A timely lesson from a tiny town long ago
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Trudy Palmer Deputy Daily Editor
Recently, a friend gave me the book 鈥淎 Stronger Kinship鈥� by historian Anna-Lisa Cox. It tells of Covert, Michigan, a small town 30 miles from my friend鈥檚 childhood home.聽
His nearly all-white high school had played them in sports, yet only now was he learning that more than a century ago, Black and white residents of Covert had 鈥渓ived as equal citizens,鈥� as the book puts it.聽
As far back as the 1860s, they treated each other as neighbors regardless of race, farming side by side. Black men not only voted with white men but also ran for office and won. And women helped one another in their domestic spheres.聽
The integration of Covert鈥檚 schools is a good example of the town鈥檚 determined neighborliness. It was illegal to educate Black and white children together in Michigan in 1866. So when Black settlers bought land with a schoolhouse on it, a showdown might have been expected. Instead, the community, which prized education, decided to do what was right and educate all children. Of necessity, that meant educating them together 鈥� in rough-hewn, one-room schoolhouses, where children sat side by side, sharing books and 鈥渓eaning over each other鈥檚 slates to work on sums,鈥� the author explains. 聽
To protect the Black children, Covert鈥檚 school board listed all students鈥� names in its mandatory reports to the state but omitted their race, Black or white. 鈥淐overt鈥檚 school board had a secret, and they were keeping it safe in the most honest way they knew 鈥� by keeping it quiet,鈥� Dr. Cox writes.聽 聽
But it wasn鈥檛 all about work for either children or adults. Black and white residents worshipped and socialized together, assisted with births and grieved deaths, participated in barn-raisings and attended festivals. Covert was even a safe place to love, with a handful of people marrying across the color line.
The town wasn鈥檛 founded by abolitionists or intended as a utopia. It wasn鈥檛 perfect either, yet it rejected both slavery鈥檚 grip on the North and the nation鈥檚 post-bellum oppression: Jim Crow laws, lynchings, court-sanctioned segregation.聽
Against all odds, it remained 鈥渁 community of radical equality鈥� where, on a daily basis, people followed the Golden Rule. As Dr. Cox suggests, the correct question may not be 鈥淲hy did Covert happen?鈥� but 鈥淲hy not?鈥澛�
鈥淥ur puzzlement over Covert reveals a hidden assumption that racism is the norm, that unfairness and injustice are the natural patterns that the nation falls into if given half a chance,鈥� she writes.
That鈥檚 understandable 鈥済iven the horrific and sorrow-filled history of race relations in this country,鈥� she continues, 鈥渂ut Covert reminds us that that terrible history ... was a choice, not a given.鈥�
