February 2024
Black History is American History
In a New York Times article from February 25th, 2021 by Veronica Chambers, a quote resonated with my 2024 self:
Dr. [Carter G.] Woodson believed that “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” To that end, he asked his Omega Psi [Phi] Fraternity brothers to join him in the work of spreading the importance of Black history.
In 2002 as a public school teacher, every year from September through the end of the school year in June, I posted in the center above my blackboard (and eventually a whiteboard) the message: Black History is American History, 365 Days.
At some point during the early months of the school year adults and students alike sometimes asked about the message or would acknowledge the message. There were always a few who wanted to challenge the message. I never backed down.
I only had one principal to ask me to take it down since Black History was only celebrated in February. I did not remove the message. I explained that Black history is very much American history and went into a litany of well known American history events that included people of color from the beginning of what would become America.
If anyone stared long enough at the message, I would share bits of history many, Black or White, did not know was common knowledge among better informed people (especially Black people).
Which brings me to Black History Month. Growing up in a home with parents who graduated from historically black colleges and universities and with two bookshelves lined with Carter G. Woodson's Journal of Negro History, black history was everyday. The tomes held dense, specific writing that often required explanation of parent to child. Black History Week was celebrated at school.
Woodson sometimes used drawings published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization he founded, to attract readers. (The ASNLH was later renamed Association for the Study of African American History) The annotated comic book-like drawings were far easier to understand and geared for school children and adults.
(Those years "Negro" was the more common term to identify people of color. "Colored" was also commonly used. Once when I was a teen, I was called a "darky," while browsing in a dress shop. I don't think I have to even mention how callously the "n" word was thrown around.)
Today, unless you live in a predominantly white influenced community it is not hard to find resources of black American influence from food, fashion, businesses, to technology. And black history as American history is indeed becoming common knowledge, bit by bit.
I'm looking forward to going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC to see the art exhibition of The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism opening February 25th-July 28th, 2024. Art of Harlem Renaissance & Modernism
