Black History Month Still Relevant -- for Now by Jeff Mays

As a young journalist in Dallas, I wrote a column for my high school newspaper discussing why Black History Month was no longer necessary.

I recently pulled the column from the dusty blue binder that one of my mentors, Rochelle Riley, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, gave me to store my clips in way back when.

Aside from marveling at how young I looked, I was also amazed at what I wrote. I said that Black History Month was not necessary because black history should be taught all year round and that it was a significant part of American history.

Besides, I said, the month had been reduced to talking about how many uses for the peanut George Washington Carver had discovered. The answer: More than 100, including paint, fuel, plastic explosives.

The column was well received. I won the top individual writing award given to high school students in Texas, and it was a topic of discussion around my school for a day or so. (That's saying a lot for high school kids with attention spans shorter than the wick of a birthday candle.)

But as I look back on the article, it doesn't seem that black history has become an integral part of American history in the 17 years since I wrote that column. Even though we have an African American president and Oprah has her own television network, stereotypes about African Americans abound.

I read the message boards of this site and the venom that is spewed from some of the presumably white posters shows that they don't understand the contributions that African Americans have made to this country. According to some, all African Americans do is leach off of the system. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Not only did African Americans help build this country, but we have also served as a consistent moral voice, pushing this country to be far better than it ever would without us.

We fought for the idea that humans are not chattel. The women's liberation movement and now the gay rights movement looked back at the civil rights movement for not just inspiration, but strategy.

But bring up an issue like tax reform, health care reform or the state of race relations in this country and black folks always end up being disrespected. Our contributions to this country, despite the way we have historically been treated, are never taken in to consideration. Maybe America needs to be reminded once a year how worse off this country would be were it not for the contributions of African Americans.

"We don't honor it enough as a part of American history and world history," Judge Glenda Hatchett said about African American history. "The truth is, if we didn't do black history month in February, we wouldn't have the kind of emphasis we do on our accomplishments. Some think it's passé, but I strongly disagree."


Black History Month was founded in 1926 by Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and was originally only a week long. It was launched in the second week of February in acknowledgment of the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In 1976, the United States' bicentennial, the celebration was extended to the entire month of February to allow more time for educational and celebratory events.

Riley argued in a column last year that confining black history to just one month was not a good idea.

"It's not that Black History Month is wrong; it is that it is misused. Having a special time to celebrate the contributions of African Americans to American history is wonderful, but when it is used as a substitute for teaching black history to all students all year round, we are stunting the educational growth of students of all colors and backgrounds." Riley said in an interview with Aol Black Voices. "Talk to students. See how many think that Martin Luther King Jr. freed the slaves," she added.

As part of her effort to move Black history into the mainstream, Riley has started One America, One History. It is an effort to lobby states to "use textbooks that tell a full history of America and their states, not one that mentions a few historical contributions of black Americans, like commercials in a narrative," Riley said.

The goal is to have students discussing Harriett Tubman or Frederick Douglass in October and April, not just in February.

"We begin with textbooks and classrooms. We continue by studying and celebrating Black History Month all the time. I, for one, will be giving black history speeches in April," Riley said.


Riley is right. We need to acknowledge that African American history is American history. The African American narrative stretches to every aspect of this country, from before its inception to the election of Barack Obama as president. Our history cannot just be separated into slavery and the civil rights movement.

However, efforts to integrate Black history into American history have been difficult. The New York Times reported last year that New York's Amistad Commission, formed to "promote the teaching of black history in public schools," had yet to meet in the four years since the state legislature created it.

In 2002, William Payne, a former New Jersey state senator, sponsored legislation to incorporate black history into the state's educational core curriculum. The legislation created the Amistad Commission, named for the slaves aboard a cargo ship of the same name who won their freedom, to approve textbooks that show the role of African Americans.

It was the first Amistad Commission in the country and a few others have been created since. Teaching black history as part of U.S. history will allow African Americans to see themselves more in the founding and development of this country, said Payne.

"This will bring about a sea change in the mind of young people. Our kids drop out because they don't see themselves," said Payne. Our kids will have some sense of pride, and white kids will have their eyes opened."

But eight years after the legislation was passed, Payne said his group is still educating school districts and teachers about what the law requires.

"The idea is that American history be taught with the inclusion of and contributions African Americans have made throughout the development of this country, not as a separate Black History Month," said Payne, "It's not where I would like it to be because it takes a while for an idea to germinate and be implanted. We had to get people to understand what we were talking about because they said: 'We already have black history.' We had to overcome the misunderstanding of what we were doing and then the fear."

But Payne said Black History Month is still useful as a supplement.

Until we begin to take steps to truly integrate black history into American history, we need Black History Month to remind us.

The son of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King III agreed:

"Black History Month is absolutely necessary and will continue to be necessary until we change the curriculum in our school system," said King. "History is taught from a Western European perspective and excludes Asians, American Indians and Latinos. Until we are talking about every ethnic group in September, May and June, we still need a Black History Month."

And it's not just that George Washington Carver found a million ingenious uses for the peanut. He demonstrated the contributions that individuals of all races can make when given an opportunity. Born a slave, he also had to overcome tremendous adversity to achieve his successes. He fought for racial harmony. There are hundreds more African Americans like Carver who overcame great adversity to contribute to this country but are not studied anywhere.

"Black History Month is needed more than ever before," said Rev. Jesse Jackson "It can be a teaching moment. We must not romanticize black history. We must use it as a moment to fight for a black future in light of the history of inequity, the history of disparity and the history of denial.

So I guess my opinion has changed a bit since high school. I still think African American history should be integrated into U.S. history, but until we take some solid steps to do so, this country needs to learn more about Carver and his peanuts.