The Washington Informer: Regional

By Joseph Young
WI Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13, 2007

Dr. Dorothy Height, 95, chairwoman and president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW,) continues to work with zeal to strengthen the Black family.

Last weekend, when the NCNW held its 22nd Annual Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Dr. Height gave the keynote address, surrounded by five generations of her family and the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Mary McLeod Bethune, her predecessor at the NCNW.

Although Dr. Height uses a wheelchair to get around and was recently given a pace-maker for her heart, the civil rights activist sounded strong in an interview with the Washington Informer about the history of the Black Family Reunion and the future of the Black family.

JY: How did the Black Family Reunion get started?

DH: Well, it really got started in response to Bill Moyers’ CBS special on “The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America.” Of course, we knew that the Black family was not vanishing nor was it only about teenage pregnancy. And so we decided that we could not protest CBS, but that we would put ourselves in action and stand up for our values and celebrate our own history, and emphasize our own traditions that speak for itself. We said that we need to come together as a family – all of us together, no matter how high or how low – and come together and celebrate. That’s how we got started in 1986.

JY: Did you express your dissatisfaction with Moyers’ documentary directly?

DH: No, we let him know we were doing this. So that he knew that we did not appreciate what he had projected. But, you know, we didn’t spend time on that. We said we have to get ourselves together. Some of what he had to say was very hard to refute. Teenage pregnancy was very high among us, but we would not consider that the whole Black family. Some of the problems that he emphasized we did not deny, but we are more than problems. We are people with problems like everyone else. But we also have great coping skills and show great strengths.

JY: Looking beyond the Moyers documentary…what do you hope to accomplish by hosting this Black Family Reunion Celebration on the National Mall?

DH: See what we’ve already accomplished. I think we bring together people from every economic stratum in our community. There is one thing for all of us to learn: There is no peace on the hill while there’s suffering in the valley. We have to be careful how we all work together. We have seen some progress made on that already. Just on these grounds people of all backgrounds are working together. The people themselves are an illustration of what we are talking about.

JY: What are some of the challenges that the Black family face today?

DH: Well, there are a lot of things that we could deal with if we were in a stronger economic position. But, I think, we also have to acknowledge that we have let down the barriers of some of our values that we have started forgetting to stress, much to the determent of this present generation. And if we are not careful we will lose so much that we have gained in the past.

JY: Speaking of the present generation, what impact does rap music have on the Black family?

DH: The music and the words keep conveying the same negative and destructive attitudes toward women and toward the family. We need to be awakened to it and not be caught up by the rhythm but listen to the words.

JY: Why did you include a rap-a-thon as part this event?

DH: We realized that many of them attract young people and many of them are positive. We want to get young people involved on their own behalf and help them to get their education and help them learn how to work together. If that’s the way to attract them then that’s what we’re doing.

JY: Bill Cosby has been critical of Black youth in particular and the Black family in general. What do you think of his remarks?

DH: I know Bill Cosby very well. And I would have to say to you that the truth hurts. People don’t want to hear the truth. Bill Cosby is not condemning people, but he is saying we cannot forget all of the standards that we have as a people. We cannot let things down so low that our young people have nothing to raise to. As I have traveled around with him, I have been encouraged in communities to see the way in which he has helped people understand the nature of what he is talking about. It’s not against them, it’s for them.

JY: Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz were here on the Mall at the first Black Family Reunion celebration in 1986. Both had lost their husbands to an assassin’s bullet.

DH: They talked about what it means to be a single mother and I think that helps us know that there is no stigma to being a single mother. Where would our nation be if the women who had children did not rear them? We’ve seen ones like Bayard Rustin, and I could name one after the other who were reared by single parents. Just because someone is a single parent doesn’t mean that’s not a family. That family has the same responsibility and should be given the same support as any other family.

JY: What would you say to the Black man about his role as a parent?

DH: I just think that we’re in a place now where more men have to take real responsibility and realize that there is one thing to father children and another to be a real father. This is a great need, and there are many children today who would benefit even if some neighbor took an interest in them because our men have a great job to do…I think that’s one of the things that the Million Man March stressed, the responsibility they have to the family but that responsibly is also to themselves.