WHAT’S UP, MY PEOPLE?
I have been gone from you for more than 56 plus years and you will soon be reminded of the day that I left you on April 4, 1968. However, my time away from you has brought on remarkable events that have changed the course of life for you, my people. In fact, it’s apropos that I speak with you during this time, when in a few weeks the shortest month in the year will once again be set aside as Black History Month. I could say more about this but I won’t at this time.
And still when I awaken from the nightmares that I often encounter, my historical perspective kicks in. I find myself wanting to go back to sleep because of what I’m reminded of with the pervasive flashbacks as to how your lives are devalued by my counterparts and my White brothers who made a promise to me that they were ready to commit to CHANGE. Not just a change that would allow you MY PEOPLE, to enjoy the basic guarantor called LIFE that they have always had the privilege of enjoying, rather, I have found myself surmising that they lied with WHITE PRIVILEGES incessantly, extemporaneously, and yet they became infuriated when those privileges were threatened to be extended to othe4rs, those of you my brothers and sisters of color, and especially you who look like me.
I realize that life can be a lot to handle that you MY PEOPLE live on a daily basis. I told you a few years ago that I was AWAKEN FROM A NIGHTMARE that stifled my being and caused me to shed tears because of what I envisioned and was exposed to that was occurring in every facet of your lives. My, how things have changed. But let me ask you, WHAT’S UP MY PEOPLE? How did you change from experiencing a meaningful life, to accepting by any means necessary, a meaningless life? How is it that what WE valued as a people when I was with you, has become fragmented, missing, and seemingly lost? The hopes, dreams, blood, sweat, tears, pain, and yes death, that took some of us to our grave fighting for your right to vote, I hear is being challenged because you have proven that you, MY PEOPLE, can win elections. No, we didn’t know then but now we know, that we have become a threat to our known contenders that when WE WORK TOGETHER, WE WIN! Let me tell you that winning is not new to us, because we have always been willing to fight to win. HOWEVER, WHEN WE WIN, ITS OFFENSIVE TO THEM!
Now I have heard some new news lately that has to do with voting and what can’t happen anymore that was common courtesy. I’m doing what you all call SMH. No water given to VOTERS IN LINE, no food given or shared? Did they not know what we had in our pockets, our grocery bags, our handbags, and our brown bags when we walked miles around the country for freedom? Let me remind them. We had bologna, chicken, coca cola, R C, cinnamon rolls, crackers, water and so much more. None of it ever walked alone; it walked with us, and we walked with it. You, MY PEOPLE, have already figured that one out, LOL. I will continue to say it even though I am not there with you, YOU CAN’T FIGHT VIOLENCE WITH VIOLENCE. I still believe in you. My lifetime friend the late Congressman John Lewis who has now left you and joined us, I believe still has a place in the hearts and minds of those of you who march on, fight on, and VOTE on, By any means necessary. His legacy must live on, and on, and on. OUR FIGHT FOR VOTING RIGHTS MATTERED THEN AND WILL CONTINUE TO MATTER!
I know that from Charlottesville to Capital Hill, change has to come. No matter the difference, it has to override the injustices that have emanated from such vile trivialities that have become etched in the masterminds of pioneers then and the new births that are laced with RACISM and HATE.
And I have heard up here that my fellow Jews, who are only six percent of the U. S., and my Asian brothers and sisters, have been attacked from all points, and seemingly without cause, other than HATRED. And let me say this, I know that fear is being expressed from those on the other side who are walking on eggshells because my BROWN people have now threatened to move from being in the minority to the majority. Wow, that sounds like a plan right there!
Now let me speak to my YOUNG PEOPLE because I’m told that a lot of un-nerving things are being experienced on their watch. You were left behind to be a catalyst for positive change. However, no matter the devastation and your desire to do it your way, I have to believe that you are choosing to substitute and inflict pain that I’m hearing is causing even deaths to your peers. We must ensure you that any pain that you encounter, must not force you to turn ON EACH OTHER, RATHER TURN TO EACH OTHER. You are MY YOUNG PEOPLE, that have come up through the ranks of our pioneers, who by the way, always found a way in the midst of them parting the Red Sea, to do a back stroke until they could get up and walk again. You are MY PEOPLE, and I ask WHAT’s UP, because I know you, remember? Even though I’m not with you, my spirit remains, my remnants remain, my DREAM remains, and they must always remain so that what we have left in you, can be the jewels that you preserve for the present time and yes, the future. Don’t seek REVENGE, rather seek JUSTICE by quietly strategizing diplomatically to defeat who the real enemy is.
I know he’s been gone from you for quite a long time as well, in act he joined us in 1984, but my brother Marvin Gaye had it right when he asked the question, WHAT’S GOING ON and I say WHAT’S UP MY PEOPLE! We both asked those questions that served and continues to serve to remind us that the STRUGGLE CONTINUES, THEN & NOW!
And some of the other news that I received up here is that our HBCU’s, Black colleges that is, on the first day of our month, February, have received bomb threats. I must remind you that where you are is significant, because location has always served as a launching pad for you, MY PEOPLE. Everything good that happened for us and with us, happened at our universities and churches, and nothing, I mean nothing, no message, no threat, no scare will or has ever stopped you MY PEOPLE from getting to your promise land. You must continue to see and effectively allow Education to serve as the backdrop and foundation to our NEXT and not allow what I hear has become the driving force and motivator with our young people that’s called: Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, FB, and oh so much more. And what is this crave that’s called Twerking? Yes, I said what I said.
OK, let me just say that I had to speak to Coretta about this thing called TWERKING. She had a few things to say about it too. She reminded me that she too had heard about how our beautiful young ladies have seemingly sold their souls for their bodies and not their brains, and how dollars and cents in their NOT SO REALITY VENUES, have replaced the meaningful values that she and other mothers tried to instill in them for a lifetime. Yes, she’s disappointed because she remembers as well when the heads of our young men turned toward the young ladies because they had on all of their clothes and away from them when they had on few. You must know that we are having to have frequent conversations about YOU MY PEOPLE, because of what we are hearing that’s going on. WHAT’S UP?
I hear that you are banning books but not guns, that your schools and houses of faith have now become slaughterhouses instead of safe houses; that your brothers and sisters from the other party are now more committed to the party or the one who’s going back to the big house, and not the principles of the party. Unfortunately, I’m not only told but I’m having nightmares because it seems that everything that once mattered and everyone who stood for RIGHT ae now being left and forced out. I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear this from me and you think it’s OLD SKOOL, but LIFE is what matters, not a rule that won’t even be around to even hear about. Keep first things first. Remember, we’ve always had to be smarter than a fifth grader to live, and our dying, my dying, the other pioneers who have died, must not and cannot be in vain.
Now I have lost sight of how much progress that has been made since I left you and how there are those who want to take you even further back than when I was with you, but you must be mindful of the fact that this has always happened; that when we got close to what looked like EQUALITY, the rules changed. It’s no different from what I see today that is still happening that you are reporting to me. Every meaningful RULE seems to be on the chopping block. But you must not let DISENFRRANCHISEMENT TURN TO DISCOURAGEMENT!
The facts bear out that there’s been a few good things that I have heard that has happened since I left you, such as:
The election of the FIRST NEGRO PRESIDENT. You say AA, and that’s OK; the acquittal of White Police Officers for the shooting of Negroes of AA; the election of a few more Senators & Representatives; the appointments of more judges; the election of FEMALE MAYORS in metropolitan cities; the appointment of a NEGRO/AA FEMALE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, wow; and even the selection of a NEGRO/aa VICE PRESIDENT who became the presidential Democratic nominee for a recent election.
That’s progress but I’m still bothered by the auxiliary reports that I’m getting about the drugs laced with fentanyl that YOU MY PEOPLE ae dying in record numbers from, the guns in the hands of our young people that continue to kill each other, the continued attempts to overthrow legitimate elections, the alliance between a former president of the United States and our arch enemy for decades, as well as one who has loosed RACISM that yields an all time high on people of color, an insurrection on the Capital that keeps being downplayed, the Black Lives Matter Movement that ought to matter no matter who else matters, the pandemic that caused ill-prepared and unexpected deaths of you MY PEOPLE. By the way, get that vaccine that I have been told save lives, IJS.
Go forth MY PEOPLE, go forth. And as I close this letter to you. I leave this with you. For more than centuries, there has been a HIDDEN AGENDA that was supposed to be kept under lock and key. But there is one thing that we know, and yes, I still know even where I am today, that the WORST AGENDA IS A HIDDEN AGENDA. But the secret is out.
I heard about the demise of George Floyd some years ago and how the spark around the world took place. Keep that flame burning. However, you must not become dedicated to anger, rather the MOVEMENT that changed the world when I was with you. While you may not know this, I do; the benchmark for some of my White brothers and sisters, has always been HATRED & RACISM AGAINST YOU MY PEOPLE. And the unfortunate take away was that some of them believed that OUR BLACKNESS WAS INTENDED TO BE A THREAT TO THEIR WHITENESS. I still know that we have never asked for a different kind of treatment, we just wanted FAIR treatment.
I STILL HAVE A DREAM, EVEN IN THE MIDST OF WHAT LOOKS LIKE A NIGHTMARE: harness the fortitude that I left you with. Make a difference in the lives of each young person that you come in contact with. Encourage them to be the legacy that was etched in our history to be all that we could be by doing all that we could do, ignore the voices that seek to deter your progress and disregard your existence and label your sons and daughters as nobodies whose lives don’t matter. Change your thinking on purpose, but be wise in who you share your vision with. Strategize with the few that will help you remember the blood, sweat, tears, and death that we suffered to get to freedom. Don’t get trapped into sacrificing integrity for a photo shoot; bring the vision to pass by any means necessary.
MY PEOPLE, DON’T STOP. Do not be deterred. Do not be shaken and do not be mistaken as just angry people with an ax to grind. I still know that the Bible is right; The prayers of the righteous availeth much. You must Fight on, March on, and in the end YOU WIN. You must move from singing WE SHALL OVERCOME TO WE WILL OVERCOME, FOREVER IN MY HEART, I DO BELIEVE THAT WE WILL OVERCOME NOT SOMEDAY, RATHER TODAY!
GOOD NIGHT MY PEOPLE, IT’S NAP TIME FOR ME BUT AWAKE TIME FOR YOU!
Affectionately Written by
Bishop Marjorie Holt, Ph.D.
Sr. Servant@Bethesda Christian Center, Toledo, Oh
©2025