They say history repeats itself.
George Floyd. Ahmaud Abery. Breonna Taylor. Eric Garner. Alton Sterling. Trayvon Martin. Martin Luther King, Jr. Emmett Till… The list stretches back centuries and includes the named and nameless men, women and children who were shot, beaten, lynched, denied access to the American dream, and killed because of the color of their skin.
It is time – it has been time – to stop repeating history.
In October 2014, the Israel Crane House became the “Crane House and Historic YWCA.” Like any name change, it was a true change of our identity. We broadened the stories we tell, permanently reinterpreting the museum to include not just its early 19th century history but also its 20th century history as a segregated YWCA for African American women and girls.
On our tours and in our programs, we confront the inequalities right in our own backyard, sharing the stories of government-sanctioned redlining that racially segregated Montclair by neighborhood, of people who were not able to go into certain stores on Bloomfield Avenue because of the color of their skin, of public school policies that kept African American students at the back of the graduation line, of movie theaters that segregated the audience right up until the 1960s.
The Montclair History Center reopened just two months after Michael Brown, Jr., was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer. The wounds were still raw. We found we could be a safe space where people of all ages, colors, religions, and creeds could hear the stories of racial inequities, discuss them, talk about current events with history as a backdrop, and openly ponder the questions, “where are we today” and “have things changed?” All too often, the answer is “not enough.”
The conversations aren’t always easy. In fact, when people with different life experiences share their perspectives, it can get downright difficult. But these are the conversations we must have. We need to listen. We need to understand.
It has been 528 years since Pedro Alonso Niño, a black explorer known as “el Negro,” piloted the Santa María during Christopher Columbus’ first voyage … 401 years since the first enslaved Africans disembarked on the shores of Virginia … 253 years since Phyllis Wheatley, a formerly enslaved African American female writer, published her first poem … 250 years since Crispus Attucks, a black carpenter, became the first casualty of the American Revolution ... 198 years since Denmark Vesey, a free African American and other leaders from the African Church, began plotting a rebellion against slavery in the land of the free … 158 years since President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation … 127 years since Ida B. Wells, an African American educator and investigative journalist, launched her transatlantic antilynching campaign … and 56 years since the Civil Rights Act became the law of the land.
Recognizing that the roots of Africans and their descendants – and their battles with racism -- run deep in American history, the Montclair History Center stands in solidarity with those who are trying to make fundamental changes to bring an end to the personal, institutional, systemic, and environmental racism that exists today.
These stories have been there all along. We need to listen. We need to learn. We need to act.
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The Montclair History Center is committed to continuing the dialogue. Join us on for History at Home: Race, Redlining, and Rebellion in Montclair’s History on Thursday, June 28 at noon and 7 pm. We will watch 20 minutes of our documentary, A Place to Become, and then have a discussion about it. Join us, also, when we reopen for tours of the Crane House and Historic YWCA in the fall.