Black History Month: Cross Burning in a Quiet Conservative Town

Black History Month provides all of us of any color to explore and celebrate our various contributions to society. I personally love learning more about where, when and how people in different cultures live, work and play. I find the different foods, music, festivals, religious ideas, dress styles and arts fascinating. Events like Black History Month give me opportunities to explore this. And I am fortunate to live in Grand Haven, Michigan, a clean, lovely community that proclaims to welcome everyone.

But apparently not everyone feels as I do. This clean, quiet diligent, respectable community has a filthy blotch on its very recent history. Grand Haven, this paragon of virtuous cities, to its shame, played host to a cruel, vicious incident back in 2000. An African American family, respected and generous members of our community, awoke one night to a large flaming cross erected in the front yard of their lovely home.

This devious, cowardly act came in connection with no provocation, as if anything could provoke such an unspeakable act anyway. The children in the family attended local schools and had many friends. The family contributed to the community in many positive ways. And it really doesn't matter how respected they are; this kind of stupid act should be visited upon no one.

Whether this was meant to be some kind of sick joke or an underhanded menacing threat, I do not know. Reprisal was set in motion, but limited. It's an ugly blemish that many people don't know about or remember. Those that do generally don't talk about it. Those of us who know the family don't want to rake up bad memories.

This Black History Month event is not a happy one to relate. I'm keeping the community name out of my article to preserve privacy, but also because I want people to know that sadly, this could be 'anytown, any state USA'. Even in the mildest, gentlest communities, communities where 'this kind of thing could never happen' bizarre people with bizarre ideas and behavior still lurk.

I think of this incident every February. I say a prayer for the family, still haunted by memories and for other of my black American friends and neighbors. I feel some collective guilt on behalf and wish that I could make the scar heal and go away. I say a prayer for our community that we may work to be a town where this kind of evil truly could never happen.