Toward a People's Black History
We are declaring an emergency in the North American African community. This is a call to all children of elderly parents, also relatives and friends. Upon the transition of your loved ones, do not throw out the family jewels! The family jewels are not the gold, diamonds, insurance policies, bank accounts, silverware and antique furniture. The real family jewels are the archives mama and dad left, their letters, notebooks, diaries, photos and other items that we rush to throw in the trash upon their transition.We want children to pledge not to throw away anything until a team of black scholars arrive to examine the material you are rushing to throw into the trash. Contained in this socalled trash is the history of a people, how we survived, how we got ovah, how we corresponded with each other from day to day, year to year, from Down South to Up South.
The world wants to know how we were able to survive such a hostile American environment and yet maintain our sanity and some semblance of love for each other. This story is in those letters mama wrote to Aunt Sue in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, and the replies, the diaries dad kept his entire life, the photo albums, etc.
We are calling upon mortuaries to inform children of the deceased not to throw away anything until our People's History team of scholars arrive. We may need to expand the capability of local museum/libraries such as Oakland's African American Museum/Library to house the archives of common people, the true makers of history.
It is the common people who are the movers of history, leaders only lead, but they cannot lead until the people are ready to make forward motion in their lives. Such information is contained in the archives of Aunt Jane and Uncle James, and even crazy Uncle Joe kept notebooks for years up in his room. Imagine the contents of his narrative from World War II when he came home crazy!
--Marvin X
1/9/11The archives of Marvin X were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.