Welcome to the History of a Beautiful People

February being black history month, I am reminded of the emotional pull that a couple of speeches from way back caused me. Being born white and having been raised in Alabama, I have seen the ways that racism is displayed by cowards desiring for there to be others who are beneath them in order to feel better about themselves and their own emotional and intellectual inequality to humanity. I have also seen the effects that an insipient, heartless evil such as this causes when a human is forced to endure it. Black History Month then becomes a chance to see the beauty of hopeful endurance and astonishing acts of unwavering heroism these people's story proclaims.

In light of this, the instances where one human purposefully causes another human to feel emotional pain, humiliation, oppression, depression, or a loss of self-esteem effects life as a whole and should be heard in civil courtrooms, I believe. Even now, however, some readers, lacking knowledge about the emotional suffering one must feel during those instances, are probably exasperated over reading yet another opinion on the eradication of racism. Of course, had we already succeeded in the ongoing struggle for peace and equality between the races, there would be no need for further opinion, and no need for the exasperated sighs currently filling some readers' ears.

The real history of the African American is astounding. Insurmountable obstacles rose and still rise hideously in the paths, the faces, of the members of an extraordinary, talented, and purpose-driven race of people. The many, many stories of survival, the quest for and possession of freedom, the peaceful protesting against even obscene cruelty, the emotional depth, and the unimaginable courage of this race fill the true literature and artistic content of this country.