www.sharingcommonground.com<\/a><\/p>\nQ: In light of this week with both MLK Day and Inaugural\u00a0Week — what would you hope will get spotlighted this week?<\/p>\n
BK: When I\u2019ve spoken at annual MLK local ceremonies over the years, my central message was that MLK was talking about an ongoing way of life. His vision was that each of us would look into the mirror every day and recommit to living the dream. That as a nation, we\u2019d become increasingly engaged in the fight for justice, freedom and equality in a peaceful, patient way. I tell audiences that Dr. King\u2019s hard-earned, deserved and generally accepted Birthday commemoration would be a day to recharge our batteries. Not just a day to put on Sunday clothes and spend a few hours reminiscing about his valiant contributions and then forget about them.<\/p>\n
As to the inauguration, I am seriously frightened. I just previewed an almost completed short video about the destruction in 1921 of Black Wall Street in Tulsa. It had been one of jewels of accomplishment by formerly enslaved people.<\/p>\n
I saw that what had been essentially a trumped up case \u2014 a false claim that was denied by the supposed \u201cvictim\u201d of assault. She was a young, white female elevator operator who was purportedly sexually accursed by a black shoe shiner. Both denied the event but it took on a life of its own and led to the destruction of black success. I was also stunned that in 1921, a group of angry white men attacked the community in small airplanes circling the area. They dropped homemade bombs while hanging out of the airplane windows shooting people below.<\/p>\n
That was in 1921, not 2021 where we have much more sophisticated electronic tracing technologies and communications capabilities. Now we have social media, and more modern weapons of destruction as we saw employed at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.<\/p>\n
Q: What is your overall goal in publishing this book?<\/p>\n
BK: The absolute ultimate goal is to expand history education, integrating everyone\u2019s sto![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/517ZSFVAW5L-196x300.jpg\")
ry into a single, shared American history instead of separate \u201chistories\u201d for different races and cultures.<\/p>\n
The working goal is to engage students in learning to become reporters to go out and find \u201cnew\u201d stories about their own families and locations. Then to bring those stories into their communities and translate the lessons they bring to that others understand them. We need an educational vernacular that teaches students the truth and builds their confidence in what they learn.<\/p>\n
They will then be equipped to challenge three previous generations of teaching incomplete history in their schools, their homes and among their peers. \u2028\u2028Let\u2019s just say, we are planting the seeds of change for the next generation to sow in order to fulfill the promises of freedom, justice and equality on which our nation was founded, all while restoring civility among us.\u2028\u2028Q: What have been people\u2019s reactions thus far?<\/p>\n
BK: To my delight and surprise, the reaction of everyone I\u2019ve engaged \u2013 including United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Sons of the Colored Troop of the Union Army, teachers (with varying levels of interest) and administrators \u2013 has been nothing short of encouraging.<\/p>\n
Then again, we\u2019re mostly talking at this point about the process, itself … not yet the good, the bad and the ugly which some are likely to embrace while others keep denying it, as they have for years.<\/p>\n
The key to getting this kind of support is to remind people that we cannot erase history, but rather add and fill in the gaps. The anticipated challenge from the United Daughters and Sons of Confederates has yet to brew. I have not asked to remove their history but rather to tell the rest of the story that bring in different perspectives and lead to some disagreement. My response is that diversity often involves disagreement, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we become enemies simply because we disagree. I\u2019m confident that if we sit together and talk, we can find common ground. And that is where healing must begin.<\/p>\n
If it were not for COVID-19, and if we had a little money to invest in this cause \u2014 money we won\u2019t obtain until we have more initiatives in the works \u2014 we\u2019d already be working actively in classrooms in Beaufort and surrounding counties. We\u2019d already start to implement pilots, testing and perfecting the educational model before we export to other communities.<\/p>\n
While other black people in the community are saying, \u201cAmen, let\u2019s do it,\u201d I find black teenagers skeptical. Some may not yet be so ready to engage but are not blowing back by saying that I am wrong. My hunch is that they\u2019re waiting to see what happens but some black people are ready right now to jump in if they can.<\/p>\n
At our public hearing during the process of advocating for the Reconstruction monument, we found that our participants were as white as they were black. Many of those who spoke, regardless of skin color, spoke forcefully about the need to find and share the truth.<\/p>\n
Q: The book tells your story but it\u2019s motivated by facts about Reconstruction. How do you intend to institutionalize it?<\/p>\n
BK: To achieve through Congressional action a National Park and Network. We\u2019ve engaged hundreds of scholars, public officials, faith leaders, community activists and passionate people. The point is now to complete the campaign to further promote learning of the untold stories while correcting those that have often been mis-told.<\/p>\n
Because I see a national park as the beginning \u2014 let\u2019s say the green starting flag, not the end of the race. As the on-the-ground advocacy organizer, I\u2019ve assembled many I\u2019ve met along the journey to stay with us. We created a non-profit organization called \u201cSecond Founding of America: Reconstruction Beaufort.\u201d We might still remove \u201cBeaufort\u201d so we don\u2019t send signals that Reconstruction only happened here in my town. Indeed, we see this as a national movement. We currently have a stellar national advisory board with about 25 collaborating organizations in the advisory capacity. We are currently engaging some of them in strategic planning and will establish a formal board of directors once we know our needs.<\/p>\n
Q: What else do you have say about your quest to enlighten people about the correct history of the reconstruction?<\/p>\n
BK: I\u2019m working to further sharpen my understanding of the audiences we want to reach. I hope to use impactful quotes when I speak to each particular audience, using their language and addressing their concerns. The goal is always to effectively motivate every audience to jump into the book, understand their own moral compasses and align with our mission.<\/p>\n
We hope they\u2019ll then actively share stories, helping us identify sites of importance to the overall initiative. We want teachers to get engaged and, of course, we need financial resources to get these really great plans off the ground. \u2028\u2028I am hoping that our promotional launch of having Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill will begin our more aggressive branding to create and share common ground based on the truth of our American history. If we can achieve the impact we\u2019re after, we\u2019ll have clear-cut success while gaining an enlarged database of interested parties.<\/p>\n
Q: What was the toughest part of making this version of a book rather than it being a full-scale auto-biography?<\/p>\n
BK: The original idea for the book was to be about leadership. I unloaded many, many stories but was never really able to extract lessons for others because there were just too many. There was no coherent story line. The anecdotes and memories were interesting, but more for family and friends than for the general public.<\/p>\n
Once I figured out the story I wanted to tell, with the help of an author\/editor from Boston who I was directed to, I realized the enormity of making a broad and lengthy range of stories come together to a central point. That is where Mike Greenly was so important. From an objective distance, he was able to take the storyline I\u2019d given him and select only material that was relevant to convey a clear point of view. He was able to compress my meandering storytelling into concise sentences and organized chapters.<\/p>\n
Q: I understand that the book\u2019s title, Sharing Common Ground<\/em>, was inspired by \u201cCommon Ground\u201d, a song by Greenly and Gil Polk. You\u2019re developing a choral version of it.<\/p>\nBK: Mike and Gil\u2019s song certainly inspired the title. When I saw the video on YouTube, the message of those words jumped out at me. They graciously agreed to let me use the song and the \u201cCommon Ground\u201d title as part of my initiative.\u2028\u2028While I do like the song, I felt it was a little vanilla for the students and blacks we hope to engage. Gil is now rearranging the music into a choral format for students to perform at their schools and elsewhere in their communities.<\/p>\n
Once the revised version is completed, we will use the song in our branding. If I get to achieve my intention, we\u2019ll even be producing \u201cSharing Common Ground\u201d for TV. The song, itself, might become the music for opening titles and closing credits. We would also integrate it into our Reconstruction Youth Chorale performances.<\/p>\n
Q: Given your red hair, have even been confused for being Irish?<\/p>\n
BK: \u201cRed on the head like a dick on a dog\u201d was an expression some of the Beaufort High School football team called me but they also called me Rabbi and my dad who did the physicals \u201cDr. K. \u2014 the pecker checker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quite frankly, I really never thought about it because the tone never felt mean spirited or hurtful. Always people noticed and talked about my red hair, and I was proud of it. I actually liked being a red head and I always ask red heads if they like it. Mostly, they too seem to like and be proud of it. Yes, they wondered if I was Irish. How I could be Jewish? I told them there were, in fact, Irish Jews.<\/p>\n
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