Black and White Photos: A Reflection on the 100th Year Anniversary of the National Observance of Black History

100 years.

The national remembrance of Black History first began in 1926. As a kid, I would look at my textbooks and stare at the black and white photos as they stared back at me. From slavery to segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, and redlining, the pictures would depict Black joy and Black pain. With a curious, young mind, I struggled to come to terms with the same injustices happening around me as they did in the black and white photos. 

After all, doesn’t this indicate a time that was far too long ago?

Absolutely not.

As I navigated middle school, high school, and graduated from college, the rationale behind this became all too clear. 

When we see black and white photos, there’s an automatic assumption that it was from a long time ago. 

This was done by design.  

The black and white photos made it feel like the moments in those images were long before our time. 

While celebrating Black history, it’s important to highlight that many of these injustices not only happened a long time ago, but they are still happening today. Nevertheless, I will continue to celebrate Black history, Black inventions, Black Olympians, Black academics, Black youth, and the Black communities around me. Staying silent was not an option for those who came before me, so why would I elect to be exempt?

The brilliance and passion that flows through our communities have always been a power source for me. Rejuvenating myself for the next battle. From voting in elections to advocating for proper health policy, sharing knowledge, and spreading information, there’s multiple avenues one could take. 

I encourage you to find the way you can best support and raise your voice.

Share: If you can’t be behind the mic, spread the word to communities through other mediums. 

Create: If you're a creative, show advocacy through your paintings, poems, and digital designs. 

Inform: If you’re a writer, use your skills to highlight history that is not often talked about or taught in school. 

Finance: If you have means, pour back into marginalized communities with your finances in addition to your words. 

Civic: If you’re 18 and over, vote in general, primary, and special elections. 

There are so many paths to take; these are just a few. In fact, duality can exist. Don’t feel constrained to one route and stop at the end. Most of these ideas can happen alongside each other. 

Through it all, I love the skin that I’m in. As we embark on the beginning of the next 100 years, I pray that a shift is imminent. As I look to the journey ahead of me, I think about this poem I wrote during my undergrad years:

Today, I march on.

See, the funny thing about apologies and regrets is that they lie in the people who believe they can still be forgiven. 

Forgiven for the bullets that shattered my ancestors’ skin as those fragmented pieces lay through my spirit and within.

So today, I march on.

See, they used their protest as a way to test how easily they can break down their joy and strip them of their best.

Confidence. Bravery. Willpower. Determination.

Who’s going to tell them?

Are you?

See, what they didn’t know is that my ancestors were diamonds. 

As they turned the heat on what they thought were rocks were actually Black diamonds strengthening under pressure.

Pressurized matter that was able to withstand the test of time to be inherited and be passed down from generation after generation after generation…

That’s why I’m here today, because I will march on.