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Claiming our Future by Re-Claiming our Past
Delivered by Janis F. Kearney - Lancaster, PA NAACP
Gala
November, 2001
Good Evening. It’s wonderful to be here, tonight. What a wonderful crowd.
This is my first time in
Lancaster,
Pennsylvania…actually,
the first time I’ve heard of it. But, don’t feel bad…you’ve never heard of
Gould,
Arkansas
either, have you?
I’d like to acknowledge our honored guests this evening, and
express my heartfelt thanks to Rev. Ronald L. Taliferro and the Banquet
committee, for having me here. And, congratulations to this year’s honorees:
Dr. Leroy Hopkins, Jr., and Mr. John Jarvis, and Mrs. Darlene Colon. What a
wonderful honor.
Lastly, I want to say a personal word of thanks
to Cheryl Holland, who was so instrumental in my attendance here tonight. Thank
you, Cheryl, for all that you did to make this whole effort so “doable,” for
me.
I have been flying consistently over the last few months,
and, this has given me reason, and an opportunity to do a lot of reflecting.
Not only my own life, but on life itself… And, in keeping with my theme
tonight, “Recapturing our History,” my thoughts most recently, have not only
been about how I’ve lived my life, but the lives of my parents, and my
ancestors - brought all the way from the
other side of the world.
So, today, if you will bear with me, I will speak briefly
about the importance of us, as a people, as a family…beginning now to take
responsibility for recapturing and preserving our histories… to pass on to our
children, their children, and those that come after them.
Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I were visiting some
friends of ours…a Jewish family who
we’ve known for sometime, but this was the first time we visited their home.
It was a nice visit, but what was most amazing to me out of
the two hours we spent with them, was the wonderful archives they maintained,
how this, over the years, had become simply a part of their everyday
lives.
Their home was filled with pictures of parents and ancestors,
and rich, wonderful stories to go with each one. Stories that told of their unique triumphs and
their struggles during the last century.
To me, this was like a wake-up call– a searing example to me, of just
how valuable the creation and preservation of one’s history and culture is to
one’s future. But most importantly, a striking comparison between one culture’s
value of their past; and our culture’s shame, and neglect of our past.
One writer likened “recapturing our history,” to:
re-discovering ourselves.
While it is understandable that the years of oppression our
ancestors experienced, also produced a kind of self-hatred and shame in their
past; Today, we can no longer hide behind that shame. It is no longer
acceptable that we, as a people refuse to learn and value our contributions as
a culture and a race.
It is also understandable, but unfortunate that we, as a
race, have depended far too much, on the "goodness of others" to
document our histories, to tell our truths, resulting quite often in a
distorted view of us as a people.
For too long, it has not been our eyes, our conception of our
world they speak from. And, more than often, others’ conception and ours have
been light years apart.
How, then, do we as a people, convince the rest of the world
that ours is a culture worth remembering, worth valuing. We never will - unless we begin to value,
preserve, and nurture our own culture, first – just as so many other cultures
do.
During the last eight years, as has already been mentioned, I
served in the Clinton Administration – six of those years, I served as the
Personal Diarist to the President – the first time anyone in history had held
such a position. My job, on a day to day
basis, was documenting, chronicling the Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton
-- an honor and a privilege, and one of the most fascinating jobs anyone could
ever hold.
Now, it may not sound like it, but my job and the mission I
am encouraging you to take on, share a great parallel. If there is one thing that growing up on a
farm with 18 siblings taught me, it was that there are no two people alike, and
there is no one “right” way for all people to do any task.
In that same light, each one of us has to find our own
personal way to help write our history. Mine just happened to have been in the role
of personal diarist to the President. You see, I was very much aware of my
unique opportunity, to assure that historians would know what roles African
Americans played in this Administration.
It was a significant opportunity for me not only to document
American history and Presidential History in the making – but African American
history, as well. Some facts that will
go down in the history books, such as the 60 presidential-appointed African
Americans working in the white house, the most coveted buildings in the country,
during the Clinton Administration.
What a wonderful and rich piece of history that will be for
those who come after us. Future historians will be amazed to learn of the
invaluable contributions African Americans made to the operation of the U.S.
Government over the last 8 years. They will be amazed to learn how often
African American leaders visited the President, and sat at the table as
life-defining decisions were being made about our world. They will be amazed to see how the President
reached out to our thinkers before he made final decisions that affected our
lives.
We should never underestimate the vision of the early
historians and writers’ who documented and recorded the experiences of African
American life from “our” point of view – experiences such as slavery, the
struggles of the civil rights era, and our struggles for social and educational
equality.
These men and women laid the groundwork, giving us an
invaluable framework to work from.
Without the details of our more than 400 years of struggles, a person
arriving on this planet for the first time, would likely say that ours has been
a fast progress - from slavery just less than 400 years ago, to running Fortune
500 Companies today.
It is only through documentation of life day by day can we
know the struggles, the steps backward, and bloodshed that went into this slow,
but eventual progress. Only with that
history would one know that if all things were equal and just and fair, we, as
a race, would probably be much further along, than we are. Because of this, we, as a people, must never
shirk from our responsibility because of shame of our past…the shame would be
if we failed to document our lives and our culture for those coming after us.
I want to leave you tonight
with this challenge: Find your niche in this important mission to “recapture”
our history. Help in your unique way to define and shape our legacy, for
posterity? The responsibility for our future is in our hands. And, unlike the
past, the opportunities are vast.
I challenge each and every one
of you to be as creative as you can: plan family reunions that feature seminars
on how to preserve one’s history; purchase an inexpensive camera, and include
photo-shoots in your visits with families -- begin a family photo project that
will include the youngest to the oldest in your family; select a family
historian responsible for coordinating annual historical preservation events to
celebrate and nurture your family.
Most importantly, identify,
collect and catalog what many of you have at your finger tips: old photos, old
books, correspondence from your parents or ancestors; old trunks filled with
memorabilia that were once apart of your ancestors’ lives. These materials are
invaluable to your history, to our culture. Talk to your family elders, record
their stories, and videotape them as they share invaluable oral histories that
can be a part of your family legacy. The
opportunities are endless.
Make use of your county courthouses filled with land deeds,
birth and death certificates and other invaluable records that have much to do
with our past; Become familiar with your city and state libraries, and other
historical archives. For those who have the opportunity, visit the national
archives in Washington, D.C.
The Pulitzer Prize winning author, Toni Morrison wrote that
our pasts are infinitely more important than our futures. Take stock in helping shape our future. You
can, by recapturing our past.
Thank you all, and Good Night.
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