Menu
Black History banquet notes progress over time
Idaho state Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, in her keynote address to the 24th annual Black History Banquet in Mountain Home, praised the progress that has been made in reaching for the goal of full equality, but noted the work that remains.
February is Black History Month. "Some day," Buckner-Webb said, "I hope we get a month with 30 days in it."
Her speech before those attending the Mountain Home Black History Committee's banquet at the Elk's Lodge, was often humorous, but filled with a serious look at the history being celebrated this year -- the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
"My grandmother would not have thought it possible in her time to come together like this," she said, waving her arm over the mixed race crowd.
"This year, we celebrate two events important in the history of America -- not just black history, but the history of all Americans."
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation marked a turning point in the Civil War, as it evolved from a war to preserve the union to a war against slavery. But once freed, Buckner-Webb said, the responsibility of being free was difficult. It faced the issues of not only racial prejudice, even among those who had fought for the freedom of the slaves, but also the burdens of a lack of education, money and even simple, basic skills needed to properly exercise their freedom. But the strength of family and religion helped mightily, Buckner-Webb said, and they persevered.
"A century later, in 1963, American again stood at the crossroads," she said. The Supreme Court had ruled a decade earlier against segregation in schools, but integration and a renunciation of the "separate but equal" Jim Crow laws and attitudes was a major issue of the time.
But it was at that time that hundreds of thousands of people, "blacks and whites, jews and gentiles, protestants and catholics," marched to the mall in Washington and heard Dr. King deliver his most famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
"The seeds of liberty were planted there," she said.
A fifth-generation Idahoan, Buckner-Webb said that it was about that time she began to realize that the other children looked differently at her, and that the "forefathers" of the nation she was learning about "weren't about me."
Her mother began giving her books in a carefully structured reading list, such as "The Life of Frederick Douglas," to help her understand the place of her ancestors in American history.
"To learn about the Emancipation Proclamation was empowering," she said. Black Americans lived "in pain and loss and humiliation, but they walked in faith," and family became a strength of black culture.
When she was 12, Buckner-Webb said that she watched Dr. King's speech on television with her mother. "I saw more black folks than I had ever seen in my life. My mother was overcome by so many emotions.
"All those people, all those different ethnic groups that were there that day, were united, and Dr. King's speech "inspired and challenged us (as a nation) to do better. Oh, how he touched our souls, how he fired our spirits. We were ready to ring out that bell of freedom."
The speech, she said, "brought us out of the luxury of our denial" to fight against second-class citizenship.
Great progress has been made, she said, but the work is not done.
"I want my two-year-old granddaughter, when she grows up, to see Black History Month as an 'old school' thing," because "it will be incorporated in everything we do.
"It is my hope that we can move forward with expectations and resolve... and with grace for justice, to continue to propel us to that time and place when equality is the norm, not the expectation."
The annual banquet also saw the presentation of a number of major honors handed out.
The Mountain Home Community Black History Committee's Person of the Year Award was presented to Idaho National Guard Maj. Greg Stone, who wasn't present for the ceremony due to a family emergency.
Retired master sergeant Hampton Wright was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for service to the committee, and former county commissioner Connie Cruser was presented with the Thurgood Marshall Award for community service.
Mayor Tom Rist noted that he grew up in Mountain Home "thinking we had all the diversity, that everything was great. But now, I know, we've still got a long ways to go."
366th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Chris Short, said he was proud of the fact that the Air Force is a meritocracy. "We're not perfect, but we look at the job, not the color of skin.
"I want my grandchildren to look at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as one of their founding fathers," and that the history celebrated during Black History Month "is the history of all Americans."
The Black History Luncheon on base will be held at noon on Feb. 25 in the Gunfighter Club.
Committee Chairman Mildred McNeal, who was born in the deep south, remembered growing up in segregated schools, "where we had to go through back doors (to enter stores) and had to eat at separate diners. I thought that was the way things were, until my family moved to New York.
"We've come a long ways," she said, "but we're not there, yet," despite electing a black to the presidency, "something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime."