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| Top Left: Me at age 10, around the time when Martin Luther King Jr. visited our church to discuss plans for a freedom march; Top Right: me. at age 2 or 3; Bottom: me at less than a year with my sister who is three years older than me |
I have a confession
to make. I’ve always thought I was the reincarnation of Sojourner Truth – I
swear, I really have. I can’t really explain why…. It’s too deep. But this belief has also inflicted on
me an unshakeable yet motivating frustration– I just can’t figure out why I was
born with the fear of “letting go and letting God.”
Sojourner was able
to let go of her fears and let her faith guide her: “The Spirit calls me, and I
must go.” Harriet Tubman let go of her fears, Martin Luther King Jr. certainly did
too– and because they did, the world became a better place. Because of heroes
like them, Obama was free to dream, to hope and to change history.
The power and
conviction behind her words continue to inspire me, shake off my doubts and
give me the courage to “let go and let God.”
Creating the Black
History Flag was my attempt at reminding African Americans and showing our
youth through art expression what happens when you let go of your fears and
stand for something. This is what I mean by “letting go and letting God.”
The Black History
Flag is my best creation as an artist.
Each moment of research for this project felt like a moment with
God. Moments filled with tears,
reverence, and spiritual guidance.
The flag celebrates the lives of civil rights leaders that I honor for
the sacrifices they made to change America for me – a “little dark chocolate
girl” in Birmingham, Alabama – so that I could be free to be who I am in America. In the midst of Black History Month, the flag
serves as a symbol of these leaders’ courage and pride, and as a personal
reminder of the courage it took to overcome my own fears.
Before calling me
Sojourner, call me Betsy Ross. I am back, Black, and Proud to create the first
and only Black History Flag.
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