Maryland Independent - Clyburn Inspires Crowd at Black History Month Breakfast

News Article

By Rebecca J. Barnabi

Charles and Prince George's counties officials and community members came together Saturday morning to celebrate Black History Month.

The 34th annual Black History Month breakfast was held at the Jaycees center in Waldorf and attended by approximately 475 officials and community members.

U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) introduced keynote speaker House Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), and told of meeting a young man when he started as a member of the Young Democrats of America.

"He was on fire for justice and equality," and fairness, Hoyer said. So much so that the young man went to jail.

That young man was Clyburn.

"So Jim has seen defeat, rejection, segregation, racism, hate," Hoyer said, but the challenges did not sour him. They made him more convicted of his role, and Hoyer said he is honored to be Clyburn's friend. Hoyer said he and Clyburn have a lot in common: they both have three daughters and both married in June 1961.

Clyburn said he started his career as a public school history teacher, and Black History Month began as Negro History Week, the second week in February. Clyburn said if he and Hoyer had their way, Black History Month would have a year-long presence.

In one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s books, Clyburn said the late civil rights leader asked, "Where do we go from here? Will the U.S. have a future of chaos or be a beloved community?"

Clyburn, the son of a preacher, said that in Matthew 25:14-30 is "an interesting story." In the parable of the bags of gold, Clyburn said a man with great wealth called three of his servants before he set out on a trip. He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags and the third servant one bag.

When the man returned, he called the three servants before him, Clyburn continued. The first servant had invested his five bags of gold and now had 10, and the second servant invested his two bags and now had four. The third servant had buried his one bag of gold.

"Now, I think Black History Month is a good time to tell that story," Clyburn said, who compared the bags of gold to talents a person might choose to share or not share with others.

He said whether the U.S. has a future of chaos or community depends on what every person in the room does with the talents they were given.

"Black History Month will have little meaning if we don't invest our talents," Clyburn said. He warned against being slothful with what God has given each of us, and said, "All of my experiences have not been pleasant, but all of my experiences have been blessings."

Clyburn gave an example of his blessings by telling the story of how he met his wife, Emily. While in jail as a student leader of civil rights, Emily came to feed him and his fellow inmates. She shared a hamburger with him. The couple married a little more than a year later.

Clyburn said that 53 years later, he still spends every Christmas with the people he shared a jail cell with during the civil rights movement in South Carolina.

The last time he was arrested, in 1961, Clyburn said he learned everyone has a role to play and not everyone can lead the choir, but if everyone does his job well, then they will not have a future of chaos. He encouraged everyone to invest their talents, not bury them.

"We're challenged today. We're challenged in a way we haven't been in 50 years," Clyburn said. He repeated the words of King: some can vote, some can serve, and that anybody can be great because everybody can serve. "If we all do our jobs well, we can have the kind of community MLK's dream was about."

Janice Wilson, president of the Charles County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she has attended the breakfast for about 10 years, but the breakfast is unlike other events because it attracts people she does not typically see at similar public events and it provides "a sense of community."

"I love this and the MLK [prayer breakfast organized by the Charles County chapter of the NAACP] because they bring people together," Wilson said.

Wilson said the Black History Month breakfast is one of few events where Black History Month is actually discussed, and she always learns something new each year. That sort of education and community chips "away at those things that divide us."

Past speakers at the Black History Month breakfast have included U.S. Rep. John Lewis, former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, Donna Brazile, Eric Holder and then-Sen. Barack Obama.

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