Who and What is the Blackberry Bush Generation?

In biblical terms, I think all African Americans born between 1865 and 1965 are best called the Joshua generation-- we bypassed slavery (hallelujah!) but were born in the wilderness of lynch law and legal segregation. Some of us crossed into the promised land and found it confusing, unfulfilling; full of unforeseen diversity, enemies, and potential allies whose true identity was difficult to discern. We almost got wiped out by integration. My generation was the shock troops of that experience which leads me to call us the “blackberry bush generation”.

Why "blackberry bush"? Not because we discovered ‘black is beautiful” or embraced the phrase “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.” And definitely not because some of us now use cell phones called blackberries. No! We are the blackberry bush generation because the blackberry bush is tremendously hardy and almost impossible to get rid of. The blackberry bush has huge root systems that efficiently store food and suck up water. You can try to dig' em up, burn 'em up, and even bulldoze 'em up, but if one little slice of their roots remains, they will be back.

Those of us born from the mid 1940’s to mid 1950’s are the last generation of African Americans firmly rooted in the sacred culture and spiritual legacy of the ancestors who overcame slavery. My grandparents and parents shared the living testimony of the elders who crossed the freedom line on Emancipation Day 1865. Integration almost destroyed those roots among my generation but just like the blackberry bush that appears dead in the winter, we come back each spring to blossom anew. We are very hard to get rid of because of our tremendous roots.

Yes, we are prickly -- very testy about racism, much more than our parents’ generation. But between the thorns you will find delicious juicy sweet fruits that promote healthiness for all who partake irrespective of race, color or nationality. Our children are not blackberry bushes because we have not taught them what was given to us. (I call them “the Offended Generation” -- see my next blog). We did not do as good a job as our parents in delivering those wonderful fruits to them. But now we have the opportunity to show them and this nation in a living way the true power of our legacy which is to re-shape and re-create a just society based on spirit and faith.

Our challenge is cloudy but if God is calling us to it let us go forward knowing the path will become clearer in the future. Peace