During February, our communities often have some observance of Black History Month. That’s a good thing, because it brings positive and negative parts of the past to everyone’s attention.

The year gone by added to the compendium of local black history, as people of all races and ages marched down Main Streets in Gloucester and Mathews in support of the proposition that Black Lives Matter. The hideous recorded killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police triggered that outrage.

All lives matter, you might say, and yes, that is true. No one segment of the population should be held up as more worthy or dismissed as unworthy—but sadly, in our nation where labels seem to matter, some seem to matter less than others. History has repeated itself over and over, perpetuating relationships that originated in the earliest days of Virginia and attitudes which have not yet been resolved, 156 years after slaves were freed by the Civil War.

For people who wonder why Black Hist...