By Dr. John E. Warren
As we celebrate Black History month, one can not help but notice the difference in the commitment that Blacks have today compared to post slavery segregation, civil rights and the individualism that has come with integration. When we were all Black or “Negroes”, our color was a binding element that those of us who shared it could not escape, no matter what our education or would be status.
Yesterday, we understood that a gain for one was a gain for all. Those of us who had an opportunity to be first, like a Jackie Robinson, understood that he was playing for more than himself; Those who achieved in science like Dr. George Washington Carver, or in loyalty like Crispus Attuck who was the first man to die in the revolutionary war; or a Dorey Miller who when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, even those he was a “steward”, rescued his ship captain and shot down more than one enemy plane from the deck of the USS Arizona before it was sunk; Those students known as the “Little Rock Nine” during the early days of school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, who suffered abuse and humiliation as the first students of color to go to previously all “white” schools, did so for the good of the collective and not just themselves.
