Celebrations of Black History Month originated as a corrective to the absence of people of African descent in American cultural historical education and many of its efforts focused including and highlighting previously ignored historical figures, experiences and moments. At Join the Movement, we honor Black History Month as an intentional opportunity to engage in the antiracist practice of Sankofa. From the Akan people of Ghana, Sankofa means “to go back and get it.” Sankofa denotes the Akan people’s quest for knowledge, with the implication that the quest is based on critical examination, and intelligent and patient investigation. For us, this means that it is not enough to simply learn about the suppressed and ignored aspects of Black History; we must also bring that history forward and ask what it means – how it changes us – for today.

In this era, where cultural historical education is increasingly targeted by those seeking to maintain the systems and structures of white supremacy, we cannot underestimate the importance of our Sankofa antiracism practices. As Christians, we recognize that going back to the past and bringing it forward is a spiritual practice. Our scriptures are filled with Sankofa invitations like, “remember that you were slaves in Egypt,” and “do this in remembrance of me.” Just as our Holy Communion celebrations invite us to go back and get the radical practices of Jesus so that our lives might be shaped by their kindom vision in the present, so, too, we are called in each moment to the life-changing sacred work of bringing history forward.

In Mississippi during the summer of 1964, an incredible intergenerational movement unfolded that would give rise to life-long activism for many participants. As violence aimed at squelching the civil rights struggle in Mississippi increased, local organizers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality imagined and organized a mobilization that would establish Freedom Schools around the state and work to register disenfranchised voters of African descent.

The curriculum, aimed at middle- and high-school aged children, was designed not only to make up the deficits in education left by segregationist educational inequities, but also to empower students to think and act politically and give expression to their experiences creatively. At the same time, voter education schools were preparing Black adults for the state’s registration exam. In the “Mississippi Summer Project,” as it was known, people of every age developed and joined a grassroots freedom movement that would be sustained long after that summer.

This Black History Month, we invite you into the antiracist spiritual practice of Sankofa, offering the opportunity for all of us to “go back and get” the wisdom from the Freedom Schools for building an intergenerational movement toward racial justice in your communities here and now. The Sankofa symbol is based on a mythical bird with its feet firmly planted forward with its head turned backwards. Thus, the Akan believe the past serves as a guide for planning the future. There must be movement and new learning as time passes. As this forward march proceeds, the knowledge of the past must never be forgotten. It is this wisdom in learning from the past which ensures a strong future.  Read more and get involved at Join The Movement.

This Week in Black History

February 15

• New Jersey Legislature approved a law calling for “gradual” emancipation of African Americans. In so doing, New Jersey became the last Northern state to outlaw slavery, 1804
• Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, filed the first school integration suit on her behalf, 1848.

February 16

• Bessie Smith makes her first recording, “Down Hearted Blues,” which sells 800,000 copies for Columbia Records, 1923
• Frederick Douglass elected President of Freedman Bank and Trust, 1857.

February 17

• Mary Frances Berry, who will become the first woman to serve as a chancellor of a major research university, is born in Nashville, Tennessee, 1938.
• Virginia House of Delegates votes unanimously to retire the state song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,” a tune which glorifies slavery, 1997

February 18

• An institution was founded at Augusta, Georgia which was later to become Morehouse College following its relocation to Atlanta, 1867.
• Palmer Hayden, Harlem Renaissance artist, dies, 1973.

February 19

• First Pan-African Congress organized in Paris by WEB DuBois, 1919.
• Soul singer William “Smokey” Robinson born in Detroit, Michigan, 1940.

February 20

• Death of Frederick Douglass (78), Anacostia Heights, District of Columbia, 1895.
• Katie Hall becomes first African American woman from Indiana elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, 1983.

February 21

• Malcolm X assassinated, 1965.
• Barbara Jordan, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives, born, 1936.
• Singer Nina Simone born in North Carolina, 1933.