It’s only been 62 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, ending segregation and, in theory at least, ending discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or nation of origin. No doubt, many of our readers can remember when this happened, and can remember when there were “white schools” and “Black schools,” separate water fountains or entrances to public places. We’ve come a long way, and yet, in so many ways, we haven’t.
We’re just 10 days into Black History Month, and already, we’ve had our president liken former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to apes in an AI-generated video posted on his social media account. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that this was offensive on many levels, not only to our former president and his wife, but to Black people as a whole. Many racists throughout the relatively short history of the United States have likened Black people to apes, and it is no less offensive now than it was in the early days of our nation.
Black people have given so much to this country, and have received so little in return. Instead of celebrating Black excellence, too often other people look down on them, call them names, cross the street to avoid them, inherently refer to predominantly Black neighborhoods as “the rough area of town,” and, as we’ve seen all too often within recent years, get trigger-happy when they see a Black man wearing a hoodie or, in one case, a Black woman holding a pot of water. Too often, the white population assumes that a Black person is out to harm them or take their job or something else that’s altogether unfair and unjust.
Locally, though we don’t believe there’s nearly as much intentional racism, we still have a ways to go in many respects. It’s not lost on most of us that there are no Black mayors, no Black people on the Sampson Community College Board of Trustees, no Black legislators representing Sampson, although at one time we had two — Dr. Larry Bell and Raymond Smith — and in a few cases, no Black town commissioners.
Only recently — when Adrian Mathews was appointed Clinton police chief — has a Black person been tapped to lead a law enforcement agency,
We have plenty of local leaders who are people of color, though — County Commissioners Thaddeus Godwin and Lethia Lee; Dr. Ted Thomas, who served as the chair of the community college board until July of 2025; Clinton City Board of Education Chairwoman Dr. Linda Brunson and Vice Chair Carol Worley; the aforementioned Chief Mathews; Tyler Wise, who’s helped both Clinton and Roseboro through the Main Street program; Nicole Harris, who has brought the Autism Society of North Carolina to the county; Sherri White-Williamson, who was honored last summer for her work with the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN); Larry Sutton, president of the local NAACP branch, and so many more who have helped to make Sampson County a great place to live and work, and, of course, Patty Cherry, a former school board member and long-time well-respected leader throughout the Clinton and Sampson community.
But we could be doing so much more to enrich and celebrate our Black community, and not just during Black History Month.
You see, Black history is American history; it’s world history. And though some politicians seem to want to rewrite history, by removing mentions of slavery and racism from public monuments and parks, it is a part of all of human history, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
If we do not recognize and try our best to right the wrongs of the past, we are doomed to repeat them.