February was “Black History Month.” Who are we trying to fool? Every day of every month and every month of every year of our lives is a celebration of black history in the United States of America. I underscore the word “celebration.” The cultural gifts African-Americans have given to the world are so ubiquitous they could be taken for granted. What we do with this beautiful endowment is up to us. Here at the JUNCTON it is something of great value which we enjoy daily. How these gifts are purveyed to future generations is something we take very seriously.

Of course, American history is like many of our relationship statuses…complicated. We may not want to admit it, but it is in fact, very complicated and so painful that much of this history is at best glossed over in schools or ignored all together.

I think American history by its very definition is also the history of African-Americans. Black history should, in my view, be an integrated part of every school’s American history curriculum and not something taught off to the side as a separate item.

For what it’s worth, the co-owner of the Ground Zero blues nightclub, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, agrees with me on this. His name is Morgan Freeman, he has also appeared in films. He said, “I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history." 

Since the inception in 1976, Black History Month has always struck me as being a bit patronizing. I also thought being patronized sure beats the heck out of most of the indignities put upon black people here in America, but who am I to say anything on this subject?

As a 19-year-old at the time, I assumed Black History Month was something invented by white folks. I figured the decision-making process went something like this…. ‘What month do we want to set aside for this Black History Month thing? Let’s pick a short one. How does that saying go? Thirty days has November, April June…hold up their partner, wait a gal darn minute…how about February. It has 28 days and it’s also the coldest month of the year. OK, let’s take this thing for a vote. All in favor of February…it’s unanimous. Now, let’s move on and take a moment to discuss the pancake breakfast.’

Naturally these assumptions were born out of naiveté, ignorance and having the luxury of being born into a world of white privilege with the “right” pigmentation or lack of in my case. Black History Month didn’t get a lot of play in 1976 as America was obsessed with its Bi-Centennial and wasn’t in the mood to discuss this or any of America’s other atrocities. We have always been very star spangled full of ourselves, but in 1976 we had it coming out of our ears.

As it turns out the precursor of Black History Month was Black History Week which started in 1926. It was the brain child of Carter G. Woodson, a historian, journalist, author and founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916. He is widely regarded as the Father of African-American history. Woodson naturally chose February as both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas were born on the second week of this month. The 12^th and 14^th of February had been days of celebration for some time when Woodson and a group of five other historians who started up the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History decided to expand these remembrances to include an entire week.

Woodson, who was born in Virginia in 1875 was the son of former slaves and became the second African-American to get a PHD from Harvard. He wrote in 1926:

“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization. “  

To what degree Woodson had knowledge and an understanding of the genocide of the Indigenous peoples and the multi-cultural worlds, which they had established before they were mostly extinguished at the hands of the white man, is not known. However, his point is well taken, in that, when faced with adversity of this nature an oral history is not enough. You want to have something written down for future generations to be able to examine, study and interpret.

Since all of the world has become the beneficiary of the spectacular African-American culture that could have only happened here in these United States, it might do us all some good to know more about these origins.

I discussed these subjects some time ago with Tony “TC” Coleman. TC, as many of our readers know, had been the drummer in the B.B King band for 35 year. He has also worked with Bobby Bland, Etta James, Albert King, Junior Wells, Katie Webster, Buddy Guy, Otis Clay and others.

In the course of our discussion I said, “In my view the subject of race in America is one that should be discussed with a great deal of sensitivity, respect and intelligence, but it should be discussed.”

Tony responded by saying, “THANK YOU!  You know we have cultural differences. That is a fact and nobody, well almost nobody Dave, is willing to even talk about it. People are afraid to talk about it. People are afraid they might offend someone. These cultural differences are a beautiful thing.” 

I then asked him, “What is it about this music based in African-American culture that has had such a universal appeal for so long?”

He said, “It is because it is based on the rhythm of your soul. Here in America, black people had the church where people are clapping their hands and singing. In America, you always had certain people who didn’t like you just because you were black. You were getting put away, beaten, strung up and pushed to the side. We had to deal with all of this and we dealt with it by making a joyful noise. We have a pray to God to save us, we have a paranoia and we have a kiss my ass all at the same time attitude. That’s black culture in America.

“We never had a sense of entitlement. We always felt we had to be twice as good just for a chance of survival and a chance we wouldn’t be pushed to the side. All of that comes out of our music. It is pure raw emotion. You just have to let it go. It all comes through our music. If you just give me a chance, I will make you dance and shout.”

I don’t understand how anybody can make blues music without at least some respect and appreciation of what came before. I wonder if this is why the quality of blues music coming from overseas these days seems to be of such a high quality. We rank 58th in the world on education spending as a percentage of our GNP. Three Scandinavian countries, Finland, Norway and Sweden are ranked in the top ten in terms of educational quality. In this study the United States didn’t make the top twenty. I think it is safe to say that these countries who put a higher value on education in general also just might have superior music programs as well, compared to the United States. 

It has been my experience that not everybody, regardless of their country of origin has the talent to be a great or even good blues musician. However, the International musicians with whom I’m familiar seem to have a deep-rooted appreciation of the history of the blues which is, of course, deeply ensconced in African-American history. Those European practitioners of the form take their gifts very seriously and wouldn’t dream of trampling on these historical traditions the way so many Americans have done with blues-rock.

It is why blues-rock is such a grotesque form of music. It indicates to me a complete disregard for these cultural traditions and historical narratives. I put the question directly to Tony Coleman, why anybody should give a damn one way or another about these lousy blues-rockers who are getting over out there and taking advantage of people’s ignorance. Why should anybody care?

He said, “Because these things represent the wholesale destruction of our culture. I know that there are people rolling over in their graves and saying, ‘My goodness, this is what our music has turned into. People don’t have any more respect for our creation than this.’ That makes me sad. If this doesn’t turn around, I will go to my grave crying. I think there are people out there who have no idea what this music means to our culture. When people take a dump on this music it is not only an embarrassment, it is an insult.”

How this joyful noise came to be is a history lesson which is worth exploring, in February or anytime of the year. I urge you to give this narrative more thought, more reflection and more contemplation.  Eventually, it will make you want to dance and shout.

-David Mac

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