Who Are We My African American Descendents?

Donald Trump and Bill Clinton made absolute fools of themselves recently. Trump in saying his contributions to African American uplift out measured John Lewis, and Bill Clinton in downplaying the importance of Kwame Ture in his role in the black freedom struggle. The funny thing is I bet a majority of Black Americans couldn’t tell you the importance of John Lewis before he died. How many know that Kwame Ture changed his name from Stokely Carmichael to honor two African leaders? Many African Americans couldn’t tell you the importance of Elijah Cummings, John Conyers, or Ron Dellums before they died. So when I see posts from African Americans up in arms about Trump’s discussion regarding John Lewis’s legacy or importance. I wonder why we expect Trump to be aware of a civil rights activist like a John Lewis when many of us young or old and if asked to identify John, Ron, Elijah, or John couldn’t pick them either. We aren’t responsible for Trump’s awareness only our own. Remember this during Trump first month as being President. Trump insinuated that Frederick Douglass was still alive. I am not a follower of Trump but I am a realist. You know the names Sandra Bland, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown all murdered by an unjust group of corrupt law officers but do we know the names Sammy Younge, Bobby Hutton, Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, James Chaney, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark all murdered by the same system but in cause of delivering black freedom. Until we encourage knowledge of our own historical contributors we cannot expect whites folks to follow or promote them either. I am not even going further back in our history in pull names like Ella Baker, Ida Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Mary Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs , John Lynch, Pinchback, Vernon Dahmer Sr., Harry and Harriet Moore, Paul Robeson, Edward Brooke, Robert Smalls, Richard Hatcher, Ralph Bunche, Alan Locke, Langston and Zora, Robert Brown Elliott, Maynard Jackson, Benjamin O. Davis, William H. Carney, Blanche Bruce, Richard Cain, Robert Vann, Robert Abbott, and all the many other names and faces that contributed to our still being here today. So, don’t press Trump when we are just as guilty and identifying our historical African American heroes and explaining their importance except maybe when that someone dies, or it’s February of course......can you identify these heroes? If not, then you are as guilty as Trump In downplaying their importance.