Happy Black History Month!
The goal of the birthday challenge is for me to learn more about myself and the world, to do something that I have always wanted to do, or to take a step towards something new. While I anticipated challenges changing, I decided to embark upon a challenge that transitioned me from parks and flowers to confronting institutional injustices and dark truths but also shed light on beautiful stories of culture and legacy. For my 25th birthday in 2018, I decided that I would visit sites and places related to Black culture and history as I learn more about myself through exploring the legacy of my people. While this has always been important to me, this year seemed like the perfect time to focus on this as I learned more about my own family history.
In November 2017, I went to the Bayou Classic in New Orleans with my family. (For those that are not familiar, it is when Southern University plays football against Grambling State University – two HBCUs in Louisiana. It is a big deal.) For a long time, HBCUs were the only places where Black people could be educated, so such traditions still run deep in my family. Going to the Bayou Classic, I was able to see family that I had not seen in years, including my Great Uncle Bo who lives in Michigan. The last time I saw him, I was the same size but probably 10 years younger. Over breakfast, he randomly asked me if I was interested in record keeping. This was a pretty strange question, so I said that I could be depending on what the topic was. I had opened a can of worms and did not even know it. He told me to look up GU272.
What I found was the legacy of a higher education institution, Georgetown University, that had been in the New York Times after the resurfacing of information that Georgetown not only owned slaves but sold them to pay off a substantial debt without which the institution would have been closed. Who did they sell them to? The governor of Louisiana. Where did they send them? To various locations in Louisiana, one of which would be Maringouin, Louisiana.
What does all of this have to do with me or my birthday challenge? My mom’s family is from the small town of Maringouin, Louisiana. They always said that most people there claimed to be cousins and know we know that this is because most families there came as a result of this sale. This news made me realize that there is a whole world of my history and culture that is unknown to me. My family had roots in D.C. and Maryland (where I find myself living a year and a half after discovering this news).
This began a year of visiting Black history and culture exhibits, institutions, and museums, where I was able to gain perspective on what true strength, perseverance, inspiration, and community are during a season when these lessons would be most needed. They also served as a reminder of the beauty of the journey of Black people and our presence being here. I can’t wait to share these reflections with you through this Black History Month Mini Series with a new post each weekend!
Where do you find your sources of inspiration and strength?
What parts of your own culture or family history motivate you?
