Mamalicious!

This week, we welcome guest blogger Dark Star to our 32 Days of Black History celebration. At DarkStarSpoutsOff, he gives you his straight-no-chaser views about politics, media, and popular culture, particularly as they relate to black folks. Twice (and counting), Dark Star has been invited to share his views on NPR’s Blogger Roundtable. Today, he shares with us his best-laid plans for blogging about Black history.

I was going to blog about Black history and how the events in my

family’s background are woven into the basic Black history we learned.

My family came from South Carolina and settled in Baltimore and New

York as part of the Northern Migration. Members of my family became

nurses after having been school at the Negro Nursing School named

Provident Hospital. I blogged about it here.

I was going to write about a late great-aunt who was a member of

The Links. I remember her going to a lot of social events but it 

wasn’t until she passed did I discover how much The Links meant 

to her and how much she meant to The Links.

I had planned to blog about these things, but the other day I 

read a letter to the editor from Mychal Massie in The Washington

Post, and that all changed. You see, I had to wonder why discussions 

about closing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) 

always seem to bubble up and why the question is never asked, 

“Why don’t we close Historically White Colleges and Universities

(HWCUs)”. 

And, I’m very serious about this.  I wrote a response to Massie’s

letter, as well as a follow up to my initial response.

Why does integration have to come at the expense of Black history?

It’s bad enough that Fisk is in financial trouble. It’s bad enough

that Morgan State University has to fight the Maryland regents and 

beg the Maryland State Assembly to get money for infrastructure and 

to improve programs. Periodically, the Maryland State Assembly 

floats the idea of merging Morgan State University and Coppin State 

University. But why should either school lose its history?

                        ~~

At a recent family gathering, I heard the older family members 

reminisce about skipping school to see James Brown and the Jaybees

and seeing each other there as well as their teachers. From time to 

time, they laugh about two or three of the families living under one

roof. They laugh, and argue, about who did the “real work”in my 

grandfather’s coal and wood business.

When I talk with my mother and cousins, I sit back and marvel at the 

tales of everyone sitting around the table on Friday evening, my 

grandfather spreading out the money earned that week, and grandfather

and grandmother sorting the money to pay the bills. 

I don’t want to lose that Black history, so I have decided to use my

video camera to capture my family history.

And if you have attended an HBCU, please give them money.  Please help

keep them around for a spell.

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You are in the midst of a blogathon celebrating 32 Days of Black History! Yvette at Six Impossible Things…and I are joined by InkogNegro,Christina, Chris,and Tami.Visit, comment, bookmark!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 9:05 am and is filed under 32 Days of Black History, Back in the Day, Friends, Race Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.