Why Do We Need Black History Month?

Over the past few weeks I have seen multiple comments from people about February being Black History month on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even other blogs. These people are from all backgrounds and ethnicities with the bulk of the comments questioning the “why”.  Each day I look at the calendar and see the year 2012 while at the same time wondering to myself why these people don’t know why yet? So this blog post is an attempt to provide the explanation of why we have a month dedicated to Black History. The reason is the same for why there is a month dedicated to Women in History as well as others.

"An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious - just dead wrong." - Russell Baker

My question to you my dear reader is who is responsible for writing and teaching history? Think about it for a second. I’m waiting…. Does the phrase the pen is mightier than the sword ring a bell? This is my point and my reason for explaining Black History month. If you look at the historical time line of black people in the United States, the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 with another signing in 1968. That is only 44 and 48 years ago, if my math is correct and I do think it is. So if black people have been in this country since 1619, when slaves were first sold at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, that means out of 393 years they have been in this country they have only been considered equal and free for 48 years (and that’s according to the law).  So if the majority black people are considered property for 244 years and then less than equal for another 105 years, can we really assume their contributions in American history have been considered significant enough to be taught? The answer is a big fat “NO!” There was a very small percentage of black people educated enough to write their own history, it was against the law for them to be educated. I went to public schools all of my life and time spent on American History was focused on everyone and everything except black people. The only exception was a couple of mentions regarding slavery and who Martin Luther King, Jr. was but that was it. If it were left up to history books and public schools, one would think that nothing significant in American History was contributed by a black person. This is why there is a need for a focus on Black History. I don’t care if it is just for a month.   

In order to do our part, as if you haven’t noticed, Real. Life. Woman. Talk., has dedicated the entire month of February to Black History month. It is amazing how much I am still learning about black history even today.