Continuing the fight against racism

Lifelong Inwood resident Charles P. Ashby, 91, views every day as Black History Month and despite experiencing discrimination in the military, he said while he can’t change the color of his skin, he wouldn’t want to.

Ashby said growing up in Inwood, he didn’t encounter the problem of race and while there were black and white churches, both races attended the same schools. “I was friendly with all the kids,” he said. “To me people are people and I think it’s about time the world woke up to the fact that everyone is generated by the same God.”

Black History Month, which is celebrated annually in February, first began as “Negro History Week.” It was started by a Harvard Ph.D., Dr. Carter Woodson in 1926, who is considered the “Father of Black History.” Carter chose the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Annie Reyes, a resident of Lawrence for the past 24 years, grew up in Brooklyn and can recall a few instances when she experienced racial discrimination. “I remember as a child, my family had relatives down south and while we were visiting them my uncle closed the shutters of the house because there was a Klu Klux Klan rally,” she said. “A row of cars came down the street and I saw them burning a cross. It was frightening.”

While Reyes thinks Black History Month is important, she said she hopes schools teach students more about black history and important figures within the black community throughout the year and not just in February. “Black history is American history,” Reyes said. “Children need to learn more about it in school because without black history, there really is no history.”

Fifth graders at Lawrence Middle School celebrated Black History Month by writing reports called, “People Who Made A Difference.” Octavio Perez chose Abraham Lincoln because he was an important figure in the mission to end slavery. “It’s important to celebrate people who made a difference because they worked so hard to change things in the world,” he said.

Christopher Martinez chose the first black man to fly a plane, Lee A. Archer, while Carly Applebaum chose television show host Oprah Winfrey. “She (Oprah) donates a lot of money to charity,” Applebaum said. “She also worked her way up and clearly changed our world so she should be recognized for that."

Ariana Brown picked Elizabeth Bessie Coleman because she was the first African-American to get a pilot’s license, and Alexis Tyson selected Harriet Tubman because she helped free slaves. “It’s important to celebrate these people because the world would have been different if these people didn’t help,” Tyson said. “There would be a lot of racist people in the world if these people were never around.”

Evelyn Jackson, an Inwood resident and sixth grade science teacher in New York City, said her first experience with racial discrimination was at SUNY New Paltz when people wrote racist comments on the African Women’s Alliance and the Black Student Union fliers she would hang up.

Jackson said she hopes kids learn about black history so they can understand the different roles people took on and how their actions have impacted their lives today. “There are some young students who have the opportunity to receive an education and they don’t realize that at one time that may not have been possible,” she said.

Reyes said people will be people whether they’re in Lawrence, Brooklyn, Manhattan or anywhere else. “You’re always going to meet a knucklehead or someone who is ignorant because they perceive color as a state of being,” she said. “You’re always going to find it and that’s the sad thing. The fight is not over, it’s still continuing.”