[Music]
good afternoon I am the head grill for
America’s black Holocaust Museum it’s a
museum dedicated to telling those untold
stories of the injustice has suffered by
black people since their arrival in
America in 1619 one of the questions I
get all the time is what is a grill
grill is a term used in the
french-speaking part of West Africa to
describe those oral historians the
people who are the keepers of the
history it’s their job to let the people
of that community know who they are by
sharing with them the stories of where
they come from on my left you see a
picture of my friend and mentor dr.
James Cameron the founder of America’s
black Holocaust Museum giving a tour to
a group of young people in the museum
you also see to my right a photograph of
me inside the museum in the early 2000s
giving a tour to a group of young people
as well we are storytellers greedo’s
tell stories in a variety of ways about
a variety of topics some of those topics
are very happy stories to tell these are
the stories of the triumphs of our
people but we also required to be honest
by also telling some of those ugly those
disappointing stories of the tragedies
that they’ve suffered as well
it’s always important to understand that
the stories of the triumphs and the
tragedies combined together give you a
deeper understanding of the legacy of
the people so what I like to do today is
to share with you a story and this is a
story of what I’ve learned from a
lynching survivor about anger on the
photograph behind me you see dr. James
Cameron a lynching survivor inside of
America’s black Holocaust in the early
1990s right around the time it
first met Mr Cameron you’ll see
photographs behind him that are photos
of lynchings of blacks that occurred
around the United States of America
you’ll see in his left hand that he’s
holding a book that’s a book that he
wrote as a teenager
it’s his memoirs a time of terror a
survivor story he recounts in that book
the lynching that he survived as the
sixteen-year-old in Marion Indiana in
his right hand you see him holding a
photograph that photograph is the most
famous lynching photographed in American
history many people have seen it but
very few people know that they were
supposed to be three been hanging from
that tree very few people know that
James Cameron survived that lynching on
August 7th 1930 when we had visitors
come to the museum and they would go
through our lynching exhibit and they
would look at this photograph I began to
notice right away that there was a
difference between the way young people
and adults looked at this picture adults
typically looked at the picture for a
very brief period of time they diverted
their eyes downward and they usually
walked off to another part of the museum
children were different they would look
at this photograph in great detail
analyzing every aspect of it asking very
probing questions about it and pointing
out things that adults would never
notice in the photograph and they would
point these things out to the grilles at
the Museum for instance they would note
that there were two women who were
pregnant in this photograph they would
also notice that there’s a woman in the
center of the photograph who’s wearing a
fur coat August 7 1930 the temperature
in Marion was 99 degrees the hottest day
of the year and invariably
they would always notice the man in the
center of the photograph who’s pointing
and they would say that he looks like
Adolf Hitler behind this crowd you see
18 year old Abram Smith and 19 year old
Thomas ship
these two young men were alerted by a
mob of 10 to 15,000 angry white men
women and children and as I began to
look at this photograph I began to ask
not what’s there but what’s missing from
the photograph the incident that
precipitated this lynching the murder of
a 23 year old white man by the name of
Claude dieter by a band Tommy was an
incident that had a component of anger
attached to it the lynching itself
obviously had a component of anger
attached to it as well but what I began
to notice by looking in the faces of the
people you don’t see any anger in fact
you see the opposite you sees people who
are smiling people who are happy people
who have enjoyed themselves that day –
the bodies of these two young men behind
them you’ll be hard-pressed to know that
they had just murdered these two young
men and attempted to murder a third so I
began to ask about that anger where did
it go what happened to the anger that
was so present just a few hours before
this photograph was taken and I came up
with this idea that it was expended the
anger was used up it had dissipated they
had gotten it out of their system they
were no longer angry they were now
elated they were happy they were
overjoyed they were celebrating but
there was someone there who could not
celebrate there was another person there
on that day who obviously was still very
angry James Cameron he was nearly killed
by the same mob that killed his two
friends so he had anger inside of him
and this anger stay with him for an
extended period of time but it got to a
point where he realized that this anger
was consuming every fiber of his mind
and his body and his soul and it was
killing him on the inside and he
realized that he had to find a way to
get rid of this hatred in this
anger and he used what I call righteous
anger a positively directed anger to get
rid of that he went through a process to
get to this place that I call righteous
anger it was a process that was in some
ways very difficult but in other ways
very joyful for him he went from that
place being the victim of a lynching by
the Ku Klux Klan in Marion Indiana to
being a person who fought against the Ku
Klux Klan by marching in Beloit
Wisconsin years later so how did he get
from that place to this place it’s a
very interesting journey and mr. Cameron
went on there were three aspects of this
journey that helped him to get to this
place that I’ll call righteous anger the
first step in the journey was his
unwavering faith in God he believed that
God saved his life on that day he would
always say that God sent an angel down
to that crowd and it spoke to that crowd
and said leave this young man alone he
had nothing to do with these crimes and
miraculously they let him go people
would always challenge mr. chairman and
say that but we didn’t hear a voice
that’s not what happened God didn’t save
you and he would always answer in the
same way he said for those of us who
believe in God no explanation is
necessary for those of us who don’t
believe in God no explanation is
possible the second aspect of his
transformation to get to righteous anger
were beautiful flowers one day
while waiting in his jail cell wedding
as an accessory before the act of murder
he looked out of a window and he saw
these flowers and there were beautiful
flowers he had seen them before but on
that particular day those flowers did
something for him that they had never
done before they raised his sense of
self-esteem and actually made him feel
joy
the first time since he had been locked
up and for the first time since he was
nearly killed by that mob something
about those flowers on that particular
day brought a smile to his face
and made him feel good on the inside for
the first time in a very long time and
the third aspect of this journey for mr.
Cameron was tricycles
yes tricycles let me explain while he
was awaiting trial he was in jail and he
was befriended by the sheriff who
protected him who treated him like a son
who protected him from another possible
lynching that was planned
sheriff Bradley became his friend and
began to treat this young man James
Cameron like a son they developed a bond
and it eventually became a bond that
turned into love share Bradley would
allow young Cameron to leave the jail to
run errands for him and eventually he
developed a relationship with share of
Bradley’s family he began to assist
sheriff Bradley and his wife raising
their three beautiful children he would
go to their home and he would be allowed
to play with them he taught them to
write their tricycles he would put them
on there on his back and give them
horsey back ride he developed a love for
Bradley’s family he developed a love for
the sheriff and his wife and these three
children and he began to recognize that
all that hatred and anger he had towards
white people because no other way people
had treated him well before this family
did after the lynching he realized that
this hatred that it was directed towards
all whites was misplaced how could I
possibly hate all white people when
these children these beautiful children
have been so good to me
when this man and his wife have allowed
me to play with their children and to
join their family how can I possibly
have that same level of hatred and he
began to realize that it was misplaced
and he had to replace it so he replaced
it with righteous anger
a positively directed anger we’ve all
heard this saying before right
I remember hearing it as a child sticks
and stones and as a young child I
believed it wholeheartedly I believed it
but at some point in my life I began to
think of this saying in a different way
I began to look at it and I’m beginning
to say it’s not true in fact it’s a lie
let me explain to you why I believe it’s
a lie
when we suffer a physical injury of any
kind there’s a mechanism within our body
that goes to work immediately beginning
to heal that hurt and making us feel
better
immediately we don’t have to do anything
to make it happen it just happens but
when we suffer emotional pain there’s no
such mechanism there for us that pain
can last for days weeks months years
decades so I want to tell you a story of
what challenged me to get to this place
of righteous anger I worked as an
electrician years ago at a company and
the company was doing poorly financially
morale was very low the president of the
company invited our department to come
in and meet with him so that he could
tell us about his ideas for raising
morale we came into the meeting he
discussed these four or five different
ways that he thought would be very good
for raising morale he asked us for
honest feedback I raised my hand after
he was done and I simply said I don’t
think those things are gonna work he
became beet-red
very angry and he looked at me and he
said well that’s how it’s going to be
boy I was absolutely shocked the room
became completely silent and I paused
for a moment and I said what did you say
and he repeated it again even more
angrily well that’s how it’s going to be
boy and my meat
reaction was to rise up out of my seat
with intentions on inflicting physical
pain on this man that would match the
emotional pain that I was feeling at
that particular moment fortunately there
was a co-worker between the two of us
that stopped me from putting hands on
this man I was very angry I was very
frustrated because I had no way of
getting rid of this anger so I left work
early I went directly to my wife’s job
where the intentions are telling my wife
exactly what happened getting this
burden off my chest
and when I got there and she came to the
car I intended to tell her exactly what
happened but when she got in the car and
I tried to tell her what happened I
couldn’t say a word I couldn’t speak I
was so overcome with emotion that I
could not do anything other than begin
to cry and I cried like I never cried
before in my entire life and those
emotions stay with me for weeks
afterwards I didn’t know what to do with
them I asked people for advice and all
of these people gave me great advice but
none of that advice worked none of it
and I began to recognize something that
anger is a normal part of our lives
we’ve all been angry before and I
recognize that my work at the museum as
a grill was to talk about things that
should make me angry all the time but
somehow it didn’t and that’s when I
began to realize I met that place of
righteous anger so what I began to do is
to utilize the stories that I would tell
of my ancestors to take me to this place
of righteous anger righteous anger
allowed me to use this tool as a grill
to get to a place where I would use
these negative emotions in a positive
way but never forget though that I still
get angry I get angry when I think of
Emmett Till when I see the pictures of
Trayvon Martin when I think of Tamir
rice being shot and killed when I see
the viral video of Eric garner being
choked to death when I see four lando
cats still being shot while this
three-year-old daughter sits in the
backseat of that car I get very
and what I do is I channel that anger in
a positive way I use it to tell their
stories because they can’t tell those
stories themselves any longer so what I
challenge each of you to do today is to
take a journey similar to the journey
that I took to get to this place of
righteous anger I’d like to invite all
of you to join this exclusive family of
grills by becoming your family grill
learning the stories of your family
learning the stories of your community
and utilizing those stories to take you
to this wonderful place that I love
being in call righteous anger thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon I am the head grill for
America’s black Holocaust Museum it’s a
museum dedicated to telling those untold
stories of the injustice has suffered by
black people since their arrival in
America in 1619 one of the questions I
get all the time is what is a grill
grill is a term used in the
french-speaking part of West Africa to
describe those oral historians the
people who are the keepers of the
history it’s their job to let the people
of that community know who they are by
sharing with them the stories of where
they come from on my left you see a
picture of my friend and mentor dr.
James Cameron the founder of America’s
black Holocaust Museum giving a tour to
a group of young people in the museum
you also see to my right a photograph of
me inside the museum in the early 2000s
giving a tour to a group of young people
as well we are storytellers greedo’s
tell stories in a variety of ways about
a variety of topics some of those topics
are very happy stories to tell these are
the stories of the triumphs of our
people but we also required to be honest
by also telling some of those ugly those
disappointing stories of the tragedies
that they’ve suffered as well
it’s always important to understand that
the stories of the triumphs and the
tragedies combined together give you a
deeper understanding of the legacy of
the people so what I like to do today is
to share with you a story and this is a
story of what I’ve learned from a
lynching survivor about anger on the
photograph behind me you see dr. James
Cameron a lynching survivor inside of
America’s black Holocaust in the early
1990s right around the time it
first met Mr Cameron you’ll see
photographs behind him that are photos
of lynchings of blacks that occurred
around the United States of America
you’ll see in his left hand that he’s
holding a book that’s a book that he
wrote as a teenager
it’s his memoirs a time of terror a
survivor story he recounts in that book
the lynching that he survived as the
sixteen-year-old in Marion Indiana in
his right hand you see him holding a
photograph that photograph is the most
famous lynching photographed in American
history many people have seen it but
very few people know that they were
supposed to be three been hanging from
that tree very few people know that
James Cameron survived that lynching on
August 7th 1930 when we had visitors
come to the museum and they would go
through our lynching exhibit and they
would look at this photograph I began to
notice right away that there was a
difference between the way young people
and adults looked at this picture adults
typically looked at the picture for a
very brief period of time they diverted
their eyes downward and they usually
walked off to another part of the museum
children were different they would look
at this photograph in great detail
analyzing every aspect of it asking very
probing questions about it and pointing
out things that adults would never
notice in the photograph and they would
point these things out to the grilles at
the Museum for instance they would note
that there were two women who were
pregnant in this photograph they would
also notice that there’s a woman in the
center of the photograph who’s wearing a
fur coat August 7 1930 the temperature
in Marion was 99 degrees the hottest day
of the year and invariably
they would always notice the man in the
center of the photograph who’s pointing
and they would say that he looks like
Adolf Hitler behind this crowd you see
18 year old Abram Smith and 19 year old
Thomas ship
these two young men were alerted by a
mob of 10 to 15,000 angry white men
women and children and as I began to
look at this photograph I began to ask
not what’s there but what’s missing from
the photograph the incident that
precipitated this lynching the murder of
a 23 year old white man by the name of
Claude dieter by a band Tommy was an
incident that had a component of anger
attached to it the lynching itself
obviously had a component of anger
attached to it as well but what I began
to notice by looking in the faces of the
people you don’t see any anger in fact
you see the opposite you sees people who
are smiling people who are happy people
who have enjoyed themselves that day –
the bodies of these two young men behind
them you’ll be hard-pressed to know that
they had just murdered these two young
men and attempted to murder a third so I
began to ask about that anger where did
it go what happened to the anger that
was so present just a few hours before
this photograph was taken and I came up
with this idea that it was expended the
anger was used up it had dissipated they
had gotten it out of their system they
were no longer angry they were now
elated they were happy they were
overjoyed they were celebrating but
there was someone there who could not
celebrate there was another person there
on that day who obviously was still very
angry James Cameron he was nearly killed
by the same mob that killed his two
friends so he had anger inside of him
and this anger stay with him for an
extended period of time but it got to a
point where he realized that this anger
was consuming every fiber of his mind
and his body and his soul and it was
killing him on the inside and he
realized that he had to find a way to
get rid of this hatred in this
anger and he used what I call righteous
anger a positively directed anger to get
rid of that he went through a process to
get to this place that I call righteous
anger it was a process that was in some
ways very difficult but in other ways
very joyful for him he went from that
place being the victim of a lynching by
the Ku Klux Klan in Marion Indiana to
being a person who fought against the Ku
Klux Klan by marching in Beloit
Wisconsin years later so how did he get
from that place to this place it’s a
very interesting journey and mr. Cameron
went on there were three aspects of this
journey that helped him to get to this
place that I’ll call righteous anger the
first step in the journey was his
unwavering faith in God he believed that
God saved his life on that day he would
always say that God sent an angel down
to that crowd and it spoke to that crowd
and said leave this young man alone he
had nothing to do with these crimes and
miraculously they let him go people
would always challenge mr. chairman and
say that but we didn’t hear a voice
that’s not what happened God didn’t save
you and he would always answer in the
same way he said for those of us who
believe in God no explanation is
necessary for those of us who don’t
believe in God no explanation is
possible the second aspect of his
transformation to get to righteous anger
were beautiful flowers one day
while waiting in his jail cell wedding
as an accessory before the act of murder
he looked out of a window and he saw
these flowers and there were beautiful
flowers he had seen them before but on
that particular day those flowers did
something for him that they had never
done before they raised his sense of
self-esteem and actually made him feel
joy
the first time since he had been locked
up and for the first time since he was
nearly killed by that mob something
about those flowers on that particular
day brought a smile to his face
and made him feel good on the inside for
the first time in a very long time and
the third aspect of this journey for mr.
Cameron was tricycles
yes tricycles let me explain while he
was awaiting trial he was in jail and he
was befriended by the sheriff who
protected him who treated him like a son
who protected him from another possible
lynching that was planned
sheriff Bradley became his friend and
began to treat this young man James
Cameron like a son they developed a bond
and it eventually became a bond that
turned into love share Bradley would
allow young Cameron to leave the jail to
run errands for him and eventually he
developed a relationship with share of
Bradley’s family he began to assist
sheriff Bradley and his wife raising
their three beautiful children he would
go to their home and he would be allowed
to play with them he taught them to
write their tricycles he would put them
on there on his back and give them
horsey back ride he developed a love for
Bradley’s family he developed a love for
the sheriff and his wife and these three
children and he began to recognize that
all that hatred and anger he had towards
white people because no other way people
had treated him well before this family
did after the lynching he realized that
this hatred that it was directed towards
all whites was misplaced how could I
possibly hate all white people when
these children these beautiful children
have been so good to me
when this man and his wife have allowed
me to play with their children and to
join their family how can I possibly
have that same level of hatred and he
began to realize that it was misplaced
and he had to replace it so he replaced
it with righteous anger
a positively directed anger we’ve all
heard this saying before right
I remember hearing it as a child sticks
and stones and as a young child I
believed it wholeheartedly I believed it
but at some point in my life I began to
think of this saying in a different way
I began to look at it and I’m beginning
to say it’s not true in fact it’s a lie
let me explain to you why I believe it’s
a lie
when we suffer a physical injury of any
kind there’s a mechanism within our body
that goes to work immediately beginning
to heal that hurt and making us feel
better
immediately we don’t have to do anything
to make it happen it just happens but
when we suffer emotional pain there’s no
such mechanism there for us that pain
can last for days weeks months years
decades so I want to tell you a story of
what challenged me to get to this place
of righteous anger I worked as an
electrician years ago at a company and
the company was doing poorly financially
morale was very low the president of the
company invited our department to come
in and meet with him so that he could
tell us about his ideas for raising
morale we came into the meeting he
discussed these four or five different
ways that he thought would be very good
for raising morale he asked us for
honest feedback I raised my hand after
he was done and I simply said I don’t
think those things are gonna work he
became beet-red
very angry and he looked at me and he
said well that’s how it’s going to be
boy I was absolutely shocked the room
became completely silent and I paused
for a moment and I said what did you say
and he repeated it again even more
angrily well that’s how it’s going to be
boy and my meat
reaction was to rise up out of my seat
with intentions on inflicting physical
pain on this man that would match the
emotional pain that I was feeling at
that particular moment fortunately there
was a co-worker between the two of us
that stopped me from putting hands on
this man I was very angry I was very
frustrated because I had no way of
getting rid of this anger so I left work
early I went directly to my wife’s job
where the intentions are telling my wife
exactly what happened getting this
burden off my chest
and when I got there and she came to the
car I intended to tell her exactly what
happened but when she got in the car and
I tried to tell her what happened I
couldn’t say a word I couldn’t speak I
was so overcome with emotion that I
could not do anything other than begin
to cry and I cried like I never cried
before in my entire life and those
emotions stay with me for weeks
afterwards I didn’t know what to do with
them I asked people for advice and all
of these people gave me great advice but
none of that advice worked none of it
and I began to recognize something that
anger is a normal part of our lives
we’ve all been angry before and I
recognize that my work at the museum as
a grill was to talk about things that
should make me angry all the time but
somehow it didn’t and that’s when I
began to realize I met that place of
righteous anger so what I began to do is
to utilize the stories that I would tell
of my ancestors to take me to this place
of righteous anger righteous anger
allowed me to use this tool as a grill
to get to a place where I would use
these negative emotions in a positive
way but never forget though that I still
get angry I get angry when I think of
Emmett Till when I see the pictures of
Trayvon Martin when I think of Tamir
rice being shot and killed when I see
the viral video of Eric garner being
choked to death when I see four lando
cats still being shot while this
three-year-old daughter sits in the
backseat of that car I get very
and what I do is I channel that anger in
a positive way I use it to tell their
stories because they can’t tell those
stories themselves any longer so what I
challenge each of you to do today is to
take a journey similar to the journey
that I took to get to this place of
righteous anger I’d like to invite all
of you to join this exclusive family of
grills by becoming your family grill
learning the stories of your family
learning the stories of your community
and utilizing those stories to take you
to this wonderful place that I love
being in call righteous anger thank you
[Applause]
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