Colonel: Black history is American history

Shirley Williams, left, gets a hug from Col. Edward Maney, the keynote speaker at Saturday night’s annual Progressive Club banquet, as she hands him a plaque. Laurel Coyle/Post-Register

By Miles Smith
Editor/POST-REGISTER

On Saturday night at the Lockhart Evening Lions club, the message delivered was one of pride, hope, equality, sacrifice and humility as a retired colonel with the United States Army detailed his journey from humble San Antonio busboy to decorated officer.
Col. Edward K. Maney was the keynote speaker at the Progressive Club’s 44th Annual Banquet, a yearly celebration of Black History Month, achievements by African Americans and their role in U.S. history.
The San Antonio native talked about the problems with being designated a skin color, which overgeneralizes people and describes nothing about their ancestry or unique experience. He also stressed that black history was not its own separate category.
“In 2015, when my mother died, I found out that my great-granfather may have come into this country crossing the Rio Grande in Juarez,” Maney said. “Back in the day when I was growing up, I had all kinds of folks calling me half. That was a fight. I didn’t know why I was fighting, but I knew what I was defending.
“Black history is American history. It is not separate and distinct. It is ingrained into the fabric of what we call America.”
For the full story, pick up a copy of the Post-Register.