Trusting Black Leaders

By Mary Bryant

Black History Month is a time for recognizing and dedicating the achievement by Black Americans and other people of African descent. 

It is a time for the representation of Black family identity and all the diversity of people of color. It is a time to honor those who have become self-made millionaires and who have earned their rightful place in America, coming out of enslavement to become symbolic in U.S. history.

THIS IS A TIME FOR OUR STRUGGLES AND HOPES TO BE EXPRESSED IN OUR OWN WORDS AND IMAGES.

I think of Martin Luther King Jr. who played a key part in equality and human rights for African Americans. Slavery was abolished and civil rights were won, but discrimination still stands in our way and in our community. 

As a person of color and a Black woman, I trust Black leaders and women. Black women have always been the backbone of the family. We are courageous women with awareness of the triumph and the tragedy we still face. We must break the emotional chain of all the Jim Crow laws that are still here and become advocates against racial injustice. Let us not spend a moment hating but keep love in our heart for all people.

Trust is fundamental to life. Yet I do not trust the system to work for (me) us. What leaders say and what they do are very different on paper. It’s like we’re living in different worlds; so many times things are largely being unnoticed by leaders. Time and time again the system has failed us. How can we trust now? 

INSTEAD, MY TRUST IS IN GOD...THROUGH THE WORK OF BLACK LEADERS. 

If we believe it is our responsibility to get the job of racial justice done, it is important to communicate that we trust Black leaders, now and every month.