Black History Month was celebrated across The Bronx in February with several events held in honor of the country’s ancestors, while elsewhere, the ongoing debate over the teaching of Black history to children in schools continues to make headlines.

 

Democratic State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), who broadly represents the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Jerome Park, Riverdale, Fieldston, North Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, parts of Fordham, Belmont, Tremont, Van Nest, Little Yemen and Allerton, held a Black History Month celebration at Tracey Towers housing complex, located at 40 West Mosholu Parkway South in Jerome Park on Saturday, Feb. 25, in conjunction with Bronx Health Reach. The event comprised live music, raffles, performances, food, drinks, COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, and was followed by some speeches.

 

Several seniors at the residence, many of whom are first generation African American from Ghana, were seen at the event and appeared to be enjoying the festivities, while the younger residents we spoke to did not seem to be as interested in marking the occasion. Tracey Towers was created through the Mitchell-Lama, middle-income housing program, opened in 1974, and is overseen by NYC Department of Housing, Preservation & Development (HPD). It comprises 871 affordable apartments of different sizes.

 

We spoke to 94-year-old resident, Rosemary O. Brown, about what the month meant to her. “Well, Black History Month is very important to me. I was born a very long time ago and it’s always an honor to be here. I have traced my family back to my enslaved great, great grandmother. I have eight generations of family that I’ve traced all the way down to my tree, right here in the United States, southern part,” she said.

 

Born and raised in The Bronx, Brown said hers was a good oral history to hear and said she was going to be presenting it later that day. Smiling, she added, “My maiden name is Orange, so if there’s any Oranges out there, you related to me, okay?” We also spoke to the drummer with the band who said, “I just wanted to say that it’s important to know everybody’s history.”

 

Asked what the best part of the event was, two elderly female residents, Lucy Okyere and Grace Drompeh, originally from Ghana but living in the U.S. for 20 years, said the best part was the music, the band, and meeting Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.

 

“We are so proud to have her here today and our assemblyman too,” one said. “We love you all. We know you are fighting for us.” Asked how things were going generally at Tracey Towers, the ladies mentioned that there were still  problems with the elevator. Norwood News has reached out to the management company for comment.

 

We also spoke to Nana Ampomsah, another senior resident of Tracey Towers, about Black History Month. He said he was excited to have met the Bronx borough president. “It’s my first time,” he said. “I’m happy for her. Everything’s good.”

 

Another female Tracey Towers resident, Ama Jackson, agreed it was a good event and despite what she described as the more trivial aspects of the occasion like the music, said there was a more fundamental reason to mark the day. “What’s most important is that we understand Black History Month is Black History year,” she said, in part. “And it’s not just Black history, it’s Hispanic history, it’s Asian history. It is the complete and true story that has occurred in this country because it is not just American history, it’s world history. That’s what we have to remember and if we taught history the way it should be in this country, you’d have no need for Black History Month.”

 

Jackson continued, “You wouldn’t, because it would already be embedded in the curriculum, but we have a curriculum in this city that does not represent the children that attend. They’re being fed some great misinformation and it’s very sad. That’s why events like this are important, because we need to teach young people their history and that’s all young people, because everyone benefits from history when it’s taught properly and it’s taught honestly.”

 

For his part, Rivera said the event was an opportunity to celebrate Black excellence in the country and the neighborhood, particularly when there’s such a large Black population at Tracey Towers. “There’s so many Black folks who live here who have been such an important part of this neighborhood in The Bronx,” he said. “So, I wanted to come back and celebrate them. We had an opportunity to do some dancing and some singing.”

 

He agreed that Black history was American history and needed to be celebrated. “I’m Puerto Rican, and I’m quite pale, but would you be surprised to find that my father is a Black Puerto Rican man? I’m very, very proud of the Black roots side of my family, but when I came to the U.S., it was getting to know the Black community in the U.S., and particularly in the last 13 years as I’ve been a state senator, that has been an incredibly important part of who my constituency has been,” Rivera said in part.

 

Asked for his thoughts on the opposition to teaching Black history in schools, he said, “Well, it’s deeply racist, and it’s deeply ahistorical. How do you actually hide parts of what your history is in the United States? The reality is that as great as our country is, there are deep wounds that are part of the foundation of our history.”

 

The progressive senator, who won a hotly contested Democratic primary election last year against former NYC Board of Elections commissioner, Miguelina Camilo, without the support of the Bronx Democratic Party, added, “This notion that we need to hide those things about our country, which we are ashamed of only makes it more likely that we will ignore it or more likely that we will repeat it. We have to acknowledge those things. We are not yet there, and it is the experience of Black Americans that has pushed us, thankfully, towards a more just society. We should not go backwards and trying to stop teaching the history of our country is going back – not a fan.”

 

We later spoke to the district attorney, who said as the first Black woman to be elected DA in the State of New York, it was important not only to be the first, but to make sure she was not the last. “So, it’s important to come out, engage with the community, so they know the work that the district attorney does, and [how] my job is to keep them safe, and my mission is to make sure that we have public safety, justice and fairness at the same time,” Clark, who is running for reelection this year, said.

 

Asked what non-Black residents and citizens could do to keep things moving in a positive way for Black Americans, the district attorney said, “To always be an ally; it’s not about race. It’s about people, it’s about service, so making sure that we do all we can to uplift our communities, whatever way you can and support the causes of different people.”

 

Jean Hill is president of Tracey Towers Tenants Organization and a member of Bronx Community Board 7. She said the band organized by Rivera was “fabulous” and that some suitably themed movies like “Wakanda Forever” and “Black Panther” were also scheduled to be screened later in the day to mark the occasion.

 

“So, it’s been a fabulous day, and then what we’re also going to do is have the oral histories amongst the people themselves,” she said. “We always hear about people who are famous, but we want to tell the story from the individual, common man point of view to let them see what our histories were in this country.”

She continued, “You may have come from a foreign country, you may have heard America’s this fabulous beacon of light. What did you experience when you really got here? I was born and raised in America. I also grew up in a time of segregation. So, I have also a history of what it’s like being born here, living here and still making America, our country, because we helped build it along with everybody else. So, Black history is American history because we built the infrastructure of it, along with a bunch of other people, including the Irish, including the Chinese. Let’s keep all of our brothers and sisters together.”

 

She added, “So, we need to tell these individual stories. We need to let people know it’s not just about famous people. It’s about the everyday working man and woman who has to raise their children, bring their children up. We live in a time with strife. A lot of time what people are trying to do is divide the soul, and we cannot exist as a house divided. We must work together. That’s the only thing that’s going to make America strong, and never perfect but a work in progress.”

 

Editor’s Note: In the latest print edition of this story, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera is incorrectly referenced as the senator of senate district 31. In fact, State Sen. Robert Jackson represents S.D. 31. Sen. Rivera represents S.D. 33, which, as mentioned above, broadly covers the Norwood, Bedford Park, Jerome Park, Riverdale, Fieldston, North Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, parts of Fordham, Belmont, Tremont, Van Nest, Little Yemen and Allerton. We apologize for this error.