Let vibrant voices of past resonate anew during Black History Month

Since its inception nine decades ago, black history observances in February have served as golden opportunities to celebrate African-Americans’ rich contributions to government, politics, science, society, culture, the arts and other threads in the fabric of life in the U.S.

As Black History Month begins this week, the observance also provides myriad opportunities to reflect upon those contributions as well as to listen anew to the powerful words and heed the responsible calls of civil-rights trailblazers. Taken together they can guide us toward a stronger and more-harmonious nation.

The roots of Black History Month date to 1925, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson and his Association for the Study of African-American Life and History first declared Negro History Week, timed to encompass the February birthdays of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass and venerated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Over the decades, the observance expanded to one full month and spread to all corners of our country.

Today, the month rightfully continues to draw attention to the unique experience of the black experience in America. Sadly, some of that experience remains mired in struggle, bias and tension.

The struggle endures in poverty rates that are three times as high for blacks than whites. It endures in low graduation rates and lackluster educational achievement in too many black communities. It endures in disturbingly high rates of black infant mortality in our region, state and nation.

And it endures most viciously in lingering attitudes among relatively small pockets of society that black lives still do not matter as much as white lives.

Indeed a recent New York Times/CBS News poll found discrimination and bias remain alive and well in our national psyche. In that poll, 77 percent of blacks and 44 percent of whites said they believe the U.S. criminal justice system discriminates against blacks. A 2015 Gallup poll found Americans rate black-white relations much more negatively today than at any time in the past two decades.

HEED WORDS OF PARKS, RANDOLPH, KING

Clearly, more profound attitude adjustment is necessary. That process can start by better understanding the contributions of African-Americans that have benefited all Americans. It can be enriched by listening again to the powerful and resonant voices of civil-rights and cultural heroes of bygone years. Those voices carry universal messages to help narrow the racial divide.

Listen, for example, to the instructive words of Rosa Parks, the Mongomery, Ala., seamstress and secretary who in 1955 refused to give up her seat on a city bus, and in so doing took a bold and lasting stand to challenge the segregationist legacy of the American South.

“Each person must live their life as a model for others,” she once passionately pleaded. Parks lived that philosophy in exemplary fashion, and Americans of all races and backgrounds could accomplish much progress by heeding her sage advice today.

Listen, too, to the stirring oratory of American civil-rights and labor-rights leader Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979): “Justice is never given; it is exacted, and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship.”

That evolution of building stronger intercultural relationships remains a work in progress almost as much today as it was five decades ago when Randolph first uttered those words. Today’s fair-minded Americans will embrace that philosophy and carry Randolph’s quest for justice to increasingly higher levels.

Finally, listen to the impassioned pleas of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the icon of America’s proud civil-rights movement, on the necessity for the masses to peacefully engage in actions to warm race relations in this country.

King once said “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualist concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Here, King’s words urge all Americans to disavow themselves of apathy and self-absorption to work toward the greater good of justice for all.

Collectively, the insightful words of Parks, Randolph and King continue to reverberate with meaning today, and Americans of all backgrounds should embrace their timeless messages. Those and other voices of the past can provide renewed momentum now and in the future toward shaping a more tolerant and just society for all Americans.