Black History Month began as a week dedicated to the contributions African Americans made to advance the progress of the United States. Professor Carter G. Woodson brilliantly created and advanced celebrating and recognizing the untold stories of Black people in America. That was in 1915. More than 50 years after slavery was abolished, our contributions to an ungrateful nation were elevated by and among African Americans. But, in reality, Black people celebrated and honored our diverse experiences and the complexities of our heritages and associations long before the formal recognition of our prolific presence in all strata of American life.
There is a quirk embedded in the formal honoring of Africans who reside in America. Although we are embedded and interwoven into every significant aspect of this society, there remains a sinister assumption and projection that we still do not belong in this country. As a consequence, the nation's jails and prisons are disproportionately overpopulated with Black male inmates. Perhaps, it may seem inappropriate to address the demonic and systemic structures that continue to deny the humanity of African Americans during this proclaimed period of celebrating our accomplishments. But, to ignore the glaring, fortified structures to limit, reduce, and deny the full worth of our existence in this country is to share in the malignant and corrosive practices that render Black people expendable and unworthy. Thus, Black History Month means formalizing and elevating our humanity, recognizing our contributions, and punctuating our triumphs against the odds, including our survival in a hostile, arrogant nation.
My church, Christian Fellowship Congregational United Church of Christ in San Diego, is a weekly, public elevation and celebration of Blackness in America and around the world. While a specific spotlight is focused on Africanity in the United States of America during February (the shortest month of the year), African Americans honor and celebrate our existence daily and routinely. Every Sunday morning, Black folk across America enter the sanctuary of their preferred church and join together in a public display of praising God in a public display of sacred meditation and invocation of deity, dignity, and divine revelation.
One only needs to pay close attention to our African presence in almost every echelon of American life from politics to sports to entertainment to various styles of religious worship and practice. We are embedded in the wondrous diversity of a country that strives to reduce, limit, and eliminate our presence and erase our interwoven texture in the fabric of American life. And yet, as in the words of our beloved sister Maya Angelou, “And Still I Rise.”
The Church Universal has participated in the whitening of Jesus with portraits of an alien caricature presented as the image of Christ put up in public displays in sanctuaries, cathedrals, and houses of worship. It would be a welcomed, incredible act of truth-telling if religious leaders were to speak up and speak out against the travesty of intentionally projecting and promoting a false impression of the historic Jesus who was born into a family of North African Jews who do not resemble white Europeans. The Church must repent of its sins of intentionally creating a fictitious portrayal of Jesus and advancing notions of white supremacy through its intentionally erroneous artistic renderings of the historic Jesus Christ. If the Church were to courageously act to remove all false images of Jesus, this would launch a new, honorable celebration of Black History Month.
Rev. Dr. Art Cribbs is the Executive Director Emeritus of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HumanIntegrity), a statewide, faith-based organization that advocates for immigrant rights and criminal justice reform; Pastor of the Los Angeles Filipino American United Church of Christ; ethics instructor for the California Department of Justice Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Executive Development Course designed for police chiefs, sheriffs, and commanders; and a former DSF board member.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley; Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary; Doctorate of Ministry (with the President’s Academic Excellence award) from Claremont School of Theology; and, certification in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) from the University of Chicago Medical Centers.
Dr. Cribbs is a jazz-poet performance artist and playwright. He’s written two original plays, including Awaiting Judgment©, which brings together 20th-century theologians and social activists Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a fictional dialogue inside a prison cell, and Glory: A Christmas Celebration.