For those WUN readers who have been following my Voices contributions over the past few months, you’ll know I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the Black experience in American history. We’ve recently honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January), Black History Month (February), and Women’s History Month (March). I like to think the legacy of my life and my family’s work is dedicated to telling the unvarnished truth about the Black experience in America—especially correcting the narrative of what really happened here in Rhode Island.
Like many of you, I’m feeling the weight of the many draconian orders, actions, and reductions-in-force that have occurred over the last three months. I feel compelled to raise my voice—alongside my non-profit community’s shared concerns—about current events. I’m grateful to What’s Up Newp for the opportunity to educate and inform my friends and neighbors from the perspective of an experienced Black businessman and non-profit founder, whose family has a long history in Rhode Island. †
†Disclaimer: These are my views and not necessarily those of WUN.
Last week, the president issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which, in my opinion, is a direct affront to the educational and cultural organizations that are tirelessly working to bridge the complicated gaps of race relations, cultural differences, and the polarization of belief systems. In the order, he targeted our country’s esteemed Smithsonian Institution, among other reputable art and educational institutions.
To add insult to injury—or more accurately, to worsen food insecurity—early this week, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) slashed staffing and funding for the government’s heralded Meals on Wheels program, which supports homebound seniors and disabled individuals with nutritional meals. That action alone seems downright heartless.
I spend most of my workdays and weekends in deep, thoughtful conversations with other non-profit leaders, local and state government officials, and experts from historic, cultural, and academic institutions. My goal is to understand their challenges, share my own vision (and obstacles), and find a path forward for all of us. It’s clear from these conversations that we are all reeling from the whiplash of the last eleven weeks.
My friend and colleague David W. Blight, a well-respected history professor at Yale University, president of the Organization of American Historians, and author of several books on African American history—including his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom—wrote an op-ed in the New York Times this week. I’d like to highlight abstracts of it here, as it speaks directly to the current state of our non-profit ecosystem in Rhode Island.
Blight’s critique of #47’s executive order is that “the assumption that there is a standard, agreed-upon truth about the country’s past is a fantasy.” He writes: “Many Americans do care about the country’s past; they can handle the truth—conflicts, tragedies, redemptions and all. They actually prefer complexity to patriotic straitjackets. World War II, the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the women’s and gay rights movements, and the struggle to learn Native American history have changed America forever.”
I share Blight’s beef and belief. The idea that these brilliant people and curatorial institutions—which have made significant progress since the Civil Rights Movement—are now being hog-tied and muzzled to prevent them from telling the truth through the prism of diverse, fact-based stories and lived experiences is demeaning at best, and naïve, blind-sighted, and ridiculous at worst.
According to Blight, “The [executive] order is nothing less than a declaration of political war on the historians’ profession, our training and integrity, as well as on the freedom—in the form of curious minds—of anyone who seeks to understand our country by visiting museums or historic sites.”
What should we do next?
Q. Turning to our own backyard—i.e., Rhode Island’s educational and cultural institutions—what can we stewards of these pummeled organizations do today to keep moving forward with our individual missions?
A. I propose we join together in a circle of unity, support, and interconnectedness. Let’s converse, listen, engage, and lift each other up. Rhode Island Slave History Medallions (RISHM) is opening a Newport Black History Cultural Center on Historic Hill as a safe space for conversation, collaboration, ideation, and healing. I welcome dialogue with any of my non-profit director peers or business leaders to better understand the current situation, and to discuss how we can all move forward—and make history—together.
This moment in time reminds me of the African proverb:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Let’s help each other go farther… or at the very least, please—let’s not go backwards.
Charles L. Roberts is Executive Director and Founder of Rhode Island Slave History Medallions, www.rishm.org. He can be reached at charles@rishm.org.
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