Think on These Things

Oliver R. Phillips

With the election of the first Black President of the United States, there are some who would submit that it is no longer necessary to celebrate some of the days, weeks, or months that remind us of both the struggle and the liberation of African descendants in these distant shores. Lest we forget, the journey has been chronicled by pain, exclusion, marginalization, oppression, miscegenation, deprivation, and a wholesale robbery of the intrinsic nature of a people who throughout their own history had experienced the heights of cultural achievements.

Black History Month commemorates and celebrates the contributions that people of color have made to this nation. The American historian Carter G, Woodson established Black History Week with the first celebration occurring on February 12, 1926. Subsequent to that occasion, the second week of February was chosen to celebrate the birthdays of abolitionist Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976 the week was expanded to a month as part of the US bicentennial.

Black History should never be viewed as a subversive or separate history. All things being considered, Black history is American History. There can be no authentic American History that excludes the rich tapestry of Black History quilted into the fabric of the American experiment. So the month of February should be a time of reflection on the journey of a people who demonstrated a resilience to co-exist in a society that said they did not belong.

Where are we now?
Population – as of July 1, 2008 it was reported that the Black population was 41.1 million, and represented 13.5 % of the US Population, an increase of 500,000 over the previous year. It is projected that by 2050 the Black population would be 65.7 million.

18 states report a Black population of over 1 million. New York, with 3.5 million, led the way. The other 17 states on the list were Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

38% Percentage of Mississippi’s population that was black in 2008, highest of any state. Blacks also made up more than a quarter of the population in Louisiana in 2008 (32 percent), Georgia (31 percent), Maryland (30 percent), South Carolina (29 percent) and Alabama (27 percent). They comprise 56 percent of the population in the District of Columbia.

67,000 was the increase in Georgia’s Black population between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008, which led all states. Texas (64,000), North Carolina (45,000) and Florida (41,000) also recorded large increases. 

There were 24 states in which Blacks were the largest minority group in 2008. These included Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Remembering the Historical Contributions
Carter Woodson strongly believed that if Black people were to be successful in the future they had to be aware of their contributions to the American History. Here are a few facts:

• The first Black appointed governor was P.B.S. Pinchback, who served in Louisiana from Dec. 9, 1872, to Jan. 13, 1873.
 
• The first Black elected governor was Joseph Rainey; the first Black female U.S. representative was Shirley Chisholm, congresswoman from New York from 1969 to 1983.
 
• The first Black U.S. Secretary of State was Gen. Colin Powell, 2001-2004. The first Black female Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice in 2005.

• The first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review was Charles Hamilton Houston, in 1919. Barack Obama became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review.

• The first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice was Thurgood Marshall, 1967–1991. Clarence Thomas became the second Black person to serve on the court in 1991.

• The first Black Nobel Peace Prize winner was Ralph J. Bunche, who received the prize in 1950 for mediating the Arab-Israeli truce.

• The first Black casualty of the American Revolutionary War was Crispus Attucks.

• The first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was Colin Powell, from 1989 to 1993.

• The first Black Rhodes Scholar was Alain L. Locke in 1907.

• The first Black person to receive a Ph.D. was Edward A. Bouchet from Yale University.

• The inventor of the blood bank, a Black man, was Charles Drew.

• Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery and organized the first Black hospital, Provident Hospital.
• The first Black male Grammy award winner was Count Basie in 1958 for Best Jazz Performance, Group and Best Performance by a Dance Band for his album “Basie.”

• The first Black tennis champion was Althea Gibson, who was the first Black woman to compete on the world tennis tour and to win a Grand Slam title.

• Thurgood Marshall was the first Black U.S. Supreme Court judge and was a civil-rights lawyer who helped to win the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which integrated public education in the United States.

• The Little Rock Nine, after a strenuous and life-threatening battle, were the first Blacks to attend an all-white high school in Little Rock, Ark. Although racial segregation in the public school system was outlawed by this time, many public schools were not honoring the law.

As other tribes, nations, civilizations, and countries celebrate their history and look towards the future with enthusiastic optimism, so likewise Black history Month is such a time. The tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti brings in close proximity to the history of a people that is often forgotten. If we forget the history of Haiti, the perspective we engender might be fatally flawed, and we would be involved in missions from a paternalistic and condescending worldview.

God bless the people of Haiti! And God bless America!

History has a subtle way of obscuring some of the more salient features that lend significant meaning to a particular cultural demography. This is not a commentary that reflects a penchant by any group in particular. History is nondiscriminatory and leaves in its wake any people group, perspective, or opinion, that threatens to unravel the consequences of objectivity.

This past New Year’s Eve, I ventured into the often lost historical trivia of the tradition that has become entrenched into the Christian ecclesiology. This celebration is a global occasion, and in every culture one would discover a myriad of explanations for its genesis. Overwhelmingly, it is a time of both praise and hope.

In the Black community in the United States, particularly in the churched community, the gathering in churches is referred to as the Watch Night Service. Crowds convene in sacred edifices nationwide that reflect the socio-economic classification of the congregants. In large ornate buildings in suburban, rural, and urban neighborhoods Black people gather to worship and hope. In similar fashion, black Christians gather in storefront and less flamboyant buildings with the same objectives – to worship, praise, and hope for a prosperous new year.

However, it was only 146 years ago that African American slaves gathered on this night saddled with a great degree of uncertainty and hopelessness. There are two significant aspects of Black history that are often forgotten about the integration of New Year’s Eve with regard to African Americans.

1. On December 31, 1862 more than 10 million slaves gathered on plantations in both the North and the South anxiously awaiting the decision that would be made on the next day about the fate of the slaves. They anxiously waited to hear whether the Emancipation Proclamation had become the law of the land. On January 1, 1863 they heard the news that it had become law. All through the land, on plantations and churches, enslaved Blacks were enthralled in gratitude to a God who had brought deliverance from slavery. The night has often been referred to as “Freedom’s Eve.”

 

2. Another historical aspect of this New Year’s Eve celebration is the oft forgotten fact that on this day slave owners would gather to conduct a financial audit of their possessions. In many cases the slave owners ended the year with financial liabilities that far outweighed their assets. As a way of reckoning they would sell their slaves, along with land and furnishings.

This transaction would result in the traumatic separation of families. Parents lost children, siblings were separated, and families were left devastated by circumstances beyond their control. New Year’s Eve was spent as a time when they knew that it was possible that it would be the last time they would see their loved ones on this side of heaven.

Today, one hundred and forty six years later, the present and the future is glaringly more certain, hopeful, and optimistic for all people of color in these United States. But it speaks much more than that. It speaks of a God who indeed is a God of liberation for the marginalized and hopeless.

May we, as a Christian community, covenant with God who continues to exact liberation on a global scale. May we partner with God in this amazing adventure as we build communities of liberation where the SHALOM of God would become a reality!

This week marks the 46th anniversary of the first sermon I ever preached after having accepted Christ as my personal Savior on May 6, 1962. It was in the Vance River Church of the Nazarene in a small village in south Trinidad. My text for the sermon was Ezekiel 37:1-14.

The emphasis was (v. 12) Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. (v. 13) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. (v. 14) I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil, then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

I still yearn for God to affect this revival spirit in our church and denomination today. The word “revival” comes from the Latin word revivere which means “to live again.” Most Bible commentaries share the thought that the definition implies that something has died. This is not to imply that our church in the US and Canada is dead, but I am convicted that only a genuine revival could restore the luster in our ranks and a passion to reach lost communities and disciple new converts to become disciple-makers.

The early revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries attracted many black slaves because of the connection with their African heritage and forms of worship celebrations. These revival meetings increased because of the presence of black slaves. Furthermore, some enslaved and free blacks were given the opportunity to serve as exhorters or preachers to white and black audiences during these revivals, although there was also opposition to having blacks assume this type of leadership role. Is it possible that Blacks and other minority ethnic groups could become the remnant community to bring revival to the North American church?

Little is mentioned today about the important contribution that black congregations and communities made to the 1906 Azusa Street revival that served as the catalyst for the renewed evangelical and Pentecostal movement. The foci of these meetings were on conversion and the renewal of the spiritual lives of individuals and communities. Maybe we can invoke this emphasis by a return to these times of revival atmosphere. Is it possible that the Hispanic church could spread this holy fire to the North American church? Could we be humble to the extent that the fires of Kali, Columbia be allowed to infect us all? What a great day that would be!

The overarching message that the dead might live again is full of hope, not only for Israel, but for us.

However, we should allow revival to be holistic. We need to recognize that revival is evidenced by low-income students being provided educational opportunities that are usually only afforded to wealthy students, or when a formerly incarcerated young man or woman is given another chance to succeed in society through community support. We see revival when homeless individuals are given the opportunity to own homes. We see revival when felons and previously incarcerated people could be afforded the opportunity to start a new life in a redeemed society. We need revival that transforms communities and offer hope to the disenfranchised.

Our communities must hear the message that hope is not lost. Though in the valley of despair or death, God will not leave us for dead but will give us new life and restore our hope. God will put our lives back together again, as was the case with the bones. The Spirit of God will breathe in us and bring us up out of our graves. God says, “You shall live.”

Lord, may this revival start with me!