In 1915, historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. This organization is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History External (ASALH). Through ASALH, Dr. Woodson initiated the first Negro History Week in February 1926. He selected the week in February that included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two key figures in the history of Black Americans.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Week, urging all Americans to “recoginze the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by black citizens.” In 1976, ASALH expanded to Black History Month, which also has been known as African American History Month. In the same year, President Ford issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Month External. Presidents continued to issue messages honoring Black History Month in subsequent years,
To honor Black History Month 2023, we have an exclusive interview with Mr. Clayton Bond, an African – American lawyer, husband of the Former United States Ambassador to Vietnam.
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Kalynh (K.L): Just before this year’s Black History Month kicks off, many bad things happened across the country as a blatant attempt to divide communities of color. Novelist Toni Morrison told the Guardian in 1992: “In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate”. More 400 years since slavery and the first National Black History Month has its origins in 1915, do you agree that it has never been changed?
Clayton Bond: Thank you for this opportunity to share my personal thoughts on Black History Month, and race in America. I have so many thoughts on the topics and I hope I can say something useful. There are so many people who have shared thoughts on these topics much more profoundly and beautifully than I can, and you mentioned one in your question, the incomparable Toni Morrison. Others whose work I greatly admire include Frederick Douglass, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Isabel Wilkerson, as well as my late cousin Julian Bond.
You used the word change in your question, and, in this context, I thought of a billboard advertisement I remember seeing in my childhood in Detroit, Michigan, that I believe the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had sponsored, which said something like “much has changed, much has not.”
The NAACP – the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization, as my late cousin, who chaired it for more than 10 years, would often remind – was an important force in my majority-Black hometown, where many residents, such as my grandparents had, in the words of Isabel Wilkerson, sought the warmth of other suns, freedom from the oppression they faced in the South for being Black.
And while they did find some semblance of freedom in the North, they also found some of the same hostility there that they had hoped to escape. The NAACP, which included non-Black members – as my late cousin would also say, colored people come in all colors – played and continues to play an important role there and throughout the country in protecting and advancing the rights of Black people and other marginalized groups.
I am a proud, third-generation lifetime member of the NAACP. Because while much has changed since 1619, and 1915, much has not, as we continue to see in many ways, perhaps most glaringly with the killing of Tyre Nichols.
K.L: We used to say the term “racism” or “hare-crime” when the victim is Asian or Black people who is violated by white citizens. The killing of George Floyd in 2020 is an historic example. But the case is different now, it has now arrived with the death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man after his horrific beating by five Black Memphis police officers. Do you think what federal legislation should have been to prevent (or stop?) such killings in the future?
Clayton Bond: Growing up, I remember much discussion in my community about racism, and who could or couldn’t be racist, and what was or wasn’t racism. There were those who believed that Black people could never be racist, because, they explained, racism is a system of oppression, and Black people do not have the systemic power to oppress another group.
But as we saw with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, the Black police officers did have the systemic power to oppress, to rob Tyre Nichols of his freedom and life.
Isabel Wilkerson observed in the Tyre Nichols tragedy what she refers to as America’s caste system at work, where Black life matters least, if at all. And that the system works as intended where Black people participate in the subjugation of other Black people and are then, themselves, punished more harshly than if they were not Black.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which as I understand it would help the police protect and serve all the people better. And thankfully, it seems more and more Americans of all backgrounds want the police to protect and serve all the people better.
K.L: More than four hundred years after enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don’t know the full story of slavery. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has signed an order to reject the African American study from AP. December 2021, the Texas State Legislature passed a “Critical Race Theory” bill which bans public school teachers from discussing race in their classrooms.
What do you think about those orders? Do you think there are some cynical Republican politicians who are trying to advance their own careers by whitewashing our nation’s past?
Clayton Bond: As a lawyer, I am not sure whether or how such orders will hold up under the Constitution. And the orders cause one to wonder about those who at once are zealous advocates of (their own) free speech while seeking to limit (others’) speech.
Apart from that, as a parent, I have enjoyed watching various movies with my kids. One of my favorites is Frozen II. The plot resonates deeply – in order to protect the future of Arendelle, Elsa and Anna have to confront their country’s difficult past and make amends. (Also, I love that in Frozen II we see Black Arendellian people.)
I think the United States is not alone in having a complicated, sometimes painful history, and I think that there are many, regardless of political party or background, who would rather not study or have others study our history, for various reasons. But I agree with those who believe that the only way to understand our present and have the best future possible for all of us is to reckon honestly with the past.
As painful as I have found studying the past to be, as a descendant of both enslavers and enslaved people, and just as a human being, I also have found inspiration from the fact that my enslaved ancestors and so many like them endured, from what my parents and grandparents and other Black Americans achieved in spite of the system of oppression they faced, and from the multi-racial coalitions that have brought about positive change.
K.L: In the statement of White House to honor National Black History Month 2023 noted: “On day one of my Presidency, I issued an Executive Order to advance equity and racial justice in every policy we pursue. I began by appointing the most diverse Cabinet in American history. I have continued to nominate a historic number of Black judges to the Federal bench — including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.”
But unfortunately, what we are witnessing now in terms of legislative restrictions following the heels of racial progress is not new and not enough to affect the Black American lives. Do you think by those appointments, it will be a hand power for the Biden administration to progress toward a more perfect union? What else do we need to proceed?
Clayton Bond: I believe former President Barack Obama mentioned shortly before the end of his presidency and the beginning of the Trump era that history has a tendency to zig and zag. I think he also appreciated the quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., about how “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I think both are right.
I also think about something Mrs. Coretta Scott King said about each generation having to struggle for and win freedom – that freedom is never really won. And I believe the Biden administration, through the historic appointments it has made, and through the policies it has enacted has made a good deal of progress toward a more perfect union, as have the American people who elected President Biden and Congressional leaders with whom the Biden administration has worked to bring about positive change.
There is more work to do, beyond voting. As important as voting is, Americans need to continue to hold officials accountable, from the police to the president, and remain hopeful. There was a time when I might have lost hope, but I found it and don’t intend to lose it again. I find former President Clinton’s quote inspiring, about how there isn’t anything wrong with America that can’t be cured by what is right with America.
K.L: Can you recall the first Black History Month project that you were enthralled with?
Clayton Bond: I don’t recall a particular project – growing up, we celebrated Black history pretty much everyday. It was important to my parents and the community where I was raised, including especially the church I attended. We were intensely interested in the experiences of Black people throughout the world.
We were aware of apartheid in South Africa and supported efforts to free the majority Black population there. We knew that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., first gave his I Have a Dream speech in our city, Detroit. We loved seeing Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show, and watching Carole Simpson anchor ABC World News Tonight.
And my mom was constantly giving me books about notable Black people, including Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire. The intention and effect of these efforts were to encourage us to reach our highest potential, to overcome, to give us hope, which I understand was a big part of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s intention in creating what became Black History Month.
K.L: How do you navigate being in an interracial relationship – and how does that influence the way you both are raising your children?
Clayton Bond: Being a multi-racial family presents good opportunities to think, learn, and talk about race. With the killing of George Floyd and so many others at the hands of those who are meant to protect and serve all of us, we have had further opportunities to reflect, have sometimes difficult conversations about race, and rededicate ourselves to helping bring about an end to racism (and other -isms and phobias).
And particularly as parents, we want our children to grow up proud of who they are, and what they look like, while also recognizing that no one is better than them and they are not better than anyone else. I found that inspiring when I read about that being a mantra in President Biden’s home, growing up.
We want our children to share our belief that we each have intrinsic worth, and the human race and our planet is all the better when everyone has the encouragement and freedom to reach their highest potential, regardless of their race, color, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
K.L: Beside the 1619 Project, what do you think “We” should do more to protect History of American, and above all, the lives of black community?
Clayton Bond: The 1619 project is so important. I really admire and am grateful to Nikole Hannah Jones for her seminal work, and Roger Ross Williams and the whole team who produced the Hulu series. Because, again, I believe that acknowledging and reckoning with our country’s past is the best way to understand our present and bring about the best future for all of us. So I hope everyone will join me in reading and watching the 1619 project.
I also think that we should all strive to be at least a little brave and try to overcome fear and prejudices, and hopefully see that we all have enough in common, enough shared values and aspirations, to live well together.
And I believe we should keep studying and and honestly reckoning with our history and sharing our experiences, so we can all learn and have the best possible future, together. One of the quotes I most appreciate is from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, Letter From a Birmingham Jail, in which he wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
