Reflecting on Race Relations
By Brother Rogers
One of the benefits of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is that it provides us with a time to reflect on the status of race relations. Race has been a predominant challenge throughout American history. The journey to full American citizenship for Americans of African descent is in many ways the story of America itself. No one can truly understand our country, or our state, without understanding the role race has played in our development as a nation.
The Founding Fathers were vexed by the hypocrisy of founding a country based on individual freedom that also denied freedom to African Americans. That’s one reason George Washington freed his slaves upon his death.
The spread of slavery dictated how and when states joined the Union. Eventually, it split the country apart in the greatest cataclysm our country has ever experienced. Eventually three amendments were added to the Constitution to outlaw slavery, guarantee civil rights and extend voting rights without regard to race.
Alas, after a brief experiment in Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws were enacted to deny these gains for African Americans and to keep them in a servile, second-class position in America, and especially in the South. Blacks were barred from the better schools and the most-prized jobs. Attempting to exercise political rights could prove deadly.
Black veterans who fought in World War I and World War II returned to America wondering why they fought for freedom abroad and were denied freedom at home. Finally, a full century after the Civil War, after more bloodshed, suffering and protest by many, America granted the full rights of legal citizenship to African Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most prominent leader in the fight to extend the principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to include all Americans. That is why we appropriately celebrate his legacy with a national holiday.
So how are we doing in 2014? Where you stand depends on where you sit. The good news is that progress on race relations is evident. The fact that a black man has been elected and reelected as president speaks volumes for the distance our nation has traveled.
Closer to home, Mississippi’s newest Rhodes Scholar is Vicksburg native Field Brown, a senior at Mississippi State University. The success of this brilliant young African American drives another nail in the coffin of the pernicious racist myth of black intellectual inferiority.
The most promising local development is the consolidation of the Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts. In an earlier era, there would be fear of white flight from the public schools. Today, the strength and quality of our public schools are so evident that the community is rallying behind the effort.
But there is still work to be done. Institutional racism, which is not always intentional, is still a problem that keeps the races separated. A recent example is when the University of Alabama admitted last fall that some Greek organizations excluded potential members based on race.
Blacks and whites in Mississippi remain racially segregated socially – a vestige of a time when informal rules and customs promoted separation. If you go to a movie with friends, or your child has spend-the-night company, or you go to a Christmas party at someone’s home, how often is that group integrated? God is no respecter of persons by race, but we flawed human beings sure are.
The most diverse annual gathering in our area of young and old, black and white, city and county, town and gown, and rich and poor will take place at the King Holiday breakfast at MSU. As we reflect on the hard journey that brought us to this point in our history, may the spirit of this holiday stay with us and influence our actions throughout the year.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.
One of the benefits of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is that it provides us with a time to reflect on the status of race relations. Race has been a predominant challenge throughout American history. The journey to full American citizenship for Americans of African descent is in many ways the story of America itself. No one can truly understand our country, or our state, without understanding the role race has played in our development as a nation.
The Founding Fathers were vexed by the hypocrisy of founding a country based on individual freedom that also denied freedom to African Americans. That’s one reason George Washington freed his slaves upon his death.
The spread of slavery dictated how and when states joined the Union. Eventually, it split the country apart in the greatest cataclysm our country has ever experienced. Eventually three amendments were added to the Constitution to outlaw slavery, guarantee civil rights and extend voting rights without regard to race.
Alas, after a brief experiment in Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws were enacted to deny these gains for African Americans and to keep them in a servile, second-class position in America, and especially in the South. Blacks were barred from the better schools and the most-prized jobs. Attempting to exercise political rights could prove deadly.
Black veterans who fought in World War I and World War II returned to America wondering why they fought for freedom abroad and were denied freedom at home. Finally, a full century after the Civil War, after more bloodshed, suffering and protest by many, America granted the full rights of legal citizenship to African Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most prominent leader in the fight to extend the principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to include all Americans. That is why we appropriately celebrate his legacy with a national holiday.
So how are we doing in 2014? Where you stand depends on where you sit. The good news is that progress on race relations is evident. The fact that a black man has been elected and reelected as president speaks volumes for the distance our nation has traveled.
Closer to home, Mississippi’s newest Rhodes Scholar is Vicksburg native Field Brown, a senior at Mississippi State University. The success of this brilliant young African American drives another nail in the coffin of the pernicious racist myth of black intellectual inferiority.
The most promising local development is the consolidation of the Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts. In an earlier era, there would be fear of white flight from the public schools. Today, the strength and quality of our public schools are so evident that the community is rallying behind the effort.
But there is still work to be done. Institutional racism, which is not always intentional, is still a problem that keeps the races separated. A recent example is when the University of Alabama admitted last fall that some Greek organizations excluded potential members based on race.
Blacks and whites in Mississippi remain racially segregated socially – a vestige of a time when informal rules and customs promoted separation. If you go to a movie with friends, or your child has spend-the-night company, or you go to a Christmas party at someone’s home, how often is that group integrated? God is no respecter of persons by race, but we flawed human beings sure are.
The most diverse annual gathering in our area of young and old, black and white, city and county, town and gown, and rich and poor will take place at the King Holiday breakfast at MSU. As we reflect on the hard journey that brought us to this point in our history, may the spirit of this holiday stay with us and influence our actions throughout the year.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.