Despite persistent racism, there are now 65,000 Black lawyers (American Bars Association) and 85,000 Black engineers (National Society of Black Engineers. Thirty-nine percent of African Americans hold higher education degrees (Equity in Higher Education). Fourteen percent hold master’s degrees (National Center for Education Statistics).
My father, James Parks Sr., earned his master’s degree in chemistry in the 1940’s, when only 4.6 of Americans had any higher education at all. Soon after, like many men of his generation, he spent time in the military, on a Navy ship in the Pacific. He was the only Black man on the ship. He noted the ship was launched to the tune of “Bye Bye Blackbird” but he didn’t think they meant him. If anything, the Navy wanted him to be less significant. There was only one other man on the ship with a Master’s Degree, the captain, whose degree was in English. (There’s lots of good that comes from an English degree but maybe less so on a ship.) Instead, the Navy taught my father to cook—he didn’t know how. He became the ship’s cook, a stereotypical job and a waste of scientific talent. My father was bold enough to ask why and he was told that his degree got him the honor of being in the Navy at all. Afterwards he became a Math and Chemistry High School teacher. My mother, Helen Mashburn Parks, also attended graduate school but stopped, as women did at the time, to birth and raise 3 children. They were both schoolteachers. My mother said that no matter what, they could never take your education from you.
Their son would be the first Black man to attend Davidson College on an academic scholarship. His other daughter would be admitted in the first group of 300 Black students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Now, between their children, grandchildren and their partners, there are 6 BA degrees, 4 master’s and 2 Ph.D.’s. There are those who want to go back to a time when control of minorities and women was surer. But it is too late now, too many of us have achieved too much—too many degrees, too many business starts (Black women start more businesses than any other demographic), too many inventions and innovations to turn back now. As of 2023 there were 2 million Black millionaires.
In the 1940’s almost every White person had power over almost every Black person. Other racial minorities were grandfathered in and often treated similarly. It was assumed that women were to be subordinate to men. Gay people were all but invisible. Even through hard times, those old days are gone.
Because now, no matter what happens, we’ve come too far and gained too much to be turned back. There’s an old gospel song by Richard Smallwood, “I’ve come too far to turn back now.” You can hear it and read the lyrics here.
Check out my new BlueSky thread where I am inviting members and allies of disinvested groups to generate a drumbeat of the accomplishments of their group members, to remember what we have accomplished, to recognize that we are all amazing. Join me with #Come too far to turn back now. I added #Black Achievement. Add your group’s hashtag too!
Sources:
American Bar Association
Equity in Higher Education
National Center for Education Statistics
National Society of Black Engineers
