For Us, By Us, Because of Us: Why Remembering Black Excellence Still Matters

By: Chairman Kabir Karriem, Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus

In a loud, fast, and often unforgiving world, history can feel distant, but forgetting our history is not neutral. Memory is power and celebration is resistance.

Our story in America did not begin in chains. It passed through them. The past holds the scars of enslavement, lynching, Jim Crow, voter suppression, redlining, mass incarceration, and stolen opportunity. Yet even in that pain, there is brilliance. There is excellence. We survived what was designed to break us, and we built what others said we could not.

From fields where our ancestors whispered prayers into the soil, to classrooms they were told they could not enter, to ballot boxes they fought and bled to reach, Black excellence has never been accidental. It has always been intentional.

Scripture reminds us in Deuteronomy 6:12: “Be careful that you do not forget.” Forgetting where you come from makes it easier to lose sight of where you are going. For Black communities, history is not just about the past—it is a blueprint for survival and a roadmap to freedom.

Today, we must be honest about the present. Across this country, including here in Mississippi, there are organized efforts to roll back hard-fought gains. While proclamations honoring Black history may remain on paper, policy decisions increasingly seek to narrow how our history is taught, discussed, and understood—especially in public schools. Books are banned. Lessons are softened. The brutality of the past is reframed as “controversial,” and Black achievement is treated as optional.

This is not a coincidence. When truth becomes inconvenient, it is often the first thing targeted. That is precisely why celebration matters.

Celebrating Black excellence is not arrogance. It is affirmation. It tells our children and our communities that our lives are rooted in resilience, creativity, and purpose. 

Hebrews 12:1 speaks of a “great cloud of witnesses.” We do not stand alone. We are surrounded by those—named and unnamed—whose sacrifices laid the foundation we now occupy. And Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that hope and a future remain part of God’s promise.

Mississippi understands both the weight of history and the urgency of truth as this state has always shaped the moral direction of this nation. Magnolia soil holds unspeakable pain, but it also carries the brilliance of freedom fighters, educators, faith leaders, artists, organizers, and lawmakers who refused to surrender their dignity. 

Remembering our history and celebrating Black excellence here is necessary and essential for when people know their worth, honor their ancestors, and walk boldly in excellence, they do more than change their own lives. They help redeem the promise of this state and move the nation closer to justice.

The past is painful. The present is precarious. Yet, the future is still free—free because others paid a price, free because truth still matters, and free because excellence lives within us.

Our story is unfinished and the next chapter is being written now. Will you help write the story?

Rep. Kabir Karriem serves in the Mississippi House of Representatives representing District 41. This editorial was published in www.thepeoplespaperms.com.