Celebrating the Black family; traveling festival of kinship emphasizes tradition, Black love - Black Family Reunion Celebration

Ebony, Oct, 1990 by Roxanne Brown

Celebrating The Black Family

In the Black community, there is a strong tradition of movement. In the aftermath of slavery, Blacks came together to heal and build. In the '60s, the movement was toward equality. In these trying times, there is a quiet movement afoot to rekindle the spirit and power of the extended Black family, and there are few who work more diligently toward that end than Dorothy I. Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and founder of the Black Family Reunion Celebration.

In 1986, after viewing a nationally televised special that bleakly focused on Black teenage pregnancy, crime and despair, Height was disturbed. "We are not a problem people; we are a people with problems," she says. "We have historic strengths; we have survived because of family." She decided to counter the negative depiction of Black families. Backed by the NCNW, a Washington-based organization of 32 national Black women's groups, Height launched the first Black Family Reunion, a one-day festival of fun and forums that attracted 200,000 people to the Mall in Washington, D.C.

The rest is nothing short of a movement. In its fifth year, the reunion has become a national celebration of Black kinship that in 1990 traveled to six cities and was attended by more than a million people. At the kick-off reunion in Philadelphia, notables such as Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Dick Gregory, Betty Shabazz, actress Esther Rolle and singers Miles Jaye, James Ingram (national honorary chairperson for the Black Family Reunion Celebration), Stacy Lattisaw and Melba Moore (membership chairperson of the national Council of Negro Women) participated.

The Black Family Reunion Celebration an outdoor extravaganza, looks a lot like a well-organized summer festival county fair. Bright canopies and tenth dot the landscape, children and helium-filled balloons bob across the green, and the aroma of grilled meat is intermingled with that of ethnic foods supplies by an assortment of vendors. But there is more of a purpose than mere family fun here.

"One of the things we really wanted to do is to create some new community energy about caring about one another, looking out for one another and for dealing with our problems," says Dr. Height. In order to accomplish this, the NCNW brings some of the most affluent members of the community together with some of the most disadvantaged. The mayor, politicians, professional leaders and celebrated artists are all accessible to the common citizen. "In the neighborhoods where many of us grew up, we had the teacher, the lawyer, the domestic worker and the unemployed all in one neighborhood," reminds Height.

Various pavilions serve as information and discussion stations. Education, spirituality, fitness and health, self-help and the work ethic are the common themes. There are pavilions where young people can have African masks painted on their faces, dance to the latest rap stars' releases, and pick up tips on how to apply for college scholarships.

Once tagged "the godmother of the women's movement," Height has been a nationally recognized champion of civil and women's rights for 50 years. She would have had little problem securing the kind of support that has made the Black Family Reunion Celebration so successful. However, she believes support comes because the Black community is realizing that the reunion is a vehicle through which we can begin to return to our much-needed traditional values. Corporate and community sponsorship has increased each year, and the list of volunteers who devote long hours to preparing for each city's reunion has swelled.

At 78, Height is a tall, soft-featured, powerhouse of a woman who speaks proudly, yet modestly, of people who have told her how much the Black Family Reunion Celebration has inspired them. She believes the open-air, free-moving structure of the family reunions creates a climate that is not unlike "our old African tradition of reasoning and sharing" with one another.

"One of the things I hoped the Black Family Reunion Celebration would do is to stimulate the sense that we're an African-American people, and that we are not alone, no matter how isolated," says Height. "That sets a kinship when you feel that you belong - it gives a basis for self-esteem - when you know that you are a part of something bigger than yourself."

PHOTO : In Philadelphia, Dorothy I. Height (above, c.), president of the National Council of Negro Woman and founder of the Black Family Reunion Celebration, presents an award to the Williams family for bringing the most members (16) to the first of the extended-family festivals of 1990. At top, Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode proclaims "Black Family Reunion Day."

PHOTO : Among the estimated 200,000 persons who attended the Philadelphia celebration were people of all ages and from across the country some from as far as Arkansas.

PHOTO : Activist Dick Gregory and Dr. Betty Shabazz were two of the reunion participants who spoke about the importance of family. Many participants (right) were members of the younger generation.