Opinion | In praise of a vital American institution: The Black family reunion
In the middle of this most consequential presidential election, I am setting aside this weekend to engage in a historic ritual: a Black family reunion. It is a tradition that grows out of the post-emancipation era when formerly enslaved men and women sought to be reunited with family members who had been separated from them or sold away by enslavers.
An 1865 Tennessee newspaper ad, courtesy of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, illustrates the quest:
“Saml. Dove wishes to know of the whereabouts of his mother, Areno, his sisters, Maria, Neziah, and Peggy, and his brother Edmond, who were owned by Geo. Dove, of Rockingham county, Shenandoah Valley, Va. Sold in Richmond, after which Saml. and Edmond were taken to Nashville, Tenn., by Joe Mick; Areno was left at the Eagle Tavern, Richmond.
“Respectfully yours, SAML. DOVE. Utica, New York, Aug. 5, 1865.”
The museum explains: “As waves of emancipation swept through the country … many African Americans sought to reunite with lost family members and to define family roles and responsibilities in ways they believed best suited their new circumstances. Their efforts highlighted the importance of family as foundational to their status as free people.”
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Periodically uniting with loved ones, no matter the size of the gathering, has been and continues to be a driving but little-noticed force in strengthening bonds in the Black community.
That explains why more than 100 Stone-Walker family members and friends will gather this weekend in the DMV to celebrate Jannie and Sterling Stone and Lettie and Joe Walker. They are the two Mississippi couples who joined in the 1800s to produce legacies who are coming to town from such locales as Seattle, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles. Others will hail from West Hartford, Conn.; Philadelphia; Brooklyn; the Bronx; South Salem, N.Y.; Clarksdale, Miss.; and Pembroke Pines, Fla., will send families, too. As will Gaithersburg, Alexandria and D.C.
I will be on the scene as husband of Gwen, whose lineage traces through her mother, Henryne Walker Stewart Goode, to Lettie and Joe Walker of the North Mississippi city of Okolona. Missing this year, and subject of a special family tribute, will be Gwen’s cousin Joe Madison, “the Black Eagle” and Radio Hall of Famer, who passed away at 74 in January.
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As with family reunions taking place across the country, ours will be a weekend of storytelling — and stocktaking. We’ll reminisce, chuckle, shout and shed tears. Elders will educate young’uns about stuff they won’t learn at school.
It will be a weekend to reconnect with the broader aspects of life in today’s America. How can we, even during a festive occasion, not talk about issues gripping our daily lives? The deep social, political and cultural strife splintering our country.
The siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and parents gathered under the Stone-Walker umbrella are as occupationally diverse as they are geographically dispersed. In attendance will be communications experts, medical professionals, educators, students, lawyers, trade union representatives, entrepreneurs, politicians, current and former public officials and community workers. So, there will be talk about how things are seen from where they sit.
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Don’t get me wrong. Plenty of time will be devoted to photo-taking and slipping on family T-shirts. We won’t have a parade, but there will be toasts to kinship and recognition that today’s family reflects bonds bound by love, not always blood or gender. That will be reflected in faces on display.
And while I can’t be certain, I’m willing to bet that in the context of important problems confronting the Stone-Walker family, as well as in Black family reunions across the country, the names Joe Biden and Donald Trump will work their way into the conversation.
The presidents — current and former — won’t be the subjects of formal political debates. That’s not what reunions are for. But I suspect kinfolk will talk about them, and that the conversation might drift to what lies ahead for the Stone-Walker dynasty and groupings like their own around the nation.
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Make no mistake, divisive forces that use fear and hate as lightning rods are loose in the land. The odyssey that began in Lettie and Joe Walker and Jannie and Sterling Stone’s Mississippi, when cotton was king and lynch mobs knew it, to where their progeny are now, was and remains an uphill battle.
Painful experience teaches the harsh reality that every generation has to win the same victories all over again. Thus, the importance of this weekend’s gathering.
Family resilience as reflected in the Stone-Walker reunion is key to the struggle.
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