In the New Year I hope to join a few new organizations and perhaps renew my membership to old ones. Since the 1970s Ive always been surprised by how all the talk about Black Unity never results in more people joining black organizations. Of course there are many organizations that simply send you a newsletter and nothing else. I wonder if I would have joined SNCC. Would I have had the courage of a Charlie Cobb or Bob Moses? I like berets but not the Black Panther leather. I dont even know how to drive so being around a gun would simply be foolish on my part. I once joined the NAACP but that might have been because I loved DuBois. Islam was attractive after Malcolm but in the 1970s I ran into too many bad boys Muslims. The community mosques made me want to be a Sufi and sit outside. Maybe it was poetry that saved my life and organized my soul and kept me sane. Meanwhile I was always curious as to why Carter G. Woodson never smiled in a photograph. Was it a reminder that Black History like Black Love requires heavy-lifting and deep dish conversations? Several times I thought about joining ASALH. Maybe it was because I was a history major for one semester at Howard. I fell in love with teachers like Lorraine Williams and Olive Taylor. Didnt we all back then? Oh, and Elsie Lewis must have been the first woman genius I ever met. One summer I tried to be her assistant. We sat in the Moorland Spingarn room one afternoon looking at historical documents. Lewis was so excited by what she was showing me...somewhere in the middle of her comments my mind wandered off and wrote a poem. That was the end of history for me. It doesnt have to be for you. Join ASALH...see below.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 12:49:07 +0000