Continuing the tradition: each one, teach one: parents, museum leaders and major institutions spark national campaign of celebration and discovery - Advertorial

Ebony, Feb, 2004

A new movement, led by mothers and fathers, scholars and laypersons, Blacks and Whites, is giving fresh impetus to the continuing effort to tell the story of the struggles, triumphs and contributions of African-Americans.

The new movement is based, in part, on the ancient African and African-American notion that obligated every mother, father and elder to pass the tradition on to at least one other person. Like the ancient tradition, the revived tradition speaks to all Americans, not only about race but also about freedom, culture and a common heritage.

Among the leaders of the new currents are parents who are deeply concerned about the growing Black history gap, singer-teachers like Denise Thimes, who is making a national tour in support of the Teach Personal Freedoms campaign, and institutions like Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which is exploring new techniques for making Black history a year-round affair.

The $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which is scheduled to open this summer on the banks of the Ohio River, is one of the best examples of the living history movement. Dr. Spencer Crew, CEO of the Center and former director of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, says, "The Underground Railroad Freedom Center is about exploring our shared histories with pride and applying those lessons to the modern day."

The Center, which was designed by African-American architect Walter Blackburn, will use the latest technologies to present exhibitions, educational programs and presentations to bring to life the stories and heroisms of the Underground Railroad. It will also be a living and learning center that offers lessons and reflections on the continuing struggle for freedom.

Major American leaders, Black and White, and major American corporations, like Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, maker of major household brands like Tide, Bounty, Pantene, Crest, Charmin and Pampers, are supporting the new initiative. The two largest gifts to the Center came from former Procter & Gamble Chairman John Pepper, and Black Entertainment Television (BET) Founder and CEO Robert Johnson, who each donated $3 million. "The Freedom Center," Pepper said, "will connect Americans of all ethnic backgrounds, emotionally and factually, to the stories of interracial cooperation that changed the face of our country. These stories are guides and benchmarks to live up to as we continue our journey toward social justice and equality together."

Johnson said that "race relations in America continue to be a critical part of our national dialogue" and "the National Underground Railroad will advance discussions on race in a way that honors the cooperation and courage that led to freedom from slavery and, just as important, propels us as a countrty to continue our quest for equality."

Procter & Gamble is also the major sponsor of the Teach Personal Freedoms tour, a multimedia production of music and dramatic skits which has scheduled February and March appearances in five cities (see schedule on page 88).

On this level, as on others, there is an increasing recognition that Black history is relevant to the lives of all Americans. Black men and women were among the founders of some American cities. They helped create the foundations of our wealth and the foundations of our culture. It is impossible for any American, Black or White, to understand himself or herself or the Declaration of Independence or the Civil War without some understanding of Harriet Tubman, Thomas Garrett and the Black and White conductors on the Underground Railroad and modern-day "conductors" like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.

For all these reasons and for others as well, the leaders of the new wave are urging all Americans, especially mothers and fathers, to use all resources, starting at home, to teach their children and others the African-American story.

Start, they say, with your family history and the objects and institutions you see every day. Your child shouldn't, as EBONY magazine said, see a stoplight, flip a light switch or put on cotton pajamas without discussing Black inventors. Your child shouldn't pass a bus stop, lunch counter or water fountain or public bathroom without discussing the Civil Rights Movement.

Black history, Dr. Spencer Crew and other historians say, is all around you. Black men and women built some of the oldest structures in the South; they traveled on Underground Railroad routes that crisscrossed Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other states; they rode the old Chisholm Trail with the first cowboys and came up the Mississippi River with a new song. Relive that history, follow those tracks and trails, make Harriet Tubman, Henry (Box) Brown and other heroes and heroines live again in your imagination and your life.

For high-tech parents, the World Wide Web can be an invaluable resource for teaching Black history. Fascinating colors and games, as well as dates and information on Black greats, are available on many Black history Web sites.