Editorial
The African American Experience and the African Diaspora
In 1926, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History proposed that a week in February each year be reserved to remembering Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and the many others who had contributed to the freedom and emancipation of the African American – then known as the negro. That week was to be dedicated to teaching African American history in public schools throughout the country. However, it was not until 1976 when that the week became a month-long celebration of African American history; essentially honoring the many heroes and heroines whose actions enriched the discernibly better circumstances both African Americans and the African Diaspora currently experience in these United States.
As we continue to celebrate Black History Month this February, we must, therefore, not limit the African American contribution to just that of the United States. Invariably, it behooves us to celebrate that unique historical role as to how it has enhanced the lives of black people around the world.
The millions of Africans who landed in this country during its infancy did not have a right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as Thomas Jefferson declared. Even Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation suggesting that African Americans could be recognized as free men and women did not materialize until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
But, in celebrating these heady times, we believe that the Civil Rights movement must not be limited to the American context. In addition to giving African Americans their rights guaranteed under the constitution, it had also facilitated the legal immigration of hundreds of thousands of Afro-Caribbean people and others from around the world into the United States. And it has and continues to enable their respective success because the rights that were denied millions of African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement are no more.
Prior to the 1960s, U.S immigration law basically excluded African immigrants. The majority of those who come to the U.S – Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe, for instance – did so as students attending Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
It was not until 1965 that the Hart-Celler Act was passed – removing racial quotas that restricted the immigration of blacks, Asians and Latin Americans to the United Sates. As result, since the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Africans and people of African descent have come to the United States as students, as immigrants and those in search of the American dream.
They continue to do this today – seeking better economic and political freedoms and opportunities. Some have achieved the American Dream while others are struggling to get there. More importantly, they have this opportunity that was unavailable before the passage of the Hart-Celler Act.
Thus, as we celebrate this month of African American History, those of us from the African continent and Caribbean cannot think of it as the history of African Americans, in a sense that it does not concern us or it is not our history. We must celebrate this month with our African American brothers and sisters because we owe our success or future success in this country as immigrants or students to the African American experience.
Let us use the rest of this February to empower each other to become agents of change in our communities and continue the tradition of enriching the black experience.
The Habari Network Editorial Board | February 17, 2014