Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 56: When did African-American women hit their stride in professional achievement?
It is fitting that my latest PBS series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, draws to a close tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. ET with episode 6, “A More Perfect Union (1968-2013).” After all, Thanksgiving week is a time for reflection, family, community and the humble expression of gratitude dating back to the Civil War, when, in a proclamation issued on Oct. 3, 1863, President Lincoln wrote, “They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” Earlier in the year, Lincoln had issued another proclamation–the Emancipation Proclamation–setting the slaves of the Confederate South on the road to freedom.
“We have not come this far alone,” as the black tradition so wisely says. What’s more, “We have come this far by faith.”
With this in mind, let me thank the readers of The Root, and the millions of viewers who have given your time and attention to our six-hour television series tracing the 500-year sweep of African American history across many rivers, from the age of exploration to the re-election of a black man as leader of the free world. Over these past six weeks, I hope I have provided you, your friends and families with fruitful conversation for the Thanksgiving table and, I hope, beyond, especially in our schools.
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article courtesy of BCNN1.com
Discussion: Henry Louis Gates Calls This Era, ‘The Era Of The Black Woman’ was originally published on praisecleveland.com
