At the Close of Black History Month

Many people think that this past month is useless because we always celebrate our PAST....We need to be aware that yes....we celebrate this month for what our ancestors have done for us as Knowledge is POWER...but we also need to take this opportunity to think about what WE can do NOW to make a difference so that our people can celebrate the work we would have done for them....

We now have a bar set by someone BLACK who came from nothing to the most powerful man in the World grounded by his BLACK FAMILY....

Lets celebrate this PRESENT fact and more importantly....let's empower ourselves to give back, do better, and never give up!

I ask you to make this pledge with me:

Black Family Pledge

by Maya Angelou

Because we have forgotten our ancestors our children no longer give us honor.

Because we have lost the path our ancestors cleared, kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find their way.

Because we have banished the God of our ancestors, our children can not pray.

Because the long wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing, our children cannot hear us crying.

Because we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering, our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.

Because we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our gates, and holds us up to the mirror of the world, shouting, Regard the loveless.

Therefore, we pledge to bind ourselves again to one another;

To embrace our lowliest,

To keep company with our loneliest,

To educate our illiterate,

To feed our starving,

To clothe our ragged,

To do all good things,

knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters.

We are our brothers and sisters.

In honor of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation,

We make this pledge.