History is an act of empathy. To learn someone’s history, you have to love them. You have to care about who they are, where they came from, their experiences, and what they care about. It takes tremendous compassion, empathy, and love to open yourself to someone else’s experience.

This is why Black History Matters. As February sets in and we all find ways to “celebrate” black history, I believe it takes more than a post with quotes from MLK. Black History Month is about listening to the stories of the experiences of Black Americans and changing our perspective on the world based on those stories.

One of the saddest questions I received when I wrote about Pentecostals and the Tulsa Race Massacre was, “Why do you care so much?” Embedded in the question is, “You are white; you don’t have to care about what black people went through.” Therein lies the heart of why Black History Month matters. Privilege insulates white America from having to know or care about the experiences of minorities. This is why history is an act of empathy. It teaches America to care, exposing our sin of apathy about the experiences of minorities.

As a Pentecostal historian, I realized that I cannot tell the Pentecostal story without telling the story of what happened to the Black Pentecostal churches. It is the story of Bishop Travis and Martha Sipuel, whose home and church was destroyed in 1921. It is the story of Buford Colony and South Haven, churches and communities of those who fled from Greenwood. It is the story of the resiliency of Church of God in Christ churches that saw their attendance double in the years afterwards. It is the story of women who pioneered churches and became prominent women in the Church

What happened to “them” happened to “us.” In fact, without telling the Black Pentecostal story, we are only really only telling white history. It is not only bad history, it is a symptom of white supremacy that has been too common in our telling of church history in general.

Black history is not “their” story; it is OUR story. Black History is White history. Black history is American history. Black Church history is Church history. Black reality is our reality. We must care. We must listen. We must learn.

(Photo: Pentecostal Church in Jesus Christ, Tulsa 1950s. Pastor W. H. Black. Today it is Greater Grace (PAW) pastored by Dr. Donald Tyler)