Leaving a Legacy
Working with the American Experience and The Student Freedom Ride, I had a chance to think about what kind of legacy I want to leave. What exactly did I want others to remember about me 50 year from now? Coming from a family that has it’s own unique legacy (I am a relative of Dr. Ernest Everett Just, successful and pioneering African American biologist, writer and founding advisor to Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.) I wanted to do more than just say I am a relative of Dr. Just. While I appreciate the work that Dr. Just accomplished and am proud to be one of his descendants, I know that I cannot let that be the end of my story.
Important to me is the story of slavery and how this system built the country that many of us call home. In the wake of September 11, 2001, there were many calls stand proud as an American, but I wondered, how proud can one be if they neglect an essential portion of their history? Being a scholar of slave life and its interpretation, I want to be able to help anyone understand this system and how there should be no shame in talking about it. Often I am told from my elders that they want to insure the story is being heard but have a tendency to only want African Americans to hear the story. While I agree that there should be an interest among the African American community about slavery, I also want other groups to know the story and know what we, who call ourselves Americans, came from.
To create a legacy where the discussion of slavery does not lead to an awkward silence or a feel of embarrassment is my goal. To make it acceptable to look back at the United States before 1865 and really investigate the events that happened on these shores would be amazing. To erase the stigma that “cotton picking” has caused is a dream. Often while working on the plantation, I will get white visitors who are in their 60s and 70s tell me about the times they would get out of school early so that they and their classmates could go pick the cotton. Creating bridges to one group from another, that is the legacy I want to leave.
For the Rock Hill stop during the Student Freedom Ride, I had Dr. Ray Arsenault, Dr. Ernest Rip Patton, Dr. Robert and Helen Singleton and Joan Mulholland along with the 40 student riders sign a copy of Dr. Arsenault’s work Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice so that when my daughter was old enough to fully comprehend it, she would have a connection to those folks who rode on for future generations like her. She would be able to look down and see that they signed it for her and encouraged her. I hope that one day, I’ll be able to do the same for someone else as I keep the story of the enslaved alive.
