I'm sure by now you have heard that February is Black History Month. So what does that mean? Black History Month, or National African-American History Month, is a month set aside to celebrate the successes and contributions African Americans have in made in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” which was started by in 1926 by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). It has grown so that since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. An interesting thing to note is that this is no longer strictly a U.S. tradition. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.
The question I ask is, Why? Why is there a Black History Month? Now before you stop reading, I want to assure you that I am all for learning about African Americans and how much they have helped our nation become what it is today. So, let me be a bit more specific. Why only a month? Why do people feel the need to set aside a month so that they can be recognized? The only logical answer is that we are not emphasizing them and their contributions in the rest of the year.
Yesterday I saw an interview with Morgan Freeman show up on my Facebook timeline. In this interview, he says that he finds Black History Month "ridiculous". The reporter incredulously asks why. "You're going to relegate my history to a month," responds Morgan, "Black History is American History." That's the way we should all view it throughout the year. For comparison, what if there was a Native American History Month, or Polish History Month, or English History Month? As soon as you try to set aside a time to promote a certain demographic's history to a single month you end up confining it to that month. We no longer learn about famous African Americans in the other eleven months of the year because February is the time for that. This is not a step we should be taking.
So what should we do? We should endeavor to learn all we can at all times. Several weeks ago, on Christmas, a film was released called Hidden Figures. It is this amazing movie about how several African American women were pivotal in the success of our space program and that without them we would not have gotten a man in space in anywhere near as quick a time as we did. It's an amazing bit of history that I never knew. But was it advertised as Black History? Was it released in February during Black History month? No, and that's because it's not only Black history, its American History. What they accomplished, along with the other numerous achievements of African Americans, affects all of us. So while we celebrate February as Black History Month, realize that it should not be confined to a single month and make it a point to learn about other races and nationalities whenever the opportunity arises.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.
