By Terry Allen with reflection and contribution by Norma Adams-Wade
Big Mama used to say, “Baby, when one of us is in the valley, the rest of us better become the mountain.” Those weren’t just words — they were marching orders. And as my friend and fellow storyteller Norma Adams-Wade often reminds me, history repeats itself when we stop remembering what it took to stand.
When the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in 1963 — when Addie Mae, Denise, Carole, and Cynthia were murdered in the house of God — we didn’t crumble. We mobilized. Churches became command posts, porches became planning rooms, and the grief of mothers became the rallying cry of a movement. We turned mourning into momentum.
When Emanuel AME in Charleston was attacked, we circled again — in prayer, in protest, in promise. When George Floyd was murdered, we took to the streets, holding up mirrors to America’s conscience. Because as Norma often says, our people never just endured — we organized. We have always risen from rubble, carrying both the scars and the assignment.
And now, with ICE raids, gun violence, and democracy itself trembling, we must remember: trauma unhealed becomes a tool of oppression. It’s time to heal our PTSS — Post-Traumatic Survival Syndrome — and link arms once more. Because Big Mama — Lucille “Big Mama” Allen — our family matriarch whose kitchen table was a classroom and whose faith could out-preach any pulpit, taught us this truth: “We don’t survive by standing alone. When one falls, all must rise.”
So let’s rise. Let’s be the mountain again! Email me at terryallenpr@gmail.com and let me know if you are a mountain?
Terry Allen is an NABJ award-winning Journalist, DEI expert, PR professional, and founder of the charity – Vice President at Focus-PR, Founder of City Men Cook, and Dallas Chapter President of NBPRS.org
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