Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done”
by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
February is Black History Month – and Black people just made a whole lot of history.
Joe Biden is our president and Donald Trump is not because Black organizers and voters decided that they would not be denied their right as American citizens to be heard at the ballot box.
Kamala Harris is our history-making vice president, a Black and Southeast Asian woman and the daughter of immigrants, thanks to the millions of Black people who encouraged family, friends, and neighbors to vote.
Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are senators because Black people and their allies in Georgia turned out in November, and again in January, to signal a new day in the heart of the Old South.
All this makes me grateful that Black History Month comes in February. It encourages us to think about those who made these historic moments possible.
I’m thinking about the freedom fighters and voting rights activists – and the courageous ordinary people whose names don’t show up in history books, but who showed up to fight against injustice. They often faced violence and brutality that was fueled by the racist power structure’s desire to maintain power at all costs.
Does that sound familiar? Just a few weeks ago, we saw our democracy challenged by that same kind of poison. We watched a president incite his supporters to violence by denying the legitimacy of Black people’s votes. The rage among Trump’s followers was stoked by endless repetitions of the lie that so-called real Americans had CONTINUE READING: Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
