Black History Month Suggestions

Last year (February 4,  2019), Dr. Steve Kussin, the education reporter for WCBS Newsradio Eight-Eighty in New York, did a one-minute segment suggesting ways schoolchildren could celebrate Black History Month.

Below are Dr. Kussin's suggestions:

"Listen to some famous speeches such as Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream'; study the landmark court case Brown versus Board of Ed; read the biographies of famous black people such as Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, and Paul Robeson; research famous African-American inventors and performers who made it in the arts; schedule a concert featuring the music from the Civil Rights Movement; read a novel or short story written by an African-American author; plan a dance festival; schedule a concert; plan an exhibit featuring the work of black artists; hold a food festival; search for photos capturing the civil rights struggles; interview people who were active in the movement; view the CNN series Black America; organize an assembly or design a project supporting a charity important to the African-American community. Quite a list."

Indeed, it is quite a list. And a useful one, too. However, despite Dr. Kussin's good intentions, he, like a lot of people in the media, ignore the fact that Black History Month is not just about the accomplishments of black people in the United States. There are and have been black people in other parts of  the world, including, needless to say, sub-Saharan Africa. And to limit the focus to the United States gives schoolchildren a distorted and incomplete view of black history. It renders non-American blacks invisible and unimportant. To be fair, Dr. Kussin did mention Nelson Mandela but that is only one name from outside the United States.

Overlooking black people from outside the United States ignores the fact that various black-led movements such as the Harlem Renaissance (or the New Negro Movement) influenced, and in turn, were influenced by others in the African diaspora.

It is important to reveal these interconnections and cross-pollinations to get a better understanding of black lives, black thinking, and black accomplishments in all of their diversity.

Note: Kussin is pronounced "kew-sin."