American historian Carter G. Woodson fought hard for the creation of a celebration of Black history in the 1920s, launching the celebration of ‘Negro History Week’ in February 1926, half a century before the establishment of the month of February as Black History Month in 1976. Since then, every U.S. President has designated February as Black History Month, a time when African American contributions to the development of this country are highlighted in media and in many classrooms around the country. It is seen as a time when we pay homage to Black achievements and contributions not just to this nation, but to the entire world.
While this is a welcome acknowledgement of Black excellence, it is not nearly enough. Black history, which has been intimately intertwined with the events of this nation since the 1600s and before, is an integral component of American history. As such, it should be taught in every classroom, every day throughout the year as a part of the history curriculum and reflected in popular media and advertising. The world we live in is multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic, and the United States is no exception. Limiting attention to Black achievements and contributions to one month out of the year, especially when it is not mandated that Black history courses be taught in all schools across the country, reinforces the unfortunately stereotype that Blacks, and other minorities and women, really didn’t play that significant a role in the country’s development. This is harmful to Black students, who don’t see enough ‘people who look like them’ in positions of importance, and to White students who in many cases have been exposed to stereotypes of minorities as somehow less than them.
Black History Month, an annual repetition of stories about a select few notable Blacks, such as Harriet Tubman and Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., actually does more harm than good, in my humble opinion. Twenty-eight days of celebrating the achievements of a few individuals obscures the achievements of so many others and reinforces the view that people of color are somehow limited. The people who are celebrated were great, without doubt, but they were far from outliers—an impression created by this limited and repetitive celebration. Ignored is the fact that after the Civil War and into the early twentieth century, as the United States expanded its borders west to the Pacific Ocean, ten percent of the soldiers protecting wagon trains and settlements, building roads, and protecting our new national parks, were Black. The men of the four all-Black regiments of the U.S. Army were often the only federal presence in many areas of the frontier, a fact that won’t be gleaned from watching old western movies of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Black inventors contributed to technological development from the rotary-blade lawn mower by John Albert Burr to the pROSHI neurofeedback device by Chuck Davis.
Including the broad range of Black achievements in school curricula year-round rather than for just 28-days or as an elective Black History course that is subject to manipulation by state boards of education opens the door to more equitable treatment of the achievements of other minorities and women.
As we come to the close of another Black History Month, we should give serious thought to a nationwide review of how we teach history and what we teach, and establish a national requirement that all students should be exposed to a comprehensive history of the nation before graduating from high school. We, as consumers, should demand that corporations and media be more inclusive—and accurate—in the portrayal of the country and its people.
If everyone, regardless of race or gender, is exposed throughout the year to the truth about our nation’s history, we take another step toward creating ‘a more perfect union’ as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, and we create a better country for all of us.
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