Are We Afraid of Black American History?
- Tom Faletti
- Jan 18
- 6 min read
Does it traumatize you to hear the truths of Black American history? Are they too dangerous? Do we have to hide from them in fear? Or can we handle the truth in the stories of our nation’s history? A Martin Luther King Day reflection.
America has been a great nation in many ways over the years. Like all fallible works of humans, it has also done wrong in many ways. In recent years, fear of the truth has led many people to support an agenda that seeks to whitewash American history so that only our glory days remain and our struggles to live up to our ideals are swept under the rug.
The nation I grew up in was not as afraid of the ugly truth
For most of my life, our nation has not been afraid to face its failures and faults along with its successes and enduring ideals. In my elementary and high school years, the battle to end segregation opened millions of white Americans to the truth of how badly African Americans were treated. By my college years, we were applying those lessons to the battle to end apartheid in South Africa.
In those days, you could teach children about the injustices in our treatment of African Americans without being accused of making the children feel bad. Today, the possibility that you might cause discomfort is used as an excuse to avoid teaching the truth.
Children can handle the truth. My children were reading about the story of Moses and the Israelite slaves in Egypt from the time when they were first able to read. The stories were pitched to their developmental level. They didn’t have all the details. But they could handle the fact that people have often done evil and experienced evil throughout history.
We can do the same with our nation’s history of slavery and oppression. We don’t have to go into every detail with young children. We can wait until later to tell them that many enslaved women were routinely raped by their enslavers. But even young children can handle the basic facts of slavery, and the reality that, while many Americans have done great things, some have also done very bad things. This allows our children to learn about freedom and oppression, which gives them the ability to choose to sympathize with those who are being mistreated today.
But today, we see a variety of efforts to suppress the stories of our fellow Americans who have suffered injustice. These actions are contrary to Christian values. Here’s why:
The Christian faith calls us to care as much about others as we care about ourselves
Imagine you are – well, you: a person with an ancestry, a heritage, a history.
How would you feel if your people’s history was labeled as divisive, if you were told that teaching your history made people feel uncomfortable, and therefore that it should not be taught.
I can’t imagine anyone who would be fine with that disregard for their past. It would be unfair. It would be unkind. It would be un-American. It would be un-Christian. You would feel disrespected, disregarded, devalued.
Yet that is what is being done to Black history, and White Christians are often in the forefront of the effort.
Jesus said, “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matt. 7:12, NRSV). If you would not want your leaders to squelch the telling of your people’s history, then you should not support the squelching of other people’s history. Jesus’s teaching is very clear on that point.
The apostle Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28, ESV). If all are to be treated equally, then no one’s story should be suppressed. To sidestep the stories of some of our brothers and sisters while championing our own is a direct violation of Paul’s injunction to see ourselves as “all one in Christ.”
James told us to “show no partiality as you adhere to the faith” (James 2:1). The Greek word for “partiality” is often translated as “favoritism” – showing different levels of respect to people based on who they are. Telling your stories while tamping down the stories of others is clearly an example of prohibited favoritism.
The attempt to strip Black American history from schools, government websites, museums, and other educational venues is the kind of sin that is forbidden by James, abhorred by Paul, and contrary to the teachings of Jesus.
The truth about Black history and American history
As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, I would like to bring together in one place the 5 articles I wrote last year that were inspired by a sober reflection on the mistreatment of African Americans in U.S. history and the role models we can find in the midst of discrimination and oppression.
If you have already read these posts, I thank you. If you have not, MLK Day might be a good day to learn something new about Black American history. I commend them to you.
The story of America is a story of Black and White intertwined. For example:
The “free” North profited from slavery.
National laws supported slavery.
Enslaved Black people built key infrastructure that benefitted the entire nation.
After the Civil War, the national government allowed Black Americans to endure another 100+ years of discrimination.
Northern states also practiced segregation.
In short: You don’t really know America’s history if you don’t know its Black history.
The treatment of African Americans in U.S. history is much uglier than our textbooks tell us:
The “slave trade” was a vicious campaign of targeted kidnapping and human trafficking.
The loss of freedom was only the start of the abuses perpetrated by enslavers.
After the Civil War, White supremacists used government power to continue the oppression in the Jim Crow era.
The fight against equality was backed by a regime of lynchings designed to instill terror.
Black people faced, and still face, discrimination in the North, the Midwest, and the West, not just in the South.
There are countless stories of African Americans who are role models of excellence in every field. For example:
Diane Nash stood up to the worst threats of White supremacists and the failure of her own government to provide adequate protection, saying, “We’ve already made our wills.”
Medgar Evers taught his children a “game” to reduce the likelihood that they would be killed in a drive-by shooting, but he couldn’t avoid the target on his back forever.
A.G. Gaston was born dirt-poor but died a multi-millionaire, living by a very simple philosophy: “Find a need and fill it.” He did this not only in support of his businesses and his community, but also in support of the civil rights movement. Anyone can follow his example: Find a need and fill it.
Countless numbers of “foot soldiers” played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, including Betty Boynton. Read her story and what it says to us. And then ask yourself: For what movement toward justice am I called to be a foot soldier?
This collection of articles plus other past and future posts related to racial justice will remain available here: https://www.faithexplored.com/blog/tags/racial-justice.
Are these truths too dangerous to know?
Does it traumatize you to hear these truths? Are they so dangerous they must be suppressed? Do we have to hide from them in fear? Or can we handle the truth in these stories from our nation’s history?
When given the choice, I will always choose to know the truth, however ugly it may be. Only by knowing the past can we learn from it and build a better tomorrow.
May we use Martin Luther King Day as a chance to learn and reflect, and may God guide us to take what we know and work for justice.
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