There are many reasons why we look back, go back, or reflect on the past. The past was the roadway to the present and could influence and lead to change for the future. We’ve heard many people, including our parents, say, “Never forget where you come from.”
Don’t forget your roots while getting to where one is going!
I will never forget the red-dusty road I walked, ran, and skipped to catch the school bus. The cedar tree anchored in the soil next to the old homestead, its boughs cradling precious eggs and hatchlings.
Our lived experiences are the deep-rooted cedars and oaks of our past. We can’t let politics, disease, or poison destroy our history. Family and cultural history are important.
My family history is deeply rooted in American History from the time the first enslaved Africans were placed on ships and set foot on American soil.
Remember the Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina, the three ships Christopher Columbus used to cross the Atlantic to discover America.
Remember the Brooks, a transatlantic slave-trade ship that transported enslaved Africans like sardines in a can.
Remember the Duc Du Maine, which delivered the first enslaved Africans to Louisiana.
Remember the Clotilda, thought to be the last slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the U.S., which in 1860 docked illegally in Mobile, Alabama. Some of Clotilda’s captives founded Africatown near Mobile and became a cedar tree in African American genealogy.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:7, “Remember the days of old. Think about what the LORD did through those many years. Ask your father. He will tell you. Ask your elders. They’ll explain it to you. NIV
Read the pages of history that record the inhumanity of slave traders and owners. The plight of the enslaved, men, women, boys, and girls was grave.
Our history and genealogy must live on through historical recordings, storytelling, celebrations, and other means. Should we only record the good things from the past, not the bad ones?
Do we want to forget we ever traveled to and walked on the moon?
Do we want to forget any of the medical journeys that led to successful treatments for diseases? Do we dare forget the cure for polio?
What about the images and crude writings on cave walls left by the ancients? They valued their experiences and advances.
We remember and tell others about how God brought the enslaved American Negro to be free, voting citizens in a country that enslaved their ancestors.
If the University of Auburn can value a landmark tree that was vandalized and poisoned on its campus, surely America can value the Cedars of Lebanon, American history, which is incomplete without the truth of Black History.
White America did enslave the ancestors of Black America. Almost 390.000 enslaved blacks were brought to America.
Psalm 78: 2b-4
“I will utter hidden things, things from of old, things we have heard and know, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.”
America wouldn’t be America without the blood, sweat, and tears of slave labor and the contributions of their freed descendants.
My story is an American story.
If we whitewash or deny our history, we also deny the experiences and hardships God has brought us through.
The cedars and oaks of our history are not only for our generation but for every generation to come.
Don’t poison American History and kill the cedars and oaks of our lives.
I hope you are happy and well.
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