By Barry CurtisI am not a proponent of Black History month. It’s not that I don’t want to illuminate the amazing accomplishments of black people throughout history. It’s just because I don’t know why there is a month dedicated to it.
Black History Month, or Negro History Week as it was originally called, was started in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a historian of some note. It was originally a weeklong celebration. The celebration was to honor the birth of Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas, both born in February; Lincoln on the 12th and Douglas on the 14th. The Negro community at the time had large celebrations of the two political figures. It wasn’t until Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976 did it become truly a national event.
Here are my issues with this Black History month. Why is it that black people only get a month to celebrate black history? We can’t celebrate all year long? How can we sum up all of our accomplishments and national contributions in a month? I resent the month that we get. Why do black people get the year’s shortest month to celebrate black history? In England the month of October is used to celebrate black history. This black history mess seems to encourage hero worship. We seem only to recognize a few people in history and leave out many more contributors that deserve the same attention.
I ask this to those that celebrate black history month, what about Native American history? Or white Anglo-Saxon history? Do they deserve a month?
Fundamentally this is the point about the myth of a Black History Month. Black history is AMERICAN history. Black people’s contributions are interwoven with the sacrifice, courage, and pride with all the other races’ contributions to this amazing country. When we segregate our historical contributions we separate our purpose and corrupt our unity. We have had enough divisions through the use of hyphens after our race such as African-Americans and Irish-Americans. Enough hyphens already. How about a national American month or better yet let’s celebrate our heritage all year?
The American experience should be a national experience where we can all proudly enumerate our shared sacrifice and honor those that have gone before us. Here is the myth-buster: we are all Americans without hyphenation or dedicated months that simply divide.
Barry Curtis can be contacted via www.thecurtisreport.com.
Mr. Curtis sounds like he thinks the dominant forces in this country have always been passionately in love with the idea of telling the true history of black people in this country. In fact; the opposite was true in 1926 and is still true today. To allow Curtis’ half baked assessment of Black History Month to go unchallenged is to disrespect over seventy years of a peoples’ movement in the right direction.
Thank you for responding – this column is clearly an example of allowing diverse voices – and then leaving it to the readers to share their thoughts on his view. Appreciate your input as usual.
I don’t “hate” Black History month, and I will always appreciate the efforts that others made in order for it to become a reality. However, it’s long past time that our history was taught consistently throughout the year in conjunction with all other American history. In spite of American history’s having been taught from the standpoint of the dominant race in this country, the demographics are slowly but surely changing so that that majority is diminishing. Besides, the ignorance of our country’s history in its entirety–which includes the experiences of Americans of all races–helps to perpetuate the ignorance that in turn perpetuates racial prejudices. It’s also a sad commentary that many foreigners can be found who have a more all-encompassing knowledge of American history than many of us born here, regardless of our own ethnicities.