Ben Jealous, scholar, journalist, civil rights leader and philanthropist, currently serves as the executive director of the Sierra Club. He was formerly President and CEO of People For the American Way, President and CEO of the NAACP, Director of the Human Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, and Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. In his new book, “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing,” Jealous draws on life lessons, his family, and his work as he makes a passionate plea to restore humanity and end racism.
Jealous was inspired to write his book because of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “The book is an urgent argument for why all should have hope we can pull this country together and move forward in greater unity.” In his book, Jealous writes about tracing his family history and how learning the results of learning his history shaped his life’s mission.
“The ultimate antidote for the insanity that is racism is to deepen our knowledge of self and understand our national and ethnic origins,” -Ben Jealous
Descended from Both Sides of History
“The most radical thing any of us can do is to actually recreate our memory of where we're from. DNA research makes it much easier than it's ever been. We looked the way we did for two reasons. One, DNA shows that I descended from Thomas Jefferson's grandmother. Our family lineage was filled with rape. After two years, researchers at Harvard University concluded that our DNA was not of Native American origin but that we descend from Afro Polynesian founders of Madagascar, specifically an afro Polynesian woman who had been a pirate when she was captured and, sold into slavery.”
In his DNA research, Jealous learned he was distantly related to Dick Chaney and Robert E. Lee. Learning he came from an ancestry on both sides of history, Jealous says it gave him insight into his family. “my grandmother's grandfather was able to emerge from slavery and have the confidence to become the leader of the Republican Party in his state and the vision to reach out to a former Confederate General William B Mahone. And and ask him to join together and fighting to preserve Virginia's free public schools and expand and build new institutions of public higher education, and ultimately, work together to abolish the public whipping post. was abolished the poll tax. I'd always wondered w my grandmother's why my grandfather would have so much hubris such a young age when he was only free for half of his 35 years. And then I realized, well, he understood that the blood that flowed through him the same blood that flowed through General Lee, why shouldn't he take his place amongst the leaders of the state?”
As Jealous shares, his book’s title was inspired by a truth instilled by his maternal grandmother, Mamie Todd Bland, the family griot, who recently died at the age of 105.
Her belief in the inherent freedom and value of every human being was instilled by her maternal grandfather, Edward David Bland. An African American child enslaved by his White uncle, Edward Bland was a free man at the end of the Civil War and became an itinerant preacher of freedom—economic and political. He went on to help lead a movement that culminated in the creation of Virginia State University and secured the future of free public education for every child in the state, as well as serve in the state legislature.
“It’s true we all get scared. It’s also true that almost all of us ultimately want the same things: a better life for our children, a country where we can speak and worship freely (or not worship if that’s our choice), safe communities, good schools—a nation worthy of its promise of liberty and justice for all. Our ancestors may have arrived on ships or by plane, on foot, or in another way defined by the traditions of a particular Native American tribe. Regardless, if there is one thing we have in common, it’s that we are all in the same boat now. And for most of us, it’s the only boat we will ever have.”-Excerpt from “Our People Were Always Free”
THE THREE BIG LIES ABOUT RACISM
Throughout his book, Jealous tackles racial profiling, the connection between suicide and social isolation, race, racism, and the toll of mass incarceration on the country. Most prominently however, Jealous says there are three big lies about race and racism that people need to know.
Lie #1: It has always been this way. “To end racism, we must agree there is nothing permanent about it,” Jealous stresses. As he shows, the meaning of race has evolved from its roots as a synonym for tribe or nation to a label used to separate people into a caste system, with a chosen “superhuman” group at the top. Comparing politics to physics, where something in motion returns to its original state, he has hope that America will return to a state where we recognize and celebrate our diversity. “Before there were slave rebellions. There were colonial rebellions. Those rebellions were European indentured servants and African slaves rebelling together. The fact that we existed together suggests that we can exist beyond anything that we have done.”
Lie #2: Only White people have paid the price for desegregation. While, as Jealous acknowledges, it is true that some White men lost jobs when people of color was no longer barred from consideration; it is also true that Black Americans lost thousands of businesses—as well as safe places to raise them children—when the walls of segregation fell. “When desegregation ended, change became hard for everyone. That's not a reason to fear it. Dr. King was right to be impatient. But it's easier for all of us to adjust to change when we understand that everybody's paying a price.”
Lie #3: Racism only hurts Black people and people of color. Racism has created a national delusion that poverty, gun violence and drug addiction are exclusively Black problems—despite staggering facts to the contrary. “The hidden victim of American racism is that it makes White suffering invisible,” says Jealous. “The value of racism, in the context of colonialism, was to divide the masses at the bottom of the economy in order to preserve the opportunity for a few people at the top of the economy, kings and those who would be king and maintain massive wealth.”
EVERY DAY PEOPLE CAN DO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
Jealous believes that anyone can make a difference in their own communities. Using Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s, excerpt from “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” Jealous says there is a message in achieving common ground with our neighbors. “The way we leap forward as a community is to work with our neighbors to help them see we have more in common.” Jealous says it begins with “courageous conversations and “courageous listening.”
In spite of the divisive climate America is in, Jealous says unity is possible. “I believe that it is always darkest before the dawn. We are living through the darkest before the dawn and we have to keep the faith that Dawn will come in the morning. Just like we did before. We ended slavery and segregation. In this century we will elevate the state of America just as we did in the last two centuries. Ultimately, there's every reason to have hope that we will win in the end. My hope is that everybody will walk away from reading the book with a greater sense of hope that we will pull our country together and a greater sense of power and how they can help do that in their own lives.”
“Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing” is available online and wherever books are sold.
Danielle Sanders is a multimedia professional with over 20 years of experience as a writer, journalist, and editor. Danielle frequently covers politics, local news, and entertainment.