Mental Muscles

Archive for the ‘African American Roots’ Category

The legacy of military valor and achievement by African Americans is truly a source of pride for African Americans in all walks of life.  But the changes the military has undergone to accept the presence of black men in uniform has very much mirrored the struggles for integration in society at large.    The history of truly heroic achievements by African American soldiers is just as honorable as any in military history.  They include…  *    March 3, 1770 – The first American to die in the Revolutionary war was a black soldier by the name of Crispus Attucks.  He was killed when British soldiers fired on a peaceful gathering in Boston, Massachusetts starting the war that lead to America’s independence.  *    In World War II – Vernon J. Baker took leadership in attacking dug in German machine gun emplacements destroying six and killing twenty six German soldiers.  He received the Congressional Metal of Honor for his bravery.  *    December 7, 1941 – During the horrendous Pearl Harbor attacks, a black galley cook by the name of Dorie Miller on board the USS West Virginia rushed to the deck as his fellow soldiers lay wounded and dying all around him.  He valiantly took control of the machine gun emplacement on the deck and repelled the dive bombers keeping them from further killing and injuring his comrades in arms.  For his courage, Dorie Miller received the first Silver Star of World War II.  These are just a few of the hundreds of stories of courage and outstanding service to country made by black men throughout America’s history.  Within the military, racial prejudice has long gone by the wayside because when men stand side by side in battle, they are brothers first, fellow soldiers second and people of race a distant third if at all.  Battle has a way of equalizing all men and real soldiers know that.  So the military has been an opportunity to cultivate equality and acceptance because it is a culture where being a good solider is always more important than any petty prejudices any man might carry.  But it took longer for the military as an institution to catch up with what soldiers new instinctively on the battlefield – that all men are equal when they are brothers in arms.  Finally on July 26, 1948, President Truman issued Executive Order Number 9981 which stated in no uncertain terms what the U.S. Military’s policy was concerning racial segregations…  It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.  We can be grateful for courageous leadership such as President Truman’s and for the leadership of the military establishment to set the tone for the eventual social condemnation of segregation.  While it is regrettable that American has had to sustain an army to battle her enemies over the centuries, there is no question that the high ethical and moral conduct that is needed for military men to perform in combat follows those men into society when their service to their country is through.    And that is one of the many reasons that the desegregation of the military dictated that not only would racism no longer be tolerated by the American military, it would soon be viewed as ignorant and unacceptable in American society as well.  While there is still work to be done to make that dream a reality, accomplishments such as these we have discussed lay the groundwork for a better world of integration for all American citizens.’
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Sometimes when a people are under their most oppression, that is when they truly are at their best it seems.  And that adage could certainly be applied to those who operated the Underground Railroad in the 19th century while slavery was still the law of the land in America.

The Underground Railroad was a means by which literally tens of thousands of slaves were able to escape their oppressors and make their way north to free states and a chance for freedom.  It was so secretive that even to speak of it meant discovery and terrible punishment.  But worse that that if it had been discovered by those who would stop slaves from finding their way out, it would have meant the end of hope for thousands of African Americans who were enduring the injustice of slavery.

The term “The Underground Railroad” was itself a code because that actual mechanism for moving slaves to freedom was not a railroad at all.  It was a series of stops, connected by obscure routes that wound their way through the countryside.  The routes were twisted and illogical so those seeking to catch slaves and return them to bondage would be hard pressed to figure out the ways those seeking freedom might travel.

There was no published route for the Underground Railroad.  “Passengers” made their way from safe house to safe house taking refuge in homes, churches and other out of the way locations that became known as “stations” to those in the know.  Very often, the people who ran the stations along the path had no idea how long the railroad was or anything about the whole route.  They simply knew enough to receive their “passengers”, do all they could for their health and care and send them along with instructions on how to reach the next station.

The routes were treacherous and difficult.  Slaves trying to reach freedom usually walked the routes from station to station to avoid public gathering places where slave chasers might find them and send them back to their owners in the south.  And just as there was no real “railroad” to the Underground Railroad, the routes themselves were not actually under the ground.  However many times at the safe houses, the owners will secure their guests in tunnels under the house or under a farm building.

At one such safe house in Nebraska City, Nebraska, there is a tunnel from the house to the barn so that if the farmer was feeding a needy family, they could quickly “disappear” if slave hunters arrived without notice.  There were also roughly dug out bedrooms and crude accommodations under those houses to provide as much comfort and opportunities to rest and recover as was humanly possible under such difficult conditions.

We cannot leave our consideration of this phenomenal network without recognizing the courage of those who ran the “stations” to take in slaves, harbor them, feed them and care for their needs and help them along the way to try to do what they could to strike back at this inhuman practice of human slavery.  It is a testimony to humanity that people would overcome their prejudices and reach out to strangers, putting their own homes and families at risk to help a downtrodden people in their time of great need.

And we must take a solemn moment and look back on a dark time in American and Black history when such measures were necessary.  But the Underground Railroad spoke loudly that real Americans would not sit idly by and watch their fellow man suffer unjustly.  There is no doubt that tens of thousands of lives were saved by these anonymous heroes who didn’t do it for reward or recognition.  They did it because it was the right thing to do and the thing God would expect them to do.  It is an inspiration to us all in this day to lay down our own prejudices and bond together as brothers to resist prejudice, bigotry and mans cruelty to man because of these evils.  If we do that we will know in our hearts, like those slaves on the railroad and the station owners knew, that there would come a better day.

In the long history of uphill struggle for blacks in America, there are many notable firsts.  In addition black history is populated with some truly notable black heroes who made significant contributions to the prosperity of African Americans and the kind of change that brings about full citizenship and acceptance for African Americans at every tier of society.  One such American hero was Thurgood Marshall.

The bare facts of the rise of this black leader don’t say enough about the tremendous influence his work did to improve race relations in this country.  Thurgood was the great grandson of a slave and his father did well to educate the boy in the value of education and of the law in modern society.  His brilliant school career which culminated in graduating Magnum Cum Laud from Howard University was the launch of just a brilliant legal career.

Throughout his time as a lawyer, Marshall’s success in arguing anti segregation and discrimination cases was phenomenal.  As chief council for the NAACP, Marshall argued before the Supreme Court 29 times, winning each case he took on.  Later when he served in the circuit court, he made 112 rulings that were all fully upheld by the Supreme Court.

But there can be no more phenomenal moment in the life of Thurgood Marshall or in black history itself as when in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.  This appointment represented a long uphill climb to see African American leaders take on significant roles of influence in the local, state and federal governments throughout America.  For all of the violent social protests and struggles “on the streets” in the sixties and seventies lead by notable black leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, it can be argued that the lasting influence Thurgood Marshall in his time on the Supreme Court made just as much impact to improve the lives of black Americans as any other leader of his time.

When you look at the time frame that Thurgood Marshall demonstrated his leadership at a national level, this was a watershed time period in which he made great strides to take this country from one still being affected by the attitudes and social systems of slavery and a past full of discrimination to a society on a clear path to become a truly integrated society of the future.

There can really be no greater single accomplishment that Thurgood Marshall made than his victory in the Brown versus the Board of Education case.  It was the success in the case that effectively brought school segregation to a halt once and for all in America.  While there was still work to be done to make that legal reality one that was part of the lives of all Americans, Thurgood Marshall opened the door for all African Americans to find the same level of high educational excellence that he role modeled for black youth of his day.  In doing so, the economic standard of living and educational level of black America rose significantly throughout his time on the bench giving rise to the first black middle class that only added to the movement of the integration of society across all tiers and situations.

It is for these many good reasons that we would include Thurgood Marshall among the truly great heroes of black history of the last one hundred years.  His contribution to the court and the changes in the legal status of Blacks and all minorities and underprivileged people in this country has made America a better place to live for all.  He has set a standard for future black leadership and indeed for all of us to live up to the best of our values to see to it that equality and justice for all persons in our society continues to be the rule of law in this country for a long time to come.