Charlene Davenport,
Clinton, WA
I wear black…On Columbus Day to mourn…The genocide of Native American tribes by the European white man.
I wear black…On February 8th to mourn…The Dawes Act that forced individual land allotments on Native American reservations…With the government stealing all excess land.
I wear black…On February 19th to mourn…The unjust internment of thousands of Japanese Americans, their land taken by the government while the 442nd Japanese Combat Team became the most decorated military unit in U.S. history.
I wear black…On February 27th to mourn…Native Americans ordered and required to stay on their reservations with no rights of freedom.
I wear black…On March 6th to mourn…The unjust decision of the Dred Scott case allowing the repulsive institution of slavery to continue.
I wear black…On March 27th to mourn…Native American deaths in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and other battles with the U.S. government taking 20 million acres of Native American land.
I wear black…On April 4th to mourn…The assassination of our great visionary prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taken from our nation by uneducated racists, Yet still…the “DREAM” lives and moves forward.
I wear black…On April 11th to mourn…The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 granting Native Americans the rights white Americans have had since 1776…Even though their rights to America have existed for ten thousand years.
I wear black…On May 3rd to mourn…The inequalities and “profound discrimination” suffered by Latinos in Texas, finally recognized by the Supreme Court in 1954.
I wear black…On May 5th to mourn…The internment by ICE of Central American and Mexican immigrants who only seek freedom from violence and oppression, tired and poor “Huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
I wear black…On May 10th to mourn…The Chinese immigrant laborer loss of life in explosions while working on the Transcontinental Railroad, driven in a manner similar to slavery to appease the goals of white industrialists.
I wear black…On May 25th to mourn…All African American men and women gunned down by police, And still, in 2020, African Americans are denied their Civil Rights.
I wear black…On May 28th to mourn…The Native American lives lost because of the Indian Removal Act forcing tribes to leave their land and walk “The Trail of Tears.”
I wear black…On May 31st-June 1st to mourn…The African American lives lost, the displacement of families, the stolen wealth, the loss of land in the Greenwood Massacre at the hands of white Tulsa rioters.
I wear black…On June 12th to mourn…Another giant of civil rights, Medgar Evers working with the NAACP, assassinated by an uneducated white supremacist.
I wear black…On June 15th to mourn…The outright racism of Three Rivers, Texas in refusing the burial of Felix Z. Longoria, a WWII Mexican-American casualty who was the recipient of the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, and Combat Infantry Badge.
I wear black…On June 17th to mourn…The Reclamation Act, taking land away from many Latino Americans.
I wear black…On June 19th to mourn…The courageous African American lives lost (38,000) during the Civil War, the implementation of black codes, Jim Crow laws, and segregation.
I wear black…On June 19th to mourn…Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, beaten to death by two white Americans in a heinous hate crime and only given a fine of $3,000.
I wear black…On July 4th to mourn…for this country…Where everyone is NOT equal, Where everyone does NOT have liberty, Where justice is NOT available to all, Where our founding documents are only words, Making democracy nothing more than hypocrisy to the rest of the world.
I wear black…On August 27th to mourn…The African-Americans gunned down by the KKK–joined by the police in the Jacksonville, Florida Massacre.
I wear black…On August 28th to mourn…A black 14-year-old boy, Emmett Till, brutally beaten and shot by two white racists.
I wear black…On September 15th to mourn…The four young African-American girls who died from a senseless hate crime bombing by white supremacists in Alabama.
I wear black…On October 6th to mourn…Native American children removed from their tribes and forced into boarding schools to assimilate them in white culture, to kill off Native American culture.
I wear black…On October 11th to mourn…The segregation of Asian students in public schools by the San Francisco Board of Education.
I wear black…On October 24th to mourn…Chinese deaths caused by fearful whites in 1871 in the Chinese Massacre.
I wear black…On November 28th to mourn…The loss of Cherokee land (69,000 acres) in the Treaty of Hopewell to accommodate the white man’s “manifest destiny” policy.
I wear black…On November 29th to mourn…Native Americans killed and mutilated in the Sand Creek Massacre.
I wear black…On December 8th to mourn…The segregation policy of the military during WWII for all men and women of color who valiantly served this country, many dying for their country.
I wear black…On December 29th to mourn…The 150 Native Americans killed by the U.S. military in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Most of my wardrobe is NOW black…Because throughout our country’s history the white fathers, the white masters, the white industrialists, the white clergy, the white aristocracy, the white educators, the white elite, the white workers, and the white politicians have ALL been masquerading as the “Angels of Light” up on “that shining city on a hill.”
I wear black to mourn…For this country…but I have HOPE.
On many days I wear white…Because I have HOPE that my children will educate their children in the untold history of our country…Because I see HOPE and change in my grandchildren…in their attitudes, inclusiveness of others…not seeing differences of skin color…Because I see HOPE in my great-grandchildren who are learning that we are ALL the children of God belonging to the Rainbow Coalition of mankind.
I see HOPE for this country…HOPE for the future…HOPE for all of us.
CD 2020
( I am a white American having 10 grandchildren, 3 of them having African-American blood, 2 more having Native American blood, and a great-grandchild (out of 7) who is half Mexican-American. In my 70s, I am trying to educate myself, my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren as much as I can so that I will know exactly what kind of racism my grandchildren and great-grandchildren may face during their lives.) We ALL need to keep LEARNING WITH UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHY.
