One hundred years ago, Carter G. Woodson and the group now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History would spearhead a week to promote the achievements of Black Americans.
The first of those commemorative weeks took place in February 1926. Woodson selected February because it was the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. He was not seeking to create a new tradition, but simply to ask the public to learn more about Black history.
Twenty-five years ago, Eva Paterson, Charles Ogletree, and other great civil rights leaders formed EJS to combat a baseless false equivalency narrative that America is colorblind and post-racial, no longer dependent on equity policies to level the playing field for equality. We countered the false narrative with social science establishing that explicit and implicit bias perpetuated white supremacy and institutional racism in every one of our sociopolitical and economic structures.
President Lincoln, in the throes of the war upon realizing that there could be no end to the conflict without abolition and the restoration of Black people’s inalienable right to liberty and equality, reminded us of this transitive principle: when two things are equal to one another, and one of those things is equal to a third thing, then all three are equal to each other.
Equality is the cornerstone of democracy and equity is the cornerstone of equality, until the lopsided scales culminating from 400 years of racial oppression are leveled. Accordingly, EQUITY is the cornerstone of democracy.
Today, we labor to level a playing field rutted and distorted by 200 years of genocide, labor, and land extraction, 100 years of Jim Crow segregation and terror, and 50 years of post-civil rights apartheid expressed through the prison industrial complex, the war on drugs, deregulation, and social safety net shrinking.
We champion and protect policies on the harm repair continuum from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to reparations, and center Black women’s health and Black student equity in the struggle.
EJS is steadfast in this struggle, and though the course is elusive the goal of equal opportunity is still attainable. All we need to deploy our proactive strategy and positive narrative is you.
Your dollars will help us grow our capacity to sustain the moment of positive, transformative change. In this time when so many things seem out of our hands, you still control your personal philanthropy and EJS would be humbled to be part of your giving this Black History Month.
Please give to EJS today. Thank you so much for your support!
Lisa Holder, President
EQUAL JUSTICE SOCIETY