February 12, 2007
By Ndaba Dlamini
YOUNG Sowetans got a history lesson when the human rights activist and philanthropist, Reverend Earl Neil, gave an account of African-American history to mark Black History Month at the Hector Pieterson Museum.
Looking wise and scholarly with his grey hair and reading glasses, Neil, an American by birth, announced that he was now a South African citizen as he had received permanent residence, allowing him to live in the country. He has been living in South Africa with his family for a number of years already.
Black History Month was celebrated at the museum on Friday, 9 February, and was attended by scores of young people. Speaking in the museum's auditorium, Neil said Black History Month was a celebration of black people in America and their struggles.
"Black History Month started as Black History Week. It was established in 1976 by The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History as a remembrance of important people and events in black history."
Black history was not taught in schools in those days and the establishment of Black History Month was a form of protest challenging the American authorities to include the subject as part of the school curriculum. It was also a way to raise the awareness of African-Americans of the importance of preserving their heritage, Neil said.
"Actually, it all started when black people were subjected to all kinds of inhumane treatment by being made slaves. But black emancipation started with the abolition of slavery in 1865. Unfortunately, the southern states did not take kindly to the idea."
An important year in black history was 1954, when the US Supreme Court ruled that it was against the law to have separate schools for black people. "Then there followed a whole lot of events that signalled a twist in the life of African-Americans."
On buses black people had to sit at the back; the front seats were reserved for whites. Then Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to relinquish her seat to a white man. This act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which resulted in the desegregation of public buses in 1956.
Black students in the US became involved in politics in 1960, when they organised sit-ins in colleges and other public places. During these they would deliberately sit in whites-only sections. "They were beaten and arrested in a situation parallel to that of student activities in South Africa during the 1970s," Neil explained.
Then came the popular "freedom rides". On these, people rode buses from the northern states to the south "in a growing momentum of civil rights movements". This was followed by the well-known march on Washington, organised by civil rights organisations and attended by hundreds of thousands of people. This is where Martin Luther King Jr made his famous "I have a dream" speech.
However, Neil said the march and King's speech did not change the perceptions and racial mood of whites in the southern states. Immediately after the Washington march, a black church was burned down by members of the Ku Klux Klan; two children died in the blaze. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated and Jimmy Lee Jackson was beaten to death by county police.
"Initially, people like King Jr had advocated for non-violent protests but the mood began to change in 1965. The mood among black people became aggressively resistant to oppression and this was manifested in the formation of the Black Panther Party, a party for self-defence. This party had a 10-point programme and the seventh point declared that black people had a right to defend themselves against the police."
Despite all the hardships faced by black people in America, there is more to them than slavery, Neil said. "The person who invented traffic lights was a black man and the person who invented a machine for mass production of shoes was a black man."
Neil's presentation was followed by a lively discussion about the significance of Black History Month to all Africans, in Africa and in the African diaspora. The audience asked questions and gave their input concerning their experiences and thoughts about Black History Month.
Before Neil's lecture, however, on behalf of the Hector Pieterson Museum Youth Forum and "all young women in South Africa", Mpho Moloto gave a poetic speech about freedom, dreams and blackness.
Then it was time for art presentations. Students from Orlando West High School recited poems, all with the theme, "The colour of my skin versus the content of my character". One student, Lerato Festile, stood out with her impassioned recitation of a poem about black beauty. To top it all, Thando Bezana wowed the audience with his "Heritage Music".
Neil, a native of St Paul, Minnesota, has held several positions in the US's Episcopal Church. He worked for three years between 1990 and 1993 in South Africa for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. During this time he assisted in the development and co-ordination of programmes for the resettlement of exiles, conflict management and reconciliation dealing with violence in the townships, and voter education in preparation for the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.
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