Why study Black history? Slavery ended a long time ago. Do we still need a Black History Month? Is Black History Month racist? If not, then why don’t we study white history or have a White History Month? We hear these questions often from friends, family, and foes. We see them discussed on social media, television, radio, and podcasts. When writing or speaking about Black history, people have mixed reactions. Some are very excited to learn about rarely taught parts of history, especially if it is specifically relevant to their lineage. Others become irritated at any mention of the topic, finding it both unhelpful and divisive. Regardless of their opinion about the subject, if we are talking to well-intentioned Christians, whether Black or white, the answers to the above questions are very simple. God commands us to love Him and our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-40). Below are some thoughts on why we believe American Christians should study Black history.
In Matthew 22, someone asked the question, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”. Jesus responded by combining Deuteronomy 6:5 (“…thou shalt love the LORD thy God…”) and Leviticus 19:18 (“…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…”). Many people have noted that the Ten Commandments can be divided into two categories. The first four are “vertical” commands that inform how we should love God, then there are six “horizontal” commands that show how we should love our neighbors.
Love Your Neighbor by Honoring Your Forefathers
So let’s begin with what may be more visible for people, their neighbors. The first of the commands to love our neighbors is the fifth commandment, to “honor your father and your mother”. Throughout the Bible, there are many examples of how to honor your parents. However, the Jews also honored their forefathers with the same respect as their father. There are examples of giving honor to and learning lessons from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Ruth. Therefore, as American Christians, anyone who is a descendant of African slaves is born with a specific duty to honor the memory and history of their forefathers as well as their parents. There are many lessons that we can learn from those who overcame great struggles, not only to help themselves but also to uplift their race, all the while pointing others to the source of their strength, which is God.
Love Your Neighbor by Understanding Your Neighbor
Many wonderful American missionaries travel to distant lands with a drive to make disciples of “every nation” or “people group”. When they embark on these journeys, they often take time to learn the language, customs, and history of the people that they intend to reach. Oddly, within their own nation, such efforts become rare or are deemed unnecessary. People who are not descended from African slaves have a tendency to discount or entirely skip the history of their Black neighbors. Frustration sets in as many Churches remain segregated. Anger sometimes disrupts integrated congregations as bits and pieces of troublesome history are unearthed. Churches need to be educated, open, and honest about their history, whether it is complimentary or unflattering. After all, how can you love your neighbor or reach them with the gospel if you don’t attempt to understand how the history of this nation impacted their ancestors and affects their daily lives?
Love God by Recognizing His Control
As self-professed nerds, we love history because it is God’s story, and has therefore been called His Story. From the Old Testament to the Roman Empire, and from the Transatlantic Slave trade to the Civil Rights Movement, all history tells of God’s power, love, and sovereignty in the affairs of men. His ways are not our ways. He alone declares the beginning from the end. So we must trust in Him and trust His plan.
Trusting His plan is important for reconciling God’s sovereignty with the egregious wrongs and oppression found in history. For example, where was God when the Children of Israel were crushed with Egyptian slavery? He was establishing the foundation of a powerful nation that would rule from Joshua to Jeconiah. Where was God when Christians were murdered and destroyed by Roman slavery? He was building a powerful church that would outlast their Roman persecutors.
The history of African Americans, who are the descendants of Black American slaves and freedmen, is the story of God’s Sovereignty in the history of the persecuted Africans destined to live on Western shores. Many people, books, and museums ignore this history due to ignorance, embarrassment, or hatred. To ignore this history, in either its exalted beauty or its gory details, is to deny the work of the Holy Spirit in the affairs of men. If we are to love the God that wrote this history, then we must read and study this history and properly praise Him for it.
