Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! As we contemplate the legacy of Dr. King and other great freedom fighters, we invite you to think about all the legacies of slavery that continue to mark American society. As always, we encourage you to share this post, though a link here does not imply full agreement or endorsement by the Council of Independent Colleges.
- James E. Murray Jr., “Admissions as Slavery Reparations,” Inside Higher Education (January 8, 2024): LINK. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted affirmative action on the basis of race, a philosopher offers another theory for giving the African American descendants of slavery additional consideration in college admissions: redefine it as “reparative justice … [for] a specific protected class.”
- Mary Ellen Flannery, “What Really Happens in AP African American Studies,” NEA Today (January 9, 2024): LINK. The Advanced Placement African American Studies courses has expanded to 700 schools across the nation, Here, teachers reflect on the positive outcomes for students.
- Dawn Porter, “I Think Black History Month Should Last All Year,” Reader’s Digest (January 9, 2024): LINK. The author is a relative of Paul Robeson and the documentary filmmaker behind films like John Lewis: Good Trouble. She argues that Black History Month should stretch across the entire year because the legacies of “racism and discrimination on the basis of race … [continue to be] a stain on our country.”
- Zoë Hopkins, “The Invisible Presence of Blackness in American Art,” Hyperallergic (January 9, 2024): LINK. An exhibit of 18th- and antebellum 19th-century art at New York City’s American Folk Art Museum—Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North—demonstrates “Blackness’s uncanny ability to crop up everywhere whether wanted or not, to lurk and linger in the crevices of all that it touches.”
- “Despite improvements, children of color struggle in U.S., report finds,” Philanthropy News Digest (January 12, 2024): LINK. A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation documents the disproportionate and persistent poverty among children of color. The report also proposes some steps that lawmakers at every level could take to improve opportunities for these young people.
- Carey L. Biron, “U.S. cities start racism reparations as national efforts languish,” Context (January 12, 2024): LINK. Citizens in Asheville, NC, and Evanston, IL (among other cities) are leading the national reparations movement—but can a series of local reparations ever close the nation’s racial wealth gap?
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
- Joy-Ann Reid, “Martin Luther King Jr. Wasn’t a Lone Messiah,” The New York Times (January 14, 2024): LINK. An appreciation of Medgar Evers and his influence on MLK. “[King] was the most visible [leader], the most frequently heard and seen on television and, in many ways, the most creative in his approach to fighting American apartheid. … But King was far from a lone messiah.”
- Denise Oliver Velez, “Black Music Sunday: We won’t water down the songs we sing for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Daily Kos (January 14, 2024): LINK. The author reflects on the music of the Civil Rights Movement—a “singing movement”—and those who have kept this music alive through the years.
And finally, a poem for the day…
The America I Know Could Use a Good Cry (2020)
Marcus Amaker
I met America at a neighborhood bar.
He offered me a shot of rum and I reminded him
that Captain Morgan was a slave owner,
so the bartender awkwardly slipped another
liquid lie down my throat. I ordered another drink
and was channeled by dark spirits. The courage of
black ghosts who haunt American dreams.
I told him I loved him and I wanted him to sleep well.
“But I know I’ve been in your nightmares,”
I said. “I want to be your friend, but only if it’s a deep
relationship. Only if you show me that you are not scared
of your baggage. Bring your whole history to the table.”
America cracked open another beer as a tear
ran down his face. He said,
“I was born in a house not my own, and my fathers demanded
that their portraits hang on every wall. White paint covers each
brown brick and our backyard is a museum of unmarked graves.”
“Despite this, a garden grows,” I said. “And every home
can be torn down and rebuilt again.”
“But I’ve been told I shouldn’t completely let you in,” he said.
“Some people in my family stand in the doorway,
blocking the entrance.”
He left before I could tell him that my people have a history
of finding ways inside broken spaces and making them whole again.
Copyright Marcus Amaker, via the Academy of American Poets