美国国家公共电台 NPR--The story behind the man responsible for Black History Month

The story behind the man responsible for Black History Month

Transcript¹

The white and Black descendents of Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History and founder² of Black History Month, come together to heal their past.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

It's Black History Month. And the man who laid the foundations of this celebration is Carter G. Woodson. He founded Black History Week in 1926. It became a full month in the 1970s. NPR's Sandhya Dirks has this story about some of Woodson's descendants and how they've come together in an unexpected way.

SANDHYA DIRKS, BYLINE³: When he was in middle school, Brett Woodson Bailey's mom sat him down.

BRETT WOODSON BAILEY: 'Cause my mom made a big deal about it, like, when she told me. She was like, you are the descendant of a very famous historical figure.

DIRKS: His great-great-great-uncle was Carter G. Woodson.

WOODSON BAILEY: Obviously, I was like, who the heck is that? I've never met that man.

DIRKS: As he got older, Brett came to understand he was descended⁴ from the father of Black history.

WOODSON BAILEY: I'm not exactly, like, carrying down his legacy⁵ too much. Well, I guess I kind of am by still being here 'cause, you know, he was a fighter fighting for civil rights.

DIRKS: There's a saying that some Black folks have - we are our ancestors' wildest dreams because surviving is no small thing. Brett also survived a rare and aggressive childhood cancer. Now, he's a sophomore⁶ at UC Santa Cruz.

WOODSON BAILEY: I want to be a wildlife biologist.

DIRKS: He's also a track star who loves to run.

WOODSON BAILEY: It's, like, a freeing feeling.

DIRKS: And right now, he's sitting at a picnic table.

WOODSON BAILEY: He's pretty good at picking up. So let's see. He's a pretty busy guy.

DIRKS: Calling his cousin, who also plays a central role in this story.

CRAIG WOODSON: Hey, hey, Brett.

WOODSON BAILEY: Oh, dang - right there. Hey...

DIRKS: Craig Woodson has known Brett since he was born. He's a distant cousin, nearly six decades older. And there's another thing.

WOODSON BAILEY: Maybe in the back of my head I thought it was kind of weird⁷ that he was white. I'm like, I don't have any other white cousins.

DIRKS: How'd he get a white cousin? That happened long before Brett was born. It was one of those moments when the past crashes into the present and changes everything. Craig grew up proud he could trace his relatives all the way back to the beginnings of America.

C WOODSON: We knew the story - ancestors came from Jamestown.

DIRKS: But that story changed in 1984 when...

C WOODSON: I bought a stamp.

DIRKS: A postage stamp that honored Carter G. Woodson. Craig wanted to know why they shared a last name. And that's when he discovered...

C WOODSON: We enslaved people way back at Jamestown at the beginning of enslavement in this country.

DIRKS: His family purchased six of the first 20 Africans who were brought to America in 1619 on a ship called the White Lion.

C WOODSON: We had this horrible, horrible legacy.

DIRKS: Craig's an ethnomusicologist, and his specific field of study is African drumming. He knew a lot of Black people, and he was terrified to tell them what he'd found out.

C WOODSON: I just didn't want to be associated with slavery. And I didn't want to face that. And that's what ultimately brought me to say, I've got to face it.

DIRKS: He finally confided⁸ in a close friend of his, a Black woman named Bette Cox. The tape sounds a little different here because I want to play you the first time Craig told me this part of the story, which was over Zoom⁹.

C WOODSON: I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. I told her the story. And without batting an eye, in her beautiful way, she said, wow, that's interesting. My best friend is Alene (ph) Woodson, and her husband is Edgar. He's related to Carter G. You want to meet him? Just like boom, boom, boom. So that was it. Within 15 minutes or so of me telling her, I'm standing¹⁰ there talking to Edgar.

DIRKS: Edgar Woodson is Brett's grandfather. He's now passed. By the time Brett was born, they were all like family. Craig visited Brett in the hospital when he was sick. He taught him how to play drums. He taught him how to drive. Brett's parents are divorced. His mom was sick a lot, and Craig was there for them.

WOODSON BAILEY: I'm seeing someone who, like, I know for a fact had ancestors who were slave owners. And nothing else - like, it's just, like, made it very clear that, like, your ancestors don't define you.

DIRKS: At the same time, Brett is grappling with how the past lives on in the present, even in small ways, like when white people cross the street when he walks by.

WOODSON BAILEY: It could just be 'cause I stand out and, like, it's rare to see, like, a Black person on campus.

DIRKS: But even that, Brett knows, is a legacy of systemic racism¹¹, that he's one of the few Black students here.

I have a really philosophical¹² question to ask you.

WOODSON BAILEY: OK.

DIRKS: What does it mean to heal the past?

WOODSON BAILEY: To heal the past? Wow. That's, like, a - how do you start with a question like that? Heal the past?

DIRKS: It's exactly the question Craig's been trying to answer since the day he first saw that postage stamp. It's a question that led him to Brett's grandfather, Edgar. And a decade later, it led him to apologize publicly at a reconciliation¹³ ceremony at a Black church in Los Angeles. He roped in his whole white family, including his sister-in-law, Joan (ph) Woodson. She recalls, at first, some in the family didn't want to do it.

JOAN WOODSON: OK, are we going to be going there and then everybody's going to be yelling and screaming us as - at white people - as white people? And they said, we don't know whether we want to do that.

DIRKS: But they showed up, white Woodsons and Black Woodsons, including Brett's mom, Adele (ph). There's video from that day. Here's Craig.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

C WOODSON: I apologize on behalf of my ancestors for the holocaust¹⁴ it has caused to your family and your ancestors. And I ask for your forgiveness.

DIRKS: Craig steps down off the dais and walks down the aisle¹⁵ towards Edgar. They embrace.

(APPLAUSE)

DIRKS: The white descendant of one of the first enslavers in America and the Black descendant of the man who helped establish the study of Black history. Craig has befriended other Black Woodsons, too. He's even done DNA¹⁶ tests.

MICHELLE EVANS OLIVER: I was shocked initially¹⁷.

DIRKS: Michelle Evans Oliver (ph) is one of the people he matched with. It's a small genetic¹⁸ match, but significant. Oliver says when they met, they were even wearing the same kind of glasses.

EVANS OLIVER: We kind of looked alike to me, and I'm like, yeah, this might be a possibility here.

DIRKS: She knows her genetic connection to Craig is likely the result of sexual violence. But Oliver says she appreciates Craig's apology.

EVANS OLIVER: He did what he felt like he needed to do at that time. And if that is what he could do, great. Thank you. But what about the other Craig Woodsons of the world? You know, where is that?

DIRKS: Oliver points out that slavery's aftershocks are still shaping and shaking us. Is the apology of one man enough to heal history? Craig doesn't think so.

C WOODSON: You can't really apologize for something so horrible.

DIRKS: He says, looking back, he knows the apology was more for him than it was for the Black Woodsons.

C WOODSON: What you can do is show up.

DIRKS: The closest answer he's found to healing the past is to show up in the present - for Brett, for his mom. I asked Brett if Craig showing up was a kind of reparations, but he says it's not like that. Craig's just family.

WOODSON BAILEY: I guess, in a way, it depends on your perspective on it. It could be kind of reparations, whether it's, like, intentional¹⁹ or unintentional.

DIRKS: Making their relationship only about repairing the past takes away from the very real connection they've built in this moment. Brett says he doesn't want money or anything like that from Craig. I asked Craig about money. After all, his family profited off the violently forced labor²⁰ of Brett's ancestors. Craig told me he had just put Brett in his will. He said it was something that should have happened a long time ago.

Sandhya Dirks, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

5 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

6 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

7 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

8 confided   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
• He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

12 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

13 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

14 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

15 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

16 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

17 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

18 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

19 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

20 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。