Black History 1: Correct History Brings Light

On the cold, wintry night of March 5, 1770, while resentment ran high in the American colonies because of oppressive British taxation, a group of colonials began to taunt several British soldiers guarding the Customs House in Boston.  When Hugh Montgomery, a British Private, was struck with a snowball, he fired his rifle into the rowdy crowd.  His British comrades also opened fire and a violent clash began.   When the smoke cleared, five men had been killed and three more were injured.  This deadly clash, now known as the “Boston Massacre,” became a spark to help ignite the American Revolution.

I read about the Boston Massacre in February, Black History Month, while researching the role of Black Americans in the American Revolution.  The first among five casualties that night was a man named Crispus Attucks.  Many historians list Attucks as the first man to die for the cause of American freedom. 

Crispus Attucks was a dock worker and whaler whose father was of African descent.  But it was the ethnicity of his mother, Nancy Attucks that caught my attention.  There is more to write about her in "Black History 3: "Bible and Biology Erase Racism."  But in this article, three questions will underscore the importance of seeking a good understanding of American history in order to rightly understand Black History in America. 

My first point relates to the blood of Crispus Attucks spilled on that fateful night of the Boston Massacre.  Was it any different in color than the blood of his White comrades?   Second, what made the American Revolution much more than a large-scale version of the Boston Massacre, a hate-driven, angry clash with senseless loss of life?  Finally, how can a correct rendering of the role of Black Americans and other ethnic minorities in American history help us to understand and appreciate how our Divine Creator has used the “melting pot” of ethnicities in the birth, growth, and contributions of the United States of America?

America has been called “a melting pot” of diverse ethnic groups—including Native American, European, African, and Asian—but our history offers little evidence that hard-won freedoms were actually shared with ethnic minorities.  Even today, we seem not to have grasped the important contribution of ethnic minorities in weaving the tapestry of what would become the United States of America under God’s providential hand.

In this article and in a subsequent article, I will argue that ethnic (or “racial”) strife is largely the result of people, even professing Christians like me, living in intellectual ignorance and spiritual rebellion against God’s revelation of truth—truth God is revealing through the Bible, history, and natural science.  For those who humbly study these sources of truth, understanding is the reward.   Jesus taught this principle to the Jews who listened to Him, saying:  If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8: 31-32).

In this article, we will discuss lessons we can learn from the historical context within which America was founded and how ethnic minorities were involved in America’s founding.  In a second article, we will consider how an objective study of biology can help us gain a new understanding of the genetic basis for ethnic diversity within the human species.  As always, finding the truth from history and from science demands that the claims of these disciplines be integrated (i.e. fitted logically and consistently into a complete whole) with what God’s revelation in the Scriptures say about the history and biology of mankind and creation.

Black History—the Context Matters

At a time when knowledge has multiplied and digital access to information has never been greater, there is no excuse for what many see as a growing ignorance of history.  Computer technology offers attractive, motivating educational aids to make learning of history fun for elementary students and adolescents.  But instead, our schools and colleges are offering watered-down courses built around controversial issues and current events with little philosophical or ethical foundation to help students understand how history influences our culture today and how history can help them to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

Our public schools and universities are not only failing to educate our children intellectually, they are also failing to reinforce moral and ethical values—values once taught by loving parents in the home.  Historically, it was in the home that children first developed cognitive and affective thinking skills and learned to respect authority.  Children were also taught the fundamental commands that have undergirded western civilization and allowed it to excel —i.e. to love God, honor your father and mother, and to love your neighbor (Luke 10: 25-37; Ephesians 6: 2).   The love and grace of God, radiating outward from strong American families and schools has sustained the refining fire under America’s “melting pot” of ethnic diversity for more than two centuries.  And, the knowledge of history and science has provided a sense of place and purpose in time for us as biological creatures.  However, today many agree that America is suffering from several decades of broken homes and failed public education.

The effects of broken families and poor quality education have been especially devastating to the Black community.  In his Atlanta Black Star article “How America’s Lack of Historical Knowledge is Aiding Its Decline,” D. Amari Jackson quotes Gerald Horne, Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of over 30 books, who claims there is a disconnect between America’s history and her citizens.  Says Horne:

Several surveys conducted over the past decade by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) depict a citizenry largely unaware of its eventful past.  A 2012 ACTA survey found that less than 20 percent of college graduates could identify the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation.  A 2015 survey revealed more than one-third could not place the Civil War within the correct 20-year time frame.

Horne underscores the “redemptive value of historical knowledge” as follows:

Just as a toddler reaches toward a hot stove and learns not to do it again, adults, groups and societies also learn valuable and painful lessons that improve their paths forward.  Two of the 20^th century’s most impactful Black leaders, Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King Jr., relied heavily upon their historical knowledge in forging social movements that affected the course of American history.

Unfortunately, I believe Professor Horne reveals a faulty bias and misunderstanding of American history when he claims that history studies are …commonly undermined by the false historical narratives countries adopt to advance a profit-driven, nationalistic or patriotic agenda.

Horne claims that the American Revolution, while often presented as “a fairy tale about liberty and freedom,” was actually driven by colonial patriots who wanted freedom from the influence of the abolitionist movement in Great Britain.  The empire had already abolished slavery (1772) and Americans feared that if abolition spread to America, it would undermine their profits from slave labor.  At the same time, Britain had ruled to limit colonial expansion into the western “wilderness” (1763), and this restriction in Horne’s view had the favorable effect of preventing colonists from seizing Native American lands for profit.  Two hundred years later, Horne sees the same selfish, white supremacist narrative being expressed through police brutality, disproportionate incarceration of Blacks, and harsher discipline of Black preschool children.  This history of injustices toward Blacks and other minorities, in Horne’s view, justifies Black mistrust and refusal to claim America as their beloved country or defend her against enemies.

I agree with Horne (and Jackson who generous quotes Horne), that American history was influenced by some who were driven by selfishness, lust for power, and bigotry.  But their particular view of American history ignores or omits several important factors.  

The American Experiment – Unique on Earth

First, they ignore the fact that the American experiment in government was unique in the world at the time.  Until 1776, no government in the history of human civilization had been forged in the belief that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness (from Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776)?  

At the founding of the USA, democracy was largely unknown.

The Founders had literally birthed a new nation.  They had launched “a government by the people and for the people” into a very uncertain future.  At the time of its founding near the end of the 18^th century, less than 1% of the world population lived under a democratic form of government, and essentially all of these people lived in the United States!  And, incidentally, those who credit the ancient Athenian democracy as being the first must remember that its function depended on a large proportion of its population living under slave labor.  Unfortunately, the new, United States of America was also infected with the blight of slavery.

The Founders’ vision was that all men would have rightful access to unalienable Rights which come from their Creator, not from government.  Yet many in the new nation, especially Blacks, remained enslaved because those in positions of authority lacked the courage or the will to end the terrible blemish of slavery.  But, we who study American history have two options: We can disrespect and condemn our forefathers for lack of resolve; or, we can realize that at the time of the American Revolution, the whole world economy was heavily addicted to a dependence upon slavery and the slave trade.  

Michael Medved, writes in his New York Times best-seller, The American Miracle,

Every nation on Earth flagrantly mistreated indigenous peoples and participated at some point in ruthless systems of slavery.  But the American desire to deserve God’s special blessing inspired movements to do better than the rest of the world and to overcome the cruelty—however halting and imperfect those attempts might have been. 

Ignorance of history creates bad judges of character.

Medved’s point brings us to a second error in the worldview of both Jackson and Horne.  Both men ignore the emphasis on the spiritual dimension, virtues, and character that was emphasized by many effective Black American leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.  Rev. King sought to lift Black Americans to a higher standard based on Scriptural principles that emphasized God’s love instead of hate, non-violent protest against injustices, and the importance of character and virtues over skin color.  However, Jackson does not include this side of Rev. King in his article, “Examining the Movements for Civil Rights and Black Power.”  Instead, Jackson simply lumps Rev. King into a long list of Black leaders including Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, and Nation of Islam, with no mention of the role of the church or the biblical narrative of hope and spiritual liberation that characterized the message of Martin Luther King. 

My third objection to the views of Jackson and Horne brings us back to my earlier emphasis on the importance of home and family, and the necessity of education in history.  There is no doubt that the roots of dysfunction in Black marriages and families can be traced back to the injustices inflicted on Blacks throughout American history.  But how do writers like Jackson and Horne hope to lift up Black Americans or any ethnic minority by placing all of American history under a dark cloud while ignoring the magnificent leadership of both Black and White Americans?

Black American History in Proper Context

Instead of constantly viewing American history with a condemning tone, radio co-host, Eric Metazas offers more constructive advice.  Metaxas recommends in an interview on the subject of American Exceptionalism that we repent “of our racial sins as a country… [then refuse to be] trapped in this mode of negative narratives.”  I can think of two valuable benefits of presenting American history with factual accuracy combined with recognition that all of us, past and present, are fallen creatures.  As such, our best hope lies in taking seriously our responsibility to love God and to love our neighbor regardless of ethnicity or any other distinction.

First, Black Americans who distrust White Americans may be become acquainted with and learn to respect both Black American heroes and White American heroes.  Among the latter heroes are Abraham Lincoln and many in his Republican Party who sought to protect blacks newly released from slavery (called “freedman”).  In this regard, how many Black Americans have learned that soon after the end of the Civil War, in 1865, southern Blacks were already being elected to state and federal legislatures? In 1869, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black representative in the U.S. House of Representatives; and, in 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first Black American U.S. Senator.  Sadly, these reconstruction efforts were short-lived, and by 1876, White Democrats had regained enough political power over both White and Black members of the Republican Party in state legislatures across the South to restore white supremacy.  The era of “Jim Crow” then proceeded in earnest.

Many Black Americans are familiar with “Jim Crow” laws that, for over a century after 1876, prevented Black Americans from experiencing the freedoms White Americans enjoyed.  Then, in 1964, the U.S. Congress finally passed a Civil Rights Act.  This accomplishment was made possible by a White American, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL).  Dirksen’s expert maneuvering was necessary to assist the sitting Democrat President, Lyndon B. Johnson, who would otherwise not been able to bring enough Democrat Senate votes to “seal the deal.”

If we were to look beyond our brief sketch of American history, we would learn that White Americans, Black Americans, leaders of other ethnic minorities have made positive contributions through politics, the sciences, the church, sports, and the creative arts.  Indeed, since America’s founding, men and women of many different ethnicities have stood side-by-side for rightness and goodness.  During two world wars and more recent conflicts, representatives of many ethnic minorities have fought together and spilled their blood to protect freedoms and the way of life of threatened nations on multiple continents.

To conclude our brief survey of Black American history in what I consider a proper historical context, let us return to Crispus Attucks, the first American to die in the American Revolution.  Recalling the three questions I asked at the start, we now know that the spilled blood of Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre was no different from the blood of his White comrades.  These men represented only the first of many ethnically diverse groups in American history to place their common destinies on the line for the sake of freedom and purpose in life.  Regarding the second question, we learned that the providential intervention of God through the preaching of His Word and subsequent spiritual revival was instrumental in preventing the leaders of the American Revolution from departing from their goal of “one nation under God.  And finally, we learned that a correct rendering of history, combined with a Spirit-driven repentance for past injustices, can set us on a positive path that recognizes our dependence on God’s providential role in stirring the people of every ethnicity to keep hot the “melting pot” of America.

Related Articles:   
Black History 2:  Reparations or Reconciliation?
Black History 3:  Bible and Biology Erase Racism