When President Gerald Ford officially named February as Black History Month in 1976, he urged all Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor.”
Fast forward 47 years and the theme of Black History Month this year is “Black Resistance.” How we got from honoring often-neglected accomplishments to Black resistance is a complex journey for historians and other assorted heavy thinkers to take. It’s way above my pay grade.
I’m just Mister Rogers putting on his sweater again and trying to lower the heat, which isn’t a bad idea these days. What was your gas bill last month, neighbor?
I’d like to seize that opportunity President Ford was talking about and reintroduce you to a Black gentleman I wrote a column about in 2006 — the honorable bus maintenance man, Mr. Arthur Winston.
His 15 minutes of fame wasn’t enough. I realize that now. Sometimes we get lost in all the fame and fortune success stories of Black Americans — the Oprah Winfrey’s and Michael Jordan’s, and yes, the daddy of them all for this generation, President Barack Obama.
But President Ford said accomplishments in “every area of endeavor.” Often, you have to leave the penthouse and take the service elevator down to the ground floor to find them.
I met Arthur a couple of days before his 100th birthday in 2006 as he was coming off his last shift at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Division 5 Bus Yard in the South Bay. Yes, he was still working.
He had spent the last 73 years as a maintenance man cleaning buses and washing them down so they’d be ready to hit the streets in the morning, nice and clean.
It was a bittersweet day for Arthur. He was finally retiring. In all those years — including four he spent cleaning streetcars in the early 1920s for 41 cents an hour — he was never late to work once, and had taken only one sick day, MTA personnel records showed.
His wife,…
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