Brothers and Sisters all,
I teach a graduate level course in Social and Cultural foundations, or what some call "the multicultural course". While I try very hard to try and provide insight to my students on a variety of cultural matters, I tend to always get stuck on the point about education and being African American. I am not stuck concerning the misrepresentation of African Americans and our educational ability in our media, I am stuck on the power of one written exchange between Benjamin Banneker and Thomas Jefferson that does not always see the light of day. It is the hallmark of my talks when given to kids who come from hard hit economic backgrounds (like myself) and who may have been tricked to believe that education is not for them.
We know of Benjamin Banneker's ability in designing the layout of Washington, D.C. and for the almanac, but he also tried, through his writing of the Queen's english, to have, then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, address the state of slavery that existed in the new land. Mr. Banneker's words were of the highest order and eloquence and it demonstrated that he had mastered the slave master's words in order to provoke the need for freedom for his people. Some of his words read like this,
"SIR,
I AM fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion ; a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession, which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion...
Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye ; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings, which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored ; and which, I hope, you will willingly allow you have mercifully received, from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect Gift.
This, Sir, was a time when you cleary saw into the injustice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was now that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages : ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' Here was a time, in which your tender feelings for yourselves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to which you were entitled by nature ; but, Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves. ..."
It has always stood out to me that these excerpts do not rise to the light of day. It is a testament to how the power of sound education can address the needs of the self and of a people. To me it is the brilliance of our people, like those in a particular dimension of the Rap game who can articulate the struggle of a people. It ought not be surprising of Mr. Jefferson's response,
"I THANK you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men ; and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit.
I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them.
I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant,
THOMAS JEFFERSON." This is not an exceprt, this is the entire response.
Although Mr. Jefferson did not respond as an obedient servant , the power of Mr. Banneker's words serve me as the example of how we can use education to further our causes and that education has been, is and will always be as central to our people as the freedom struggle itself.
Much Love,
Brother Ellis
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Dr. Cyrus M. Ellis is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education and the author of It's All Gumbo to Me: Examining our world through the metaphor of Gumbo. You can access Dr. Ellis' book by going to http://www.lulu.com/content/1906060
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