Arm yourself with education and seek out everyday heroes who uplift Black America

Black History Month is a time to pause and reflect on our survival and the amazing accomplishments that Black people have made and continue to make going forward. It would be easy to give up on life in times like these. How easy it would be to bury your heads in the sand as we witness the madness of neighborhood villains of every race and stripe, rogue cops, criminal politicians and legislative setbacks.

In times like these it would be easy for you to give up on your dreams, but I implore you to hold fast to your dreams and aspirations. It is sometimes hard to see forward progress when there are rampant and senseless killings, vigilante cops and organizations springing up with the goal of thwarting your progress. Tragically, there are evil and short-sighted people who try to crush your necks, not understanding that they may be snuffing out brilliant minds that hold the secrets to wipe out diseases and advance humanity in ways we cannot yet imagine.

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Though often overlooked by media, it is up to you to focus on our past and present stories of success and determination. There are thousands of stories by unsung heroes giving all that they have to rebuild and restore broken lives and neighborhoods. Pause and look around your neighborhood and city and you will learn about incredible men who are still with you, as well as those who came before you.  Search to gain knowledge of all that they did.  Their truths have been hidden under rocks and boulders waiting for you to come along and unearth their amazing accomplishments under what seemed dire and hopeless circumstances.

In spite of not having laws to protect them and few judges to take their petitions seriously, they found ways to climb mountains of wearisome heights. And be careful not to be smitten with celebrity and limelight figures. Instead, search and seek out those everyday men who have worked tirelessly for the uplift and betterment of our race.

Notable national figures are speaking to you across time:  brilliant legal minds of Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston and Fred Gray; political brilliance of Adam Clayton Powell; eloquence of James Baldwin; preeminent Black historian, John Hope Franklin; the fire of Malcolm X, the self-defining characteristics of Muhammad Ali;  racial uplift scholar W.E.B. DuBois; the poetic gifts of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and Joseph S. Cotter; the scientific discoveries of Dr. Charles Drew; the unwavering drive for human rights of Martin Luther King, Jr; the good trouble sought by Congressman John Lewis; Carter G. Woodson’s determination to share African American contributions with the world;  brave union leader and organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, A. Phillip Randolph;  Phi Beta Kappa scholar and All-American football player, Paul Robeson ostracized for speaking out against racial injustice….  They passed their batons to you and you must garner strength from their sacrificial lives.

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New organizations are being formed with the singular mission to push against your upward mobility. There is no shortage of defiant, lying lawmakers who sought office for fame, fortune and to pass twisted and unjust legislation. They are unprincipled men and women who betray the nation’s trust and care nothing about the common man.  You must push back and keep your focus on forward movement for yourself, other African Americans and ultimately all Americans. Arm yourself with education, education, education and join forces with other individuals and organizations who are about social uplift and are not afraid to challenge the system.

You must chart the course of the future for yourselves and the unborn men and women who will follow you.  It is your fathers and grandfathers who have shaped much of what we know as America today. They have been the conscience, backbone, inventors and load bearers; now it is your turn. All the efforts to crush truth and keep America’s children from studying the complete history of this nation—good, bad and ugly—will prove futile.  It is then and only then that our nation will move toward truly being “America the Beautiful”.Know with a certainty that “we have come over a way that with tears have been watered” and you must not stop “until victory is won.”  Move forward crossing the bridge of bent backs who have carried you to this very day. We value you, we believe in you and know that you will not fail.

Emma McElvaney Talbott is a Louisville freelance writer, educator and human rights advocate.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Black History Month: Education is key. We must seek everyday heroes