Celebrating Family Traditions: BETTER GIT YER LEARNIN'...

 

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Better Git Yer Learnin'

The year was 1863

The paper said that I was free
But no one read it to my ears
and so I slaved for two more years.

Better git yer learnin,'
Better git yer learnin' before it goes away!

 [From the album: Songs of  Our Native Daughters]

After freedom was declared, former slaves went about regaining the life denied them for so many generations.  They looked first for family members torn away in business transactions, auction blocks, and often used as heirlooms by wealthy families.  

They went back to worship!  Gone were the midnight vigils far in the woods, along the swamps, and brush arbors (open sided shelters similar to a lean to shed).  The God Who kept them and freed them was needed now more than ever.  He would guide them into this new existence.  

[It was the Black Church that stood in the gap when Reconstruction programs failed to provide dignity and social reform.] 

But our Mississippi ancestors were resilient.  They wanted more than anything to be educated. They wanted to learn to read and write.  Adults often attended school with their children.  The Freedmen's Bureau established schools for that purpose throughout the south. They provided buildings and teachers and even facilitated land grants for college level education. However, the ensuing practices of Black Codes and Jim Crow still made it difficult for our people to achieve literacy.  

 One of the resources I use in my research is the Mississippi Enumeration of Educable Children 1850-1892; 1908-1937.  It was a census of school age children.  Initially it was for white students only.  After the war black children were counted even those who lived in rural areas. 

 I was happy to find a few family members cited in these records although sporadically with large gaps between years.  As sharecropper children, they could not attend school regularly.  Still the hope of an education for themselves and their children was realized.  Our family became more literate with succeeding generations.  Today we have many family members who have found academic success.  Some even choosing the field of education as life long careers.

As in past blog posts, A disclaimer is required. This is not an exhaustive accounting of every relative who may fit in the categories below. Please send me any corrections for future recognition. That being said, allow the chosen to represent them all.

First Family College Graduates

 "There's no doing in the world without being first." - Oprah Winfrey 

• 1963 - V. Bahiyyah Muhamad - University of Illinois, B.S. Elementary, National Louis University, M. Educational Psychology, 

•  1964 - Peggy D. Harris - Lincoln University,  Jefferson City, B.S. Elementary
•  1969 -Alfred L. Harris, Sr. Lincoln University, Jefferson City, B.S. Elementary

[Peggy and Alfred, both recipients of Master degrees were the first in the family to graduate from a HBCU.  Lincoln University was founded in 1866 by the 62nd and 65th US Colored Infantry and is the only black college founded by African-American members of the U.S. Army]

First Family Doctorate Degree

• 2014 - Chantelle M. Peterson, EDD - Northern Illinois University, Counseling Education and Supervision;  B.S. - Elmhurst University and Governor State. 

Family Graduates &

 Attendees of HBCUs

• Lt. Col.  Alfred Harris, Jr.  - (Military Science) -Hampton University (Est. 1868)  
• Nicole R. Harris - (Public Administration) -Tennessee State University (Est. 1912)
• Lexxus L. Betts - (Biomed. Engineer) - North Carolina A&T University (Est. 1891)
• Maria Peterson Henderson - Xavier University, New Orleans (Est. 1915)
• Lynnette P. Jefferson - Florida A&M University (Est. 1887)
• Admire Miracle Smith - Lincoln University, Jefferson City (Est. 1866)

I am proud to say that today, generation after generation of our kin have found their way to the halls of academia.  They are currently enrolled in state, vocational, and technical schools throughout the nation.  Notable colleges like The University of Notre Dame and Purdue University. We are proud of each and every one of them!

Our young people face many challenges that keep them from realizing their full potential.  In a socio-political culture rife with violence, crime, and injustice hope for a better future seems nearly impossible.  I pray they will be encouraged to push forward by remembering their ancestors' struggle. 

It was once a crime for black people to be educated; to cast a vote and live fully in a land they helped build! There were concerted efforts to keep us from knowing who we are, where we came from, and what we have achieved.  Some folks are trying to take us back there!  As the song above implores us: 

 "Better Git Yer Learnin,' Better Git Yer Learnin'

before it goes away!"

Carolyn Harris Betts,

Your Family Griot