America I am

Commentary by Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig

“If you follow the need of your people, there will always be something to do.” — Tavis Smiley

“Celebrate diversity,” “practice tolerance” and “being politically correct” are phrases and terms we all know well.
   They stem from the struggles of men, women and children wanting to be accepted for who they are, where they come from and what they want to be.
    But before true acceptance can be achieved, understanding must begin.
    About 400 years ago, the first African slaves set foot in Jamestown, Virginia, making them the first blacks in North America.
    Since that time we — as coloreds, Negros, blacks and African Americans — have had to fight.
    We fought the shackles that were placed around our feet. We battled for equal rights on all levels and struggled to survive. We fought with our fists, our mouths, our actions and our minds. And over the past four centuries, I think we’ve made a little headway.
    But all the challenges we met, obstacles we overcame and achievements we made mean nothing if others don’t learn from them … if we don’t then pass on what we have gleaned.
    It is the responsibility of those who have the accurate knowledge of history to share it with the world. Like the slaves who had the foresight to pass on tales of the Motherland, it is imperative we pass on our ethnic, racial, religious or other history to our fellow man and woman.
    Tavis Smiley is doing just that.
    For the past two years, the social and political commentator, author and PBS talk show host has worked with Arts and Exhibitions International (AEI), the Cincinnati Museum Center, Wal-Mart Stores and ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Company to create a mobile, oral history to educate not only our youth but society as a whole on the impact black America has made on this country.
    “America I AM Across America” — the 40-city mobile exhibit — will make a stop in the East Bay at the Oakland Wal-Mart, located at 8400 Edgewater Dr., from noon to 6 p.m. today, Sept. 10.
    The exhibit will include authentic memorabilia once belonging to civil rights activists W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Pullman porter uniforms, actual slave shackles and more. It also hosts a customized mobile recording booth where visitors can make recorded video messages that will become part of the exhibition.
    But this traveling celebration of black America is more than “here today, gone tomorrow.” What visitors across the country will witness through November is a microcosm of a larger — 15,000 square feet — 12-gallery collection of black history called “America I AM: The African American Imprint” to open on Jan. 15 in Philadelphia. The exhibit, in full, will move from one major U.S. city to the next through 2012. Smiley says this living imprint will grow to become the largest oral history project recorded in U.S. history.
    Smiley has the right idea. It’s great to celebrate Black History Month every February but in order to pass along the stories, contributions and accomplishment of 400 years, the lessons must be ongoing … that is until the history books our kids use in school are updated.
    But this exhibit is more than a place for young black children to learn about their past or for African American adults to celebrate many jobs well done.
    Chatting by phone from Los Angeles, Smiley said his hope is that by telling these stories, all people will “better understand, appreciate and embrace our history as a part of American history.”
    My hope is that at the end of the four-year tour, we won’t need special exhibits to teach our youth. That not only our story, but the stories of Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans and others who selflessly gave their all to make this America all it can be are accurately told on an everyday basis, in our schools and in our homes.
    For more information about the “America I AM” exhibits, visit www.AmericanIam.org.

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig is an award-winning, professional journalist who resides in Oakland. If you have an individual, organization, issue or other topic that may be of interest to the Globe’s readers, contact her at  talk2mfc@yahoo.com.