Recapturing Our Past,
For the Sake of our Future
Delivered by Janis F. Kearney at Lancaster,
PA's NAACP Annual Banquet, 2001
Good Evening. It's wonderful to be here.
I'd like to say a special thank you 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. Their stories 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. To be able to record for future
historians, such history-making facts, as:
President Bill Clinton appointed more African
Americans to his Administration than any other
President in history;
14% of his appointments were African
Americans;
During his eight years in office, he had an
unheard-of total of seven African American Cabinet
members, including:
-Transportation Sec. Rodney Slater
-Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary
-Agriculture Sec. Mike Espy
-Commerce Sec. Ron Brown
- Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown;
then
- Togo West
- Labor Secretary Alexis Herman
- As well as, Lee Brown, Office of Drug Control
Policy*
- 17% of his judicial appointments were African
Americans -- a long, uphill battle for him against
a Republican-led Congress
- 11% of his appointments to board and
commissions were African Americans
- 15% of his non-career Senior executive service
appointees were African Americans; and 19% of his
Schedule-C appointments, agency middle-management
positions, were African Americans.
There were over 60 African Americans serving as
presidential aides in the white house, the most
coveted buildings in the country. Ten African Americans to the position of
Assistant to the President, the highest level of a
white house staff person; two Deputy Assistants to the President, and six Special Assistants to the President
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,
the 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. There would be 10 Oprahs, 20
Venus and Serena's; 40 Michael Jordans, and BET
magnates like Robert Johnson. There would be black
coaches taking responsibility for the successes of
the likes of Tiger Woods, and there would be many
more Fortune 500 CEOs that looked like us.
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, 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 has 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.
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.