NCBCP Headlines
Standing Strong for Our Children
Susan L. Taylor
The Final Call Newspaper
May 11, 2009
Let's tell the truth: We've fallen into forgetfulness and apathy. Though our foreparents risked all that was dear to them to open a way for us, we have relinquished the fundamental Black values that guided their lives. The great benefits that millions of us enjoy today don't come from nothing. They have grown out of a long and glorious legacy of mutual love, faith in God and commitment to the children. These core values traveled with them over the seas and centuries. They emboldened enslaved Africans to get up from servitude, challenge racist practices, stand strong in the face of heinous acts of violence today's Black people will never know.
We are the beneficiaries of unimaginable suffering and sacrifice and also strategic thinking, planning and action. But on our watch, with all our privileges, technology and supports, we are doing far less for our young than was done for us. We are the first generation of African Americans to allow the next generation to lose ground. Millions of our children are in peril; it's their worst time since slavery, said Marian Wright Edelman. Yet, there isn't a single issue we are organized around. Not one that Black leaders have agreed upon and are standing together on to work for change.
