When your child ask you

There is a line in the book of Joshua the fourth chapter and sixth and seventh verses that says, “In the future, when you children ask you, what do these stones mean? Tell them…”

Joshua had just led the people across the Jordan River when it was at flood stage by the miraculous power of Yahweh.

The priests were instructed to take a stone, one stone representing each tribe and to place them in the center of the Jordan River.

Those stones would become a testimony to what God had done for the people that no one else could do.

Those stones would become a form of pedagogy to teach the generations to come about “who they are as a people,” and “whose they are,” as a people of the Most High God.

Those stones, however, could not speak for themselves but needed the vessel of the voices of the people who witnessed what God had done, and to tell the story so succeeding generations would be able to know what they could do through God because of what their people had done by God’s mighty, majestic and miracle working hand.

The history of the people was not to be left up to their oppressor’s curriculums and school systems.

The story of a people was not to be left to those who did not share in the history of the people and who were enemies to the people.

Their legacy was not to be transmitted by people who were more invested with making money, rather making progress.

The history of the people was to be in the hands of the community, the elders, the parents, the grandparents and the great grandparents to tell to the children.

I recently watched the Netflix movie “Shirley,” about the great Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman serving the people of New York.

The acting was superb. Regina King not only played Shirley Chisholm but became Shirley Chisholm. It is a must-see movie.

And yet, there is the fact that none of us can watch a movie about Black people and the movements of Black people and think that the movie tells either the whole story or tells the story correctly. Remember, these are movies whose first priority is to entertain. Movies, whether Shirley or Rustin, wonderfully played by Colman Domingo, are just that, movies. They should be viewed as inspirations to study deeper about the people and the movements.

The movies should be an impetus to read what Shirley Chisholm said and wrote about herself and how she saw the plight of Black people on the continent, in the Diaspora and in America.

Read Shirley Chisholm’s own words in her book “Unbought and Unbossed.”

Find a copy of “The Black Scholar Journal Vol. 7, No. 2, October 1975, Black Politics: What course in 1976?” It has not only Shirley Chisholm in it but read what late Gary Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher wrote about Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and the National Black Political Convention of 1972.

I list these because in the movie there was a snippet about the 1972 National Black Political Convention that was held in Gary, Indiana, at Westside High School.

The National Black Political Convention was one of the seminal moments in the movement of Black people here in America and abroad. On that stage which included Amir Baraka, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Bobby Seal, Harry Belafonte, Mayor Carl Stokes and hosted by Mayor Hatcher, also was Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz.

My point is that there is a deeper discussion on why they did not come out to endorse Shirley Chisholm’s run for President—a point that the movie did not address.

Reading the above materials will help us understand what was the focus, what were the discussions and what strategies were being formed at the National Black Political Convention of 1972.

You can read what Coretta Scott King wrote and what Dorothy Height wrote about the Convention and about endorsing Shirley Chisholm at the National Black Political Convention.

Finally, it is not only script writers for movies who can leave out important history in telling the full story, but we the people must tell our own story.

The story of The National Black Political Convention of 1972 is the major story of the second half of the 20th century for Black people and political empowerment.

Without the National Black Political Convention of 1972, you don’t have Mayor Harold Washington in Chicago, Governor Douglas Wilder in Virginia, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee in California, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters or the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

The fact that the National Black Political Convention was held in Gary at West Side High School calls for this story to be etched upon the minds and hearts of every student who attends West Side High School.

It calls for even greater attention to be paid in honor of Gary and West Side High School for being the epicenter of the maturing of Black Political engagement.

As Joshua instructed the people, “In the future, when your children ask you, [about the stones that make up the building of West Side High School] Tell them “How we got over…My soul looks back and wonders, how we got over.”

Uhuru Sassa!

Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.