Loss and Recovery in African American History: Viewpoint

Loss andRecovery inAfricanAmerican History VIEWPOINT by Charles Pete Banner-Haley JLn thefall of1997 I visited the Charles H. Wright Museum ofAfrican American History in Detroit to interview the director and curatorsfor an exhibition review.1 After the interviews, I took a solo tour of the museum, and I was struck by how difficult it is tofaithfully and accurately render the African American experience ofthe more recent past. As I moved through the exhibit halls, there was a tough, evocative honesty thatpresented the African American experience, warts and all, from ¡619 to 1900. But as I walked by the mid- to late-twentieth-century areas, the toughness evaporated and the honesty became less clear. I was not surprised at the attention given to the work ofMartin Luther King, Jr., but there was no similar exhibit on the Nation ofIslam, which wasfounded in Detroit. Moreover, there was very little about the history ofblack autoworkersfrom the 1930s onward, and there was hardly a mention ofthe black riots in Detroit in 1943 and 1967. There were rows and rows of artifacts highlighting the Motown era and Berry Gordy's entrepreneurial entertainment empire but no displays about the cultural influence of the African American church on that music. Even more troubling , there was no mention ol the Reverend C. L. Franklin, who was a powerful torce in Detroit besides being the lather of Aretha Franklin. Amid the celebratory displays of African American achievements, there is a wary silence, what appears to be a loss of historical memory about the history ol .African Americans since the late 1970s. There has been a similar memory loss in recent decades surrounding the years leading up to the civil rights movement. It is ironic that, in the post—World War II years of ]im ('row. segregation strengthened vital msiinitions in the African American South that provided black people a measure of dignity social cohcsiwncss, and, later, political unity. Many historians note that African Americans in the post—civil rights years experienced tremendous advancements because of the struggles of blacks and whites to secure civil rights and to tear down Jim Crow's barriers. While these advances contributed to an increase in the relative and absolute size of the black middle class and an increased mainstream political presence, they have also brought about a loss of a communal unity that was so characteristic and vital in the civil rights era.2 Some African Americans. understandably, may romanticize the glory days of the 1960s, when there was the perception that "soul" and "Black Pride" were the bonds that held all African Americans together. The successes of the mowment freed the black middle class from the stifling constraints that segregation imposed and enforced, enabling large segments to leaw their communities and either mow to integrated white suburbs or form their own. 1 listorians of the African American experience tend to selectively neglect parts of this story. In their desire to make sense of and remedy the predicament of the black poor, African American historians and intellectuals haw played into the selective memory that many in the black middle class hold—illustrated so vividly in the lack of post—civil rights artifacts at the Museum of African American History. It is often overlooked that, in the aftermath of World War II up to the early 1960s, black families in the middle and working classes were relatively stable, certainly more so than are families that currently reside in our urban areas.1 Within many urban and rural segregated communities, there were clear indications of a social stratum 12 that enabled black children to see that education could lead to meaningful employment avenues or professional career paths. I Ins was particularly important for boys and young men, who could look around and see male role models in the family doctor, teacher, small businessman, and minister . Young women could also see the opportunities to Iv teachers, health care providers, and proprietors of small businesses such as beauty salons and boutiques. Of course there were many blacks engaged in paid work as manual laborers and domestic workers. But with the presence ol a small professional middle class, working parents had a relatively easier job of inculcating the...