Whenever I am in a discussion group, think tank, or mastermind for the black community the question always comes up: What are the challenges holding the black community back?  Answers normally range from lack of education to lack of resources, but the one thing that we seem to be united in is our agreement in the lack of unity amongst black people in America.  Beyond the interesting thoughts of how oxymoronic it is to be in unity over the fact that there isn’t any unity, you would think that the acknowledgement of this would begin to create some unity in itself.  Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case as it is now becoming more and more common to believe that black people will not and cannot be united as a result of 400 years of slavery and another 150 years or so of second class citizenship.  Psychological conditioning is the term that is alluded to when discussing blacks and their ability to work with each other despite differences and disagreements; apparently Jim Crow cast a very long shadow.  But we do have a few events that have happened throughout history that have shown us that it is indeed possible for us to unite over more things than not uniting.  Here they are – the big 3:

1. The Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968/present):  This was the last time that Black people all over the nation came together in agreement that equality was a primary goal and an immediate concern.  Although we disagreed on how to get there, the uniting strength of the vision of black people doing better was something that drove everyone towards the same goal.  The two differing ideals at this time as taught in the history books were lead by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.  Although towards the end of Martin’s life he began to sing a tune that was similar to the tune of Malcolm’s Black Nationalism.

2. Black Wall Street, Tulsa Oklahoma (1910-1921): This event is the beginning of what caused another event that came to be known as the black holocaust.  I will say this here:  if you haven’t heard of the black holocaust, hug your white buddies before you research it because you might not want to see them again.  But during this period with the oil industry booming, Greenwood, a black community in Tulsa was also flourishing.  This community housed several black multimillionaires which at the time was and extraordinary amount of money.  Black businesses supported the community and the community supported the businesses.  It was a completely self sufficient community with doctors, schools, and churches.  Of course one could argue that the blacks couldn’t really shop anywhere else because of segregation, but in this community money bounced 7 to 8 times and the blacks were actually doing better than their white neighbors.  Sadly what happened in Tulsa is very similar to what happened in the next incident.

3. Reconstruction (1865-1877): This period of time just after the civil war saw an amazing thing happen in America as black drive and ingenuity was unleashed from the pen it had been held in for centuries.  During this period we saw black people in politics as congressmen, we saw black businesses springing forth, and we saw the black community beginning to thrive.  So much so that it inspired the 1877 compromise and another era called redemption in which the blacks became acquainted with the status that we are all very familiar with; second class.  But for a time we really gave them a showing and stood very united.

It is also worth noting that all three of these incidents happened before integration and there truly hasn’t been a united black movement or community in America since.  But I believe we still possess the capabilities to unite, we just have to keep our eyes on the bigger picture.  What do you believe?  Do you believe that black people in America will ever be united again?