I am reflecting on mentors from Black Cultures (mentors who are no longer with us yet I am still learning from) the first part of 2024. While we’ve relegated “Black History” to one month, and yes, I’m posting these in February, I am concentrating in a space and place to stay focused. And to remind us, especially in a time when very feeble whites in power wish to silence Black history, that Black history IS American history.

From theologian James Cone:

I remember blacks in Arkansas trying to cope with despair — bad crops, terrible winter, and troublesome white folks — yet they still believed they could make through the “storm of life” and not be defeated in this “mean old world.” “Hard times” were real and concrete, an everyday struggle to survive with dignity in a society that did not recognize their humanity. The dialectic of sorrow and joy, despair and hope was central in the black experience. (from The Cross and the Lynching Tree)