and community strategist, Lillie A. Estes transitioned late last week.

“The news of her sudden and unexpected transition has really rocked the Richmond area. Her refreshing smile, can-do spirit, and fearless attitude will surely be missed by us all.

“A gofundme has been set up to assist Lillie’s family the funeral and burial cost. If you can, please help the family at this time.”

- Daryl Fraser, LCSW , President, Richmond Association of Black Social

Truth and reconciliation Confederate nostalgia works against the American ethic of renewal and the desperately needed work of truth and reconciliation.

Such work, as in post-apartheid South Africa, includes collective agreements to remember the past differently, resolve historical conflicts, and imagine a new future. Even Stonewall Jackson’s grandsons support proposals to remove a statue of their grandfather in Richmond, Virginia, for this purpose. They advocate for a “larger project of actively mending the racial disparities that hundreds of years of white supremacy have wrought.”

Communities can pursue this objective not only by removing monuments. They can also remove barriers to understanding history in more honest and equitable ways.

Select figures from the aftermath of the Civil War can help us to imagine what letting go or forgetting the past would look like. For example, in his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln implored Union and Confederate states to reconcile, “with malice toward none, with charity for all.” In December 1866, Robert E. Lee himself expressed a similar sentiment. He argued that erecting Confederate memorials “would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating” post-war recovery.

Ironically, the prevalence of Confederate remembrance today suggests that many Americans have forgotten Lincoln’s and Lee’s pleas to consciously forget past disputes.

Vastly unequal memories Historical narratives rooted in Confederate nostalgia exert undue influence over Americans’ perceptions of national history.

Distorted memories of Confederate history – depictions of benevolent slave masters and loyal slaves – hinder serious efforts to confront the brutal legacies of white supremacy.

As a result, it impedes efforts

African-American resilience in the face of persistent brutalities.

Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson are household historical names, with their likenesses preserved in numerous monuments. Not so for black Americans like Benjamin Banneker, David Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington and countless others.

Myriad streets and public buildings are named after Confederate leaders. While no comprehensive catalog exists, some databases estimate Confederacy markers number in at least the thousands.

Of course, efforts to commemorate African-American history also exist. They include the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and plans to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the U.S. $20 bill. But those efforts are historically delayed and dramatically overshadowed.

These disparities indicate how reverence for the mythic Confederate past hinders the nation from seeking a new kind of future.

Pursuing the difficult work of truth and reconciliation is impossible without letting go of the Lost Cause.

That work would involve sober discussions about how Confederate monuments, and the attitudes toward history that they illustrate, represent distortions of American history rather than praiseworthy representations of it. It would also require finding new ways to prioritize the teaching and commemoration of African-American history.

Local governments have removed statues of Confederate generals in the dark of night. Will we also labor together, in the light of day, to discover more honest and equitable ways of understanding our history anew?

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Feb. 6, 2019• 5

Hidden figures

How black women preachers spoke truth to power

Kenyatta R. Gilbert, associate professor of Homiletics at Howard University notes that each semester he greets the students who file into his preaching class a with a standard talk. The talk is not an overview of the basics – techniques of sermon preparation or sermon delivery, as one might expect. Outlining the basics is not particularly difficult.

He notes that the greatest challenge is helping learners to stretch their theology: namely, how they perceive who God is and convey what God is like in their sermons.

This becomes particularly important for black preachers, and especially black women preachers, because most come from church contexts that overuse exclusively masculine language for God and humanity.

Black women comprise more than 70 percent of the active membership of generally any black congregation one might attend today. According to one Pew study, black women are among the most religiously committed of the Protestant demographic – eight in 10 say that religion is important to them.

Yet, America’s Christian pulpits, especially black pulpits, remain male-dominated spaces. Still today, eyebrows raise, churches split, pews empty and recommendation letters get lost at a woman’s mention that God has called her to preach.

The deciding factor for women desiring to pastor and be accorded respect equal to their male counterparts generally whittles down to one question: Can she preach?

The fact, he says is that black women have preached, formed congregations and confronted many racial injustices since the slavery era.

Here’s the history The earliest black female preacher was a Methodist woman simply known as Elizabeth. She held her first prayer meeting in Baltimore in 1808 and preached for about 50 years before retiring to Philadelphia to live among the Quakers.

Jarena Lee - TradingCardsNPS, CC BY An unbroken legacy of AfricanAmerican women preachers persisted even long after Elizabeth.

Reverend Jarena Lee became the first black woman to preach at the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. She had started even before the church was officially formed in the city of Philadelphia in 1816. But, she faced considerable opposition.

AME Bishop Richard Allen, who founded the AME Church, had initially refused Lee’s request to preach. It was only upon hearing her speak, presumably, from the floor, during a worship service, that he permitted her to give a sermon.

Lee reported that Bishop Allen, “rose up in the assembly, and related that [she] had called upon him eight years before, asking to be permitted to preach, and that he had put [her] off; but that he now as much believed that [she] was called to that work, as any of the preachers present.

Lee was much like her Colonial-era contemporary, the famed women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.

Truth had escaped John Dumont’s slave plantation in 1828 and landed in New York City, where she became an itinerant preacher active in the abolition and woman’s suffrage movements.

Fighting the gender narratives For centuries now, the Holy Bible has been used to suppress women’s voices. These early female black preachers reinterpreted the Bible to liberate women.

Truth, for example, is most remembered for her captivating topical sermon "Ar’nt I A Woman?,” delivered at the Woman’s Rights National Convention on May 29, 1851 in Akron, Ohio.

In a skillful historical interpretation of the scriptures, in her convention address, Truth used the Bible to liberate and set the record straight about women’s rights. She professed: “Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, because Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!

Man had nothing to do with Him.” Like Truth, Jarena Lee spoke truth to power and paved the way for other mid- to late 19th-century black female preachers to achieve validation as pulpit leaders, although neither she nor Truth received official clerical appointments.

The first woman to achieve this validation was Julia A. J. Foote. In 1884, she became the first woman ordained a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion AMEZ Church. Shortly after followed the ordinations of AME evangelist Harriet A. Baker, who in 1889 was perhaps the first black woman to receive a pastoral appointment.

Mary J. Small became the first woman to achieve “elder ordination” status, which permitted her to preach, teach and administer the sacraments and Holy Communion.

Historian Bettye Collier-Thomas maintains that the goal for most black women seeking ordination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was simply a matter of gender inclusion, not necessarily pursuing the need to transform the patriarchal church.

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6 • Feb. 6, 2019

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Virginia governor Is anybody safe?

GLENN MOLLETTE Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam refuses to resign after an alleged picture of him in black face surfaced.

Northam at first said the picture was a mistake and then later said the picture was not him at all.

He did admit to trying to portray Michael Jackson.

According to Media reports almost everyone has called for Northam to The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 5 No. 6 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

resign as governor. Northam denies being a racist and admits that he has made some mistakes in the past.

He attests there is nothing about who he is today that is racist and that he is inclusive of all people.

At this writing Northam's future as governor appears bleak with high powered democrats in his state and even nationally calling for his resignation.

Did Northam commit the The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

Annual Subscription Rates Virginia - $50 U.S. states - $75 Outside U.S.- $100 The Virginia Legacy © 2016

unpardonable sin? Do we as Americans have unpardonable sins? We certainly do not forgive murder in America as people are executed or spend life in prison.

Robbing, stealing from people also carry severe penalties. Illegal drug use and trafficking send people to prison. There are crimes that carry severe penalties in our country and around the world.

However, what if your employer decides to terminate you because of something you did thirty years ago?

What if you had an abortion when you were 18? What if a photograph surfaces of you dancing on a table somewhere shows up? What if you used some vulgar language on social media five years ago? What if you stole a cookie out of the cookie jar at your neighbor's house or took a quarter off someone's desk? The truth is we have all done something or a few things we probably regret. I wonder how many people in America have been disrespectful to their parents? What about the times we told our teachers that the dog ate our homework? How many times have we let gossip slip out of our mouths? Are you really safe from the

past disrupting your life and career today? Apparently not. Everyone is in jeopardy it seems.

Most all of us know we have messed up in the past in some form.

People today go through multiple marriages and relationships knowing mistakes were made. We go through jobs and careers knowing that looking back we could have done some things differently. We look back through times of high school, college and young adult life knowing that if we had another chance we would likely do some things differently.

Is there no room for grace and forgiveness in America? What about when a person says, “I have messed up and made mistakes but that's not who I am today.” Is there no room in America for redemption, a new start with old things being put behind?

If we can never overcome our failures, sins and shortcomings in America then we are surely a doomed society. Oliver Cromwell was right when he said, “If we forget the past we are condemned to repeat it.” However, if we cannot forgive the past we can never outlive it.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Feb. 6, 2019• 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

“Gov. Ralph Northam must resign immediately”

His past actions are completely antithetical to everything the Democratic Party stands for.

Virginians and people across the country deserve better from their leaders, and it is clear that Ralph Northam has lost their trust and his ability to govern.

The Democratic Party believes that diversity is our greatest strength and that hatred and racism have no place in our democracy. And we will never hesitate to hold accountable people who violate those values, regardless of their party affiliation.

It’s time for Ralph Northam to step aside and let Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax serve Virginians as their next Governor.

Justin is a dedicated public servant who is committed to building a brighter future for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

DNC Chair Tom Perez

***** The public must be able to trust our elected leaders to govern without tolerance for racism and bigotry.

Governor Northam’s actions have caused irreparable harm to his ability to work across communities – especially communities of color – to protect all Virginians as he swore to do. He should do what is best for our commonwealth and resign immediately.

Kate Addleson Director of the Sierra Club Virginia ***** We made the decision to let Gov. Northam do the correct thing and resign ... - we have gotten word he will not do so...

We stand with Democrats across Virginia and the country calling him to immediately resign. He no longer has our confidence or our support. Governor Northam must end this chapter immediately, step down, and let Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax heal Virginia’s wounds and move us forward. We can think of no better person than Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to do so.

Susan Swecker Chair, Democratic Party of Virginia ***** We are so deeply saddened by the news that has been revealed today.

We are having trouble reconciling our experience with Governor

Northam with what we see in this photo. The Governor Northam we know is a great friend and ally, who has served and dedicated himself to our Commonwealth and the nation.

However, constituents’ trust in their elected officials is paramount.

We regret to say that we are no longer confident in the Governor’s representation of Virginians. Though it brings us no joy to do so, we must call for Governor Northam’s resignation.

House Democratic Caucus ***** This is absolutely unacceptable.

The racist college yearbook photo released by the Huffington Post of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam dressed in blackface or a KKK outfit are deeply disturbing and unbefitting of a person in elected public office.

We are calling on Governor Northam to take ownership of his past and show strong character by resigning immediately.

Contrary to what some public leaders in Virginia have stated, Governor Northam’s decision to dress in racists garb as a graduate college student reveals a flaw in his character. It is disheartening to learn that a man who promised to move Virginia forward has a past that reveals his blatant disregard for black people in this country.

All Virginians deserve better than this and we strongly urge Governor Northam to make the right decision and step down from public office.”

If we are to root out this type of

behavior from our nation, we must start at the former capital of the confederacy. We must now allow this type of leadership to continue in Richmond.

Quentin James & Stefanie Brown James, Co-founders, The Collective PAC ***** It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our Commonwealth and it is time for him to step down.

I have spoken with Lieutenant Governor Fairfax and assured him that, should he ascend to the governorship, he will have my complete support and commitment to ensuring his success and the success of our Commonwealth.

Attorney General Mark R. Herring After we watched his press conference today, we called Governor Northam to tell him that we no longer believe he can effectively serve as Governor of Virginia and that he must resign.

Governor Northam has served the people of the Commonwealth faithfully for many years, but the events of the past 24 hours have inflicted immense pain and irrevocably broken the trust Virginians must have in their leaders. He should step down and allow the Commonwealth to begin healing.

U.S. Senators and former governors of Virginia Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine along with Congressman Bobby Scott

8 • Feb. 6, 2019

The LEGACY

Faith & Religion

Howard Thurman – the Baptist minister who had a deep influence on MLK For most African-Americans who grew up with the legacy of segregation and violence, making space for introspection was difficult.

Martin Luther King Jr., however, learned to integrate spiritual growth with social transformation – a practice that sustained him during periods of intense work for the civil rights movement.

As a historian who has studied how figures in American history struggled with similar questions, I believe one significant influence on King’s thought in this area was the minister, theologian and mystic Howard Thurman.

The influence of Howard Thurman Born in 1899, Thurman was 30 years older than King: the same age, in fact, as King’s father. Through his sermons and teaching at Howard University and Boston University, he influenced intellectually and spiritually an entire generation that became the leadership of the civil rights movement.

Among his most significant contributions was bringing the ideas of nonviolence to the movement.

It was Thurman’s trip to India in 1935, where he met Mahatma Gandhi, that was greatly influential in incorporating the principles of nonviolence in the African-American freedom struggle.

At the close of the meeting, which was long highlighted by Thurman as a central event of his life, Gandhi reportedly told Thurman that “it may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world.” King and others remembered and repeated that phrase during the early years of the civil rights movement in the 1950s.

Howard Thurman. On Being, CC BY-NC-SA Thurman and King were both steeped in the black Baptist tradition.

Both thought long about how to apply their church experiences and theological training into challenging the white supremacist ideology of segregation. However, initially their encounters were brief.

Thurman had served as dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 1953 to 1965. King was a student there when Thurman first assumed his position in Boston and heard the renowned minister deliver some addresses. A few years later, King invited Thurman to speak at his first pulpit at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. Their most serious personal encounter – the one that gave Thurman his opportunity to

influence King personally, and help prepare him for struggles to come – came as a result of a tragedy.

A crucial meeting in hospital On Sept. 20, 1958, a mentally disturbed African-American woman named Izola Ware Curry came to a book signing in upper Manhattan.

There, King was signing copies of his new book, “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.”

Curry moved to the front of the signing line, took out a sharpedged letter opener and stabbed the 29-year-old minister, who had just vaulted to national prominence through his leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott.

King barely survived. Doctors later told King that if he had sneezed, he

easily could have died. Of course, King later received a fatal gunshot wound in April 1968. Curry lived her days in a mental institution, to the age of 97.

It was while recuperating in the hospital afterward that King received a visit from Thurman.

While there, Thurman gave the same advice he gave to countless others over decades: that King should take the unexpected, if tragic, opportunity to meditate on his life and its purposes, and only then move forward.

Thurman urged King to extend his rest period by two weeks. It would, as he said, give King “time away from the immediate pressure

(continued on page 9)

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(from page 8) of the movement” and to “rest his body and mind with healing detachment.” Thurman worried that “the movement had become more than an organization; it had become an organism with a life of its own,” which potentially could swallow up King.

King wrote to Thurman to say, “I am following your advice on the question.”

King’s spiritual connection with Thurman King and Thurman were never personally close. But Thurman left a profound intellectual and spiritual influence on King. King, for example, reportedly carried his own well-thumbed copy of Thurman’s best-known book, “Jesus and the Disinherited,” in his pocket during the long and epic struggle of the Montgomery bus boycott.

Feb. 6, 2019• 9 In his sermons during the 1950s and 1960s, King quoted and paraphrased Thurman extensively.

Minnesota Historical Society, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA In his sermons during the 1950s and 1960s, King quoted and paraphrased Thurman extensively.

Drawing from Thurman’s views, King understood Jesus as friend and ally of the dispossessed – to a group of Jewish followers in ancient Palestine, and to African-Americans under slavery and segregation. That was precisely why Jesus was so central to black religious history.

As Walter Fluker, editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, has explained, the private mystic and the public activist found common ground in understanding that spirituality is necessarily linked to social transformation.

Private spiritual cultivation could prepare the way for deeper public commitments for social change.

King himself, according to one biographer, came to feel that the stabbing and enforced convalescence was “part of God’s plan to prepare him for some larger work” in the struggle against southern segregation and American white The mystic supremacy.

Thurman was not an activist, In a larger sense, the discipline as King was, nor one to take up of nonviolence required a spiritual specific social and political causes commitment and discipline that to transform a country. He was a came, for many, through selfprivate man and an intellectual. examination, meditation and prayer.

He saw spiritual cultivation as a This was the message Thurman necessary accompaniment to social T:9.75”transmitted to the larger civil rights activism. movement.

Thurman combined, in the words of historian Martin Marty, the “inner life, the life of passion, the life of fire, with the external life, the life of politics.

Spiritual retreat and activism King’s stabbing was a bizarre and tragic event, but in some sense it gave him the period of reflection and inner cultivation needed for the chaotic coming days of the civil rights struggle.

The prison cell in Birmingham, Alabama, where in mid-1963 King penned his classic “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” also accidentally but critically provided much the same spiritual retreat for reflections that helped transform America.

The relationship of Thurman’s mysticism and King’s activism provides a fascinating model for how spiritual and social transformation can work together in a person’s life – and in society more generally.

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10 • Feb. 6, 2019

The LEGACY

African rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: A brief history of gospel music’s evolution The enslaved Africans who first arrived in the British colony of Virginia in 1619 after being forcefully removed from their natural environments left much behind, but their rhythms associated with music-making journeyed with them across the Atlantic.

Many of those Africans came from cultures where the mother tongue was a tonal language. That is, ideas were conveyed as much by the inflection of a word as by the word itself.

“Melody, as we typically think of it, took a secondary role and rhythm assumed major importance,” said Robert Stephens, professor of world music, University of Connecticut.

For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – helped forge

a common musical consciousness. In the understanding that organized sound could be an effective tool for communication, they created a world of sound and rhythm to chant, sing and shout about their conditions.

Music was not a singular act, but permeated every aspect of daily life.

In time, versions of these rhythms were attached to work songs, field hollers and street cries, many of which were accompanied by dance.

The creators of these forms drew from an African cultural inventory that favored communal participation and call and response singing wherein a leader presented a musical call that was answered by a group response.

Stephens notes that his research confirms, eventually, the melding of

African rhythmic ideas with Western musical ideas laid the foundation for a genre of African-American music, in particular spirituals and, later, gospel songs.

Spirituals: A journey John Gibb St. Clair Drake, the noted black anthropologist, points out that during the years of slavery, Christianity in the U.S. introduced many contradictions that were contrary to the religious beliefs of Africans. For most Africans the concepts of sin, guilt and the afterlife, were new.

In Africa, when one sinned, it was a mere annoyance. Often, an animal sacrifice would allow for the sin to be forgiven. In the New Testament, however, Jesus

dismissed sacrifice for the absolution of sin. The Christian tenet of sin guided personal behavior. This was primarily the case in northern white churches in the U.S. where the belief was that all people should be treated equally. In the South many believed that slavery was justified in the Bible.

This doctrine of sin, which called for equality, became central to the preaching of the Baptist and Methodist churches.

In 1787, reacting to racial slights at St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, two clergymen, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, followed by a number of blacks left and formed the African

(continued on page 11)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Feb. 6, 2019• 11

(from page 10) Methodist Episcopal Church.

The new church provided an important home for the spiritual, a body of songs created over two centuries by enslaved Africans.

Richard Allen published a hymnal in 1801 entitled “A Collection of Spirituals, Songs and Hymns,” some of which he wrote himself.

His spirituals were infused with an African approach to music-making, including communal participation and a rhythmic approach to musicmaking with Christian hymns and doctrines. Stories found in the Old Testament were a source for their lyrics. They focused on heaven as the ultimate escape.

Spread of spirituals After emancipation in 1863, as African-Americans moved throughout the United States, they carried – and modified – their cultural habits and ideas of religion and songs with them to northern regions.

Later chroniclers of spirituals, like George White, a professor of music at Fisk University, began to codify and share them with audiences who, until then, knew very little about them. On Oct. 6, 1871, White and the Fisk Jubilee Singers launched a fundraising tour for the university that marked the formal emergence of the African-American spiritual into the broader American culture and not restricted to black churches.

Their songs became a form of cultural preservation that reflected the changes in the religious and performance practices that would appear in gospel songs in the 1930s.

For example, White modified the way the music was performed, using harmonies he constructed, for example, to make sure it would be accepted by those from whom he expected to raise money, primarily from whites who attended their performances.

As with spirituals, the gospel singers’ intimate relationship with

Thomas Dorsey God’s living presence remained at the core as reflected in titles like “I Had a Talk with Jesus,” “He’s Holding My Hand” and “He Has Never Left Me Alone.”

The rise of gospel Gospel songs – while maintaining certain aspects of the spirituals such as hope and affirmation – also reflected and affirmed a personal relationship with Jesus, as the titles “The Lord Jesus Is My All and All,” “I’m Going to Bury Myself in Jesus’ Arms” and “It Will Be Alright” suggest.

The rise of gospel song was also tied to the second major AfricanAmerican migration that occurred at turn of the 20th century, when many moved to northern urban areas. By the 1930s, the black community was experiencing changes in religious consciousness. New geographies, new realities and new expectations became the standard of both those with long-standing residence in the North and the recently arrived.

For the former, there was little desire to retain what some called “corn-shucking” songs, songs associated with plantation life. New arrivals, however still welcomed the jubilant fervor and emotionalism of camp meetings and revivals that included, among other things, the ring shout, a form of singing that in its original form included singing while moving in a counterclockwise circle often to a stick-beating

rhythm.

The 1930’s were also the era of Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. Dorsey began his campaign to make gospel acceptable in church after the tragic death of his wife and child. A former bluesman who performed under the name of Georgia Tom, Dorsey, after his tragic loss, rededicated his life to the church. His first gospel song published was “If You See My Savior.” He went on to publish 400 gospel songs, with the best known being “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”

Dorsey was also one of the founders of the first gospel chorus in Chicago, and, with associates, chartered the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, the precursor to gospel groups in today’s black churches.

Gospel song and the Hammond organ In the ‘30s black gospel churches in

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the North originally, began using the Hammond organ, which had been newly invented, in services. This trend quickly spread to St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia and beyond.

The Hammond was introduced in 1935 as a cheaper version of the pipe organ. A musician could now play melodies and harmonies but had the added feature of using his feet to play the bass as well. This enhanced the players’ ability to control melody, harmony and rhythm through one source.

The Hammond became an indispensable companion to the sermon and the musical foundation of the shout and praise breaks. Solo pieces within the service imitated the rhythms of traditional hymns in blues-infused styles that created a musical sermon, a practice still common in gospel performances.

Gospel’s journey continues today producing musicians of extraordinary dedication who continue to carry the word.

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12 • Feb. 6, 2019

The LEGACY

(from page 5) Preaching justice An important voice was that of Rev. Florence Spearing Randolph. In her role as reformer, suffragist, evangelist and pastor, she daringly advanced the cause of freedom and justice within the churches she served and even beyond during the period of the Great Migration of 20th century.

In my book, “A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights,” I trace the clerical legacy of Rev. Randolph and describe how her prophetic sermons spoke to the spiritual, social and industrial conditions of her African-American listeners before and during the largest internal migration in the United States.

In her sermons she brought criticism to the broken promises of American democracy, the deceptive ideology of black inferiority and other chronic injustices.

Randolph’s sermon “If I Were White,” preached on Race Relations Sunday, Feb. 1, 1941, reminded her listeners of their self-worth.

It emphasized that America’s whites who claim to be defending democracy in wartime have an obligation to all American citizens.

Randolph spoke in concrete language. She argued that the refusal of whites to act justly toward blacks, domestically and abroad, embraced sin rather than Christ. That, she said, revealed a realistic picture of America’s race problem.

She also spoke about gender discrimination.

Randolph’s carefully crafted sermon in 1909 “Antipathy to Women Preachers,” for example, highlights several heroic women in the Bible.

From her interpretation of their scriptural legacy, she argued that gender discrimination in Christian pulpits illustrated a misreading of scripture.

Randolph used her position as preacher to effect social change. She was a member and organizer for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which led in the work to pass the 18th Amendment, which made prohibition of the production, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. Her affiliation with the WCTU earned her the title “militant herald of temperance and righteousness.”

Today, several respected African-American women preachers and teachers of preachers proudly stand on Lee’s, Small’s and Randolph’s shoulders raising their prophetic voices.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

When black historian Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926 (expanded to Black History Month in 1976), the prevailing sentiment was that black people had no history. They were little more than the hewers of wood and the drawers of water who, in their insistence upon even basic political rights, comprised an alarming “Negro problem.”

To combat such ignorance and prejudice, Woodson worked relentlessly to compile the rich history of black people. He especially liked to emphasize the role of exceptional blacks who made major contributions to American life. At the time, that was a radical idea.

W. Allison Davis (1902-1983) came of age in the generation after Woodson, but he was precisely the type of exceptional black person whom Woodson liked to uphold as evidence of black intelligence, civility and achievement.

Davis was an accomplished anthropologist and a trailblazer who was the first black American to earn tenure at a predominantly white university – the University of Chicago in 1947. But Davis has faded from popular memory. In my book “The Lost Black Scholar: Resurrecting Allison Davis in American Social Thought,” I make the case that he belongs within the pantheon of illustrious black – and simply, American – pioneers.

Allison Davis, forgotten pioneer Stubbs Davis were among the first black anthropologists in the country. Bringing their experiences on the wrong side of the color line to mainstream social science, they made landmark contributions to their field, including “Deep South” (1941) and “Children of Bondage” (1940). Those books sold tens of thousands of copies in the middle decades of the 20th century; they advanced social theory by explaining how race and class functioned as interlocking systems of oppression; and they broke methodological ground in combining ethnography with psychological assessments

Feb. 6, 2019• 13

Allison Davis Forgotten black scholar studied – and faced – structural racism in 1940s America

Allison Davis, circa 1965. PHOTO: Davis family rarely applied in those days.

Allison Davis’ extensive body of research also had a real impact on social policy. It influenced the proceedings in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), undergirded the success of the federal Head Start program and prompted school districts all across the country to revise or reject intelligence tests, which Davis had proven to be culturally biased. His “Social-Class Influences Upon Learning” (1948) made the most compelling case of that era that intelligence tests discriminated against lower-class people.

Despite the very real advances that Davis helped to inspire within American education in the 20th century, today those same accomplishments are at risk.

American schools remain as racially segregated as ever due to poverty and discriminatory public policies.

The investment in public education, especially compensatory programs such as Head Start, looks to further diminish amid the growing support for privatization, charter schools, and school vouchers – or, the Betsy “DeVos playbook,” as critics describe it. To understand the nature of these issues today, one must understand their history, which Davis’ career helps to illuminate.

Davis’ scholarly contributions are unquestionable when considered now, many decades later. But as the problems above suggest, it is no longer enough to simply celebrate exceptional black pioneers like Davis, or just give lip service to their ideas. The next step is confronting the circumstances that constrained their lives. This means viewing their experiences in relation to the structural racism that has shaped American life since colonial times.

Bending – not breaking – academic color line Consider Davis’ landmark appointment to the University of Chicago. Fitting the story into a master narrative of racial progress obscures more than it reveals. While the appointment did represent the crossing of a racial boundary and heralded the many more barriers that would be challenged in the ensuing decades, a closer look at the story gives little reason to celebrate.

Like all black scholars of his time, Davis had to be twice as good to get half as much as his fellow white male scholars (and the situation was far worse for black women scholars like Elizabeth Stubbs Davis).

Only through compiling a truly remarkable record of achievement, and only amid the national fervor to make the U.S. the “arsenal of democracy” during World War II, would Chicago even consider appointing Allison Davis. Even then, he only received a three-year contract on the condition that the Julius Rosenwald Foundation (JRF) agree to subsidize most of his salary.

Even with the subsidy, certain university faculty members, such as Georgia-born sociologist William Fielding Ogburn, actively opposed the appointment on racist grounds.

So, too, did some trustees at the JRF, including the wealthy New Orleans philanthropist Edgar B. Stern, who attempted to sabotage the grant. Discounting Davis’ accomplishments and implying instead a sort of reverse racism, Stern asserted that “the purpose of this move is to have Davis join the Chicago Faculty, not in spite of the fact that he is a Negro but because he is a Negro.” Similarly myopic charges have been a staple of criticism against affirmative actions programs in more recent times.

The Quadrangle Club was where (white) faculty gathered at University of Chicago, midcentury.

University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-06088, Special

(continued on page 17)

14 • Feb. 6, 2019

The LEGACY

A slave’s African medical science saved the lives of Bostonians during the 1721 smallpox epidemic STACY M BROWN “I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.” — Frederick Douglass “I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed.” — Ralph Ellison Laurie Endicott Thomas, the author of “No More Measles: The Truth About Vaccines and Your Health,” recently said the most important person in the history of American medicine was an enslaved African whose real name is unknown.

“His slave name was Onesimus, which means useful in Latin. The Biblical Onesmius ran away from slavery but was persuaded to return to his master,” Thomas said.

“The African-American Onesimus was the person who introduced the practice of immunization against smallpox to North America.

This immunization process was called variolation because it involved real smallpox. Variolation led to sharp decreases in the death rate from smallpox and an important decrease in overall death rates,” she said.

Thomas’ thoughts jelled with a Harvard University study and a Boston WGHB report from 2016 which noted that after 150 years, Jack Daniels finally came clean that its famed whisky recipe came courtesy of a Tennessee slave.

“This is – of course – by no means the only example of a slave’s contribution to American industry and culture being, at worst, stolen and, at best, minimized or completely forgotten. There was Baltimore slave Benjamin Bradley’s steam engine.

“And a Mississippi slave known only as Ned’s cotton scraper. And then, there was Boston’s own Onesimus.

“While Massachusetts was among the first states to abolish slavery, it was also one of the first to embrace it. In 1720’s Boston, buying a human being was apparently an appropriate way thank to your local man of God.” “He was presented to Cotton Mather by his congregation as a gift, which is, of course, extremely troubling,” Brown University history professor Ted Widmer told WGHB. Cotton Mather was a true puritan. A towering if controversial figure, especially following the Salem witch hysteria to which his preaching and writings greatly contributed.

“Mather was interested in his slave whom he called Onesimus which was the name of a slave belonging to St. Paul in the Bible,” explained

Onesimus and his inoculation account Widmer.

Described by Mather as a “pretty intelligent fellow,” Onesimus had a small scar on his arm, which he explained to Mather was why he had no fear of the era’s single deadliest disease: smallpox.

“Mather was fascinated by what Onesimus knew of inoculation practices back in Africa where he was from,” said Widmer.

Viewed mainly with suspicion by the few Europeans’ of the era who were even aware of inoculation, it’s benefits were known at the time in places in places like China, Turkey and Onesimus’ native West Africa.

“Our way of thinking of the world is often not accurate,” said Widmer. “For centuries Europe was behind other parts of the world in its medical practices.”

Bostonians like Mather were no strangers to smallpox.

Outbreaks in 1690 and 1702 had devastated the colonial city. And Widmer says Mather took a keen interest in Onesimus’ understanding of how the inoculation was done.

“They would take a small amount of a similar disease, sometimes cowpox, and they would open a cut and put a little drop of the disease into the bloodstream,” explained Widmer.

“And they knew that that was a way of developing resistance to it.”

The Harvard University report further cemented what Onesimus accomplished after a smallpox outbreak once again gripped Boston in 1721.

Although inoculation was already common in certain parts of the world by the early 18th century, it was only just beginning to be discussed in England and colonial America, according to researchers.

Mather is largely credited with introducing inoculation to the colonies and doing a great deal to promote the use of this method as standard for smallpox prevention during the 1721 epidemic,

Harvard authors wrote.

Then, they noted: Mather is believed to have first learned about inoculation from his West African slave Onesimus, writing, “he told me that he had undergone the operation which had given something of the smallpox and would forever preserve him from it, adding that was often used in West Africa.’’

After confirming this account with other West African slaves and reading of similar methods being performed in Turkey, Mather became an avid proponent of inoculation.

When the 1721 smallpox epidemic struck Boston, Mather took the opportunity to campaign for the systematic application of inoculation.

What followed was a fierce public debate, but also one of the first widespread and welldocumented uses of inoculation to combat such an epidemic in the West.

“A few people who got inoculated did die. But roughly one in 40 did, and roughly one in seven members of the general population dies, so you had a much worse chance of surviving small pox if you did nothing,” according to WGHB’s research.

Mather and Boylston both wrote about their findings, which were circulated at home and impressed the scientific elite in London, adding invaluable data at a crucial time that helped lay the groundwork for Edward Jenner’s famed first smallpox vaccine 75 years later.

“Even though most of the city was on the wrong side and didn’t want inoculation to happen they were smart enough to realize afterward that they had been wrong,” Widmer said. “And so, there was a higher level of respect for science going forward.”

The scourge of slavery would continue in Massachusetts for another 60 years, but as for the man whose knowledge sparked the breakthrough.

“Onesimus was recognized as the savior of a lot of Bostonians and was admired and then was emancipated,” Widmer said. “Onesimus was a hero. He gave of his knowledge freely and was himself freed.”

Thomas, who has worked as an editor in medical and academic publishing for more than 25 years, added that it’s important for African Americans to understand that immunizations were originally an African practice that Africans brought with them to America.

“Since then, African Americans played an important role in making vaccines safer and more effective,” she said, noting that an African American woman scientist named Loney Gordon played a key role in the development of the vaccine against whooping cough – or pertussis.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Feb. 6, 2019• 15

Opiate addiction and the history of pain and race in the U.S. “I have had little or no sleep, owing to the tooth ache or rather stump ache,” Elizabeth Drinker wrote in her diary one night in 1796. “One of my Eye teeth very sore, my face much swelled and painful.”

Drinker, a white woman from a prominent family in Philadelphia, filled her diary with comments like this. Disease was rampant in those days, and injuries often didn’t heal properly. Food was frequently spoiled, leading to painful stomach problems. Cavities and severe gum disease were common. These and other problems meant that pain – severe, intractable pain – was an ordinary part of daily life.

Of course, many people suffered far more than Drinker. Slaves, in particular, were forced to perform long hours of grueling work, and their injuries and illnesses were often left untreated.

They also suffered from brutal physical punishment. In his 1845 autobiography, Frederick Douglass described how the overseer on his plantation whipped his aunt: “No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest.”

It is worth considering this history in the current opiate crisis, says Joseph M. Gabriel, associate professor of history and social medicine, Florida State University.

“I am a researcher who has closely studied drug use in the U.S. in the 19th century,” he said. “I see many parallels between the past and today in the shameful way people of different races are treated when it comes to pain and to drug addiction.”

Rise of narcotics When Drinker was alive, people did not have many options for treating pain. The only really effective treatment was opium, taken as a tincture in an alcohol solution. Opium could dull minor and perhaps moderate pain, but if you crushed your foot in an accident, nothing could be done for your agony.

Plus, since opium also caused constipation, nausea and vomiting –

all of which could be serious medical problems in their own right – people only used it in modest amounts.

Slaves were rarely given opium for their pain. Their illnesses and injuries were often left untreated.

But it was also widely assumed that different types of people felt pain more or less strongly. The poor supposedly felt less pain than the rich, while men felt less pain than women and blacks felt less than whites.

Physicians and slave owners therefore believed that when slaves claimed to be hurt, they were probably lying.

They also believed that whippings had to be severe to be effective.

Opium was not particularly helpful for severe pain, but injected morphine was. Morphine was first isolated from opium around 1805, but it was rarely used for the next five decades, because it was difficult to tolerate when taken by mouth. In 1856, Scottish physician Alexander Wood invented the hypodermic needle. He discovered that injected morphine gives fast and highly effective relief for even excruciating pain.

Injected morphine was first widely used during the Civil War. After the war, it was used to help wounded veterans cope with their injuries, and then became a popular way to treat acute pain of all kinds.

Responses to addiction For many people, morphine was a

godsend. However, serious problems accompanied its widespread use.

People began to inject morphine for recreational purposes and to escape despair. Suicide and overdoses became common. Others became addicted to morphine as well as other intoxicating drugs at the time, including cocaine and hashish.

By the end of the century, physicians were debating whether or not addiction should be considered a disease. Reformers passed the first wave of laws intended to control narcotics and other drugs. They also established treatment facilities to help people recover from their addiction.

According to historian Timothy Hickman, these efforts divided drug users into two types. People who became addicted after using morphine or other drugs to treat their pain were often described as sympathetic victims and given help. People who used drugs for recreational reasons, however, were considered “degraded” and put in prison.

In practice, of course, the difference between the two categories was often blurry. People who became addicted trying to control their pain were frequently incarcerated under the faulty assumption that their continued use was a personal choice. They were also mistaken for people who took drugs solely for recreational reasons.

There was also an important racial component to all this. After the Civil War, the widespread suffering of freed slaves was ignored by policymakers and the media as part of the effort to reunite the nation. It was also ignored by white physicians. Although statistics from the period are unreliable, it appears that blacks were prescribed morphine significantly less often than whites – in part because they received less medical care and in part because white physicians assumed that they suffered less physical pain.

Like whites, blacks sometimes used other drugs that authorities found concerning. Unlike whites, however, blacks were rarely offered sympathy or treatment for their addiction.

White authorities almost always

assumed that blacks used these substances for “degraded” reasons.

Although whites were sometimes given sympathy and treatment even if they were considered degraded, blacks rarely were. Black addicts simply were not understood as sympathetic victims in the same way as many whites. They were seen only as dangerous criminals and often described in racist terms.

Lessons for today Today, Americans live with the consequences of this history.

“We all benefit from the ability of physicians to relieve serious pain by prescribing narcotics,” notes Gabriel, the professor. Yet these drugs also cause immense harm, just as injected morphine did more than a century ago. And many still have a deeply confused reaction to addiction, mistaking people who cannot control their drug habits with people who take drugs for other reasons.

The mistaken belief that blacks suffer from less physical pain than whites still persists among medical students and physicians. So does the assumption that black people are more likely to seek narcotics for supposedly illegitimate reasons. Black people receive less treatment for both acute and chronic pain than whites.

Prescription practices by physicians are only one cause for opiate addiction in this country.

Illegal drug use also plays an important role in both white and black communities. Blacks use illegal drugs at roughly the same overall rate as whites, yet their rate of incarceration is three to four times higher. They also receive less effective treatment for drug addiction than whites.

The lessons here are stark, notes Gabriel. “As a country, the U.S. responds to drug epidemics in very different ways depending on the skin color of the communities involved. At the same time, we have historically treated the pain of whites far more seriously than we have that of blacks.

In my view, the country needs more treatment, and less prison, for people who struggle with addiction. We also need effective pain relief for everyone.”

16 • Feb. 6, 2019

The LEGACY

Calendar

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

2.9, 1 p.m.

Richmond children, teens and their parents and educators can meet their favorite local authors at Richmond Public Library’s 4th Annual Black History Month Author Celebration showcasing local authors whose work examines the resilience of black youth.

Keynote speaker will be Kiara S. Lee, author of “Be A Man Tyrone: What Happens when Daddy Goes to Prison” and “Light-Skinned, Dark-Skinned or In-Between?”

Also speaking will be “The Dancing Deputy” Deuntay Diggs, author of “Beneath the Scar: A Story of Resilience”, who was featured on Good Morning America and America’s Got Talent.

Dr. Ram Bhagat will make a special presentation. Invited authors include: Amira Bethea, Andrew Shepherd, Ashley Starling, Rev. Bobby Huntley, Christopher Allen, Dr. Jaclyn Walker, Jackie Johnson, Dr. Kimberly A. Matthews, Lakeesha Atkinson, Leatha Ballard, Marcy Williams, Martin Tiller, Maya Criss, Dr. Ronald Thornhill, Tamara Lucas Copeland, Uzziah Anthony Harris, and Velvet Smith.

Started by RPL’s Black Male Emergent Readers (BMER) Literacy Program—now under the banner of GET LIT! which also includes Lit Chicks Read! and Boys, Books, and Barbershops—the annual Author Celebration will take place at the Main Library , 101 E. Franklin St, Richmond. This year’s theme is Resilience. Books will be available for purchase.

This program is free and open to the public, but seats are limited.

Register by calling 804-646-3425.

2.9, 2 p.m.

Throughout February, Virginia Commonwealth University will celebrate Black History Month with a series of events, including a keynote address on political engagement among blacks and a panel discussion exploring how the United States has historically treated black veterans.

On Feb. 20, VCU Libraries will host its 17th annual Black History Month Lecture with a thought-provoking discussion about how U.S. society has treated African-American veterans after their service and how that affects them and their communities.

The event, which will be held from 7-9 p.m. at James Branch Cabell Library, Lecture Hall (Room 303), will feature: Christy Coleman, executive director of the American Civil War Museum.

She will address the experience of African-Americans in the wake of the American Revolution and the Civil War. Adriane Lentz-Smith, Ph.D, associate professor of African and AfricanAmerican studies and women’s studies at Duke University who will address the challenges faced by African-Americans after service during WWI. Kiara Boone, deputy director of community education with the Equal Justice Institute, who will discuss EJI’s landmark 2016 report, “Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans.”

Jeffrey Blount (moderator), an Emmy Award-winning television director whose 34-year career at NBC News included a decade of directing such shows as “Meet the Press,” “Today” “The Chris Matthews Show” and others.

The event is free and open to the public, but attendees are encouraged to RSVP. “W.E.B. Du Bois wrote of returning black soldiers, ‘for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope.’

There are many ways to convey the meaning of freedom. This exhibition explores freedom through the eyes of Virginia-born and Virginia-based artists.

The Black History Museum believes “The Art of Freedom” offers original perspectives, intellectual stimulation, and personal enjoyment. The artists communicate their message of freedom through various mediums including sculpture, acrylics, pastels, photographs, fabrics, jewelry, and pottery.

“And as you will see, these works of art evoke sentiments of joy, sadness, hope, anticipation, and much more,” notes the museum located in Richmond’s Historic Jackson Ward community.

Visitors are invited to capture their thoughts and feelings by recording them in notebooks available in the galleries, then come back to engage in community conversations with the artists to be held during the four month exhibition.

Featured artists for Feb. 9 include Lawrence Charity, Hamilton Glass, Rondall “RJ” James, Cynthia M.H. Potter, & Faithe Norrell.

All events scheduled 2 - 4 p.m. and are free to the community.

Submit your calendar events by email to: editor @legacynewspaper.com.

Include the who, what, where, when & contact information that can be printed. Deadline is Friday.

Feb. 6, 2019• 17

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

(from page 13) Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

The opposition ultimately failed to torpedo Davis’ appointment, but it did underscore the type of environment he would face at Chicago. As faculty members openly debated if he should even be allowed to instruct the university’s mainly white students, the administration barred him from the Quadrangle Club, where faculty regularly gathered and ate lunch. In a private letter to him, the university made clear that it “cannot assume responsibility for Mr. Davis’ personal happiness and his social treatment.”

As time wore on, such overt racism did begin to ebb, or at least confine itself to more private quarters. What never did subside, though, was an equally pernicious institutional racism that marginalized Davis’ accomplishments and rendered him professionally invisible.

As Davis collaborated with renowned white scholars at Chicago, his contributions were submerged under theirs – even when he was the first author and chief theorist of the work. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan, writing for Commentary magazine in 1968, failed to count Davis among his list of black scholars who studied black poverty (even though Davis was among the most prolific black scholars in that area), he registered the depth of Davis’ marginalization.

Such marginalization, which stemmed also from Davis’ interdisciplinary approach and iconoclasm, has caused even historians to lose track of him and his important career.Davis was ensnared by the racism he studied Even the most exceptional blacks have never been able to transcend the racial system that ensnares them. Davis’ appointment did not usher in a new era of integration of faculties at predominantly white universities. It took another three decades for substantial numbers of black scholars to begin receiving offers of full-time, tenure-track employment. And because of

the vastly disproportionate rates of poverty, incarceration and municipal neglect plaguing the black community, jobs in higher education often continued – and still continue – to be out of reach.

Allison and Elizabeth Davis in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1939. PHOTO: Davis family.

Few people better understood, or more thoughtfully analyzed, these very realities than did Allison Davis.

This was a man who laid bare the systems of race and class that govern American life. He understood that education needed to be a bulwark for democracy, not merely a ladder for individual social mobility.

He embodied how to confront injustice with sustained, productive resistance. Moreover, this was a man who refused to surrender to despair, and who chose to dedicate his life to making the country a better, more equal, more democratic place.

18 • Feb. 6, 2019

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