Skip to main content

A Thousand Words



I got a variety of interesting responses to my post about the historical preservation of residential areas. (Musings on Invisibility) Some readers supposed:

  • I must be in league with the developer 
  • I didn’t understand that history was going to be erased
  • I was upset that significant African American historic sites hadn’t been preserved
  • I was irresponsible to raise these questions if they might influence the local conversation around Lawyers Hill.
There was a time when I lamented that people didn’t comment on the blog. It seemed to me that one of the marks of a successful blog was that it elicited responses, a desire for dialogue. So I am gratified that readers took the time to share their views, especially since the discourse was civil. That’s not always the case on social media.

As I have been pondering the responses, I came across a tweet from the Howard County Historical Society.


Historic photos can be found anywhere. This photo of a Howard County family was bought at a Columbia flea market in the 1980s. 

Photo taken ca. 1870. Courtesy of @hchsmd 


Here is the photo, from the collection of the Howard County Historical Society (used with permission.)






In light of local celebrations yesterday for Juneteenth, and especially in light of national discussions around reparations, I bring you these people. Howard County residents. 

It isn’t that I want you to feel sad or sorry about the people in this photo. I want you to understand that the choices made to demean, disenfranchise, marginalize, demoralize, and defeat these Howard County residents live on today. And that either we acknowledge that, and do something about it, or we are complicit.

It’s not just about slavery. It’s about what happened during Reconstruction, Jim Crow, redlining, segregation. Yes, even right here in Howard County. Our common history is full of stories of white people choosing to protect/preserve their own heritage by excluding or downright stealing from those they deemed to be “other”.

It’s not simply an issue of historical sites and stories unpreserved and/or neglected. It’s about the very real economic impact which began early in our history that persists TO THIS DAY. It’s not about museums. It’s about money. And property. And equity in the workplace. And in the schoolroom.

This photo should be everywhere in in Howard County where we are making decisions. If we are troubled or uncomfortable when we see it, or feel the need to question its current relevance, that’s a sign we haven’t truly come to grips with the very real consequences of our history.

These are the people I want to be visible. Either we are working to make that happen, or we aren’t.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more