ATSU Reflects on Black History Month: What is to come is certain to be better
Posted: February 10, 2022
“ATSU Reflects on Black History Month” is a series of personal statements from A.T. Still University faculty, staff, and students. This edition was written by Shawn Polk, MS, residential admissions counselor.
Black History is synonymous with American history. Black History Month is a specific time to focus on African Americans and how their arrival on this land has been vital to the economic founding and the moral future of this country. The sweat and blood equity of enslaved Africans, the determination of Civil Rights leaders, and the forming of our present culture – these are the contributions of Black History in America. Surely, the beginnings of Black History in the Americas were bleak, but what is to come is certain to be better.
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lyrics from “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (Negro National Anthem) – Song by J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson