There Is Definitely A Need For A Black History Month

The African-American actor Morgan Freeman is quoted in The Guardian (April 18, 2023) as telling a British publication that he considers Black History Month to be an "insult."

"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" Then he goes on to say "Black history is American history; they're completely intertwined." Freeman should be reminded that Black History Month (originally created by the historian Carter G. Woodson as Black History Week to be celebrated every February) came about because black accomplishments were excluded from American history and thought not to be important enough to be studied. Plus, it should be noted, black history is not limited to the United States. There are black people all over the world.

If blacks had been included in the study of American and world history in the first place, there would be no need for a Black History Week or Month. And with efforts by Governor Ron DeSantis to whitewash American history and dictate how it should be taught in Florida institutions of learning, black history is needed now more than ever.

As far as Freeman's objection to the term "African-American" is concerned, my answer to that is, yes, we know Africa is a continent, not a country. But since few, if any, blacks in the United States can point to a specific area of Africa as an ancestral home, we can claim the entire continent because we know it is where our forebears originated.

A Black History Month Reminder

Today is the first day of Black History Month. Be sure to read a few black history books and learn of the contributions black people have made to world history, not just to American history.

Zora Neale Hurston And Ida B. Wells, A Wishful Literary Conversation

February is Black History Month. So if I could go back in time, I would want to be transported to the Harlem Renaissance and sit in a room with novelist/anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston and journalist/anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, two of my favorite African-American historical figures.

Both Hurston and Wells were contemporaries and probably knew about each other. For me it would be a joy to just listen to them exchange ideas and experiences, especially about the American South. Not only would their conversation be eye-opening, it would be intellectually stimulating.

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."

Black History Month 2019

Today is the beginning of Black History Month. Celebrate it with pride and knowledge.

Celebrate Black History Month!

Today is the beginning of Black History Month. Celebrate black achievement in America and throughout the world via books, films, lectures, etc.

New Yorker Front Cover Celebrates Black Achievement

One of the most beautiful and frameworthy magazine covers I've ever seen was the one for the February 22, 2016 issue of The New Yorker by African-American artist Kadir Nelson. It is titled "Schomburg Center, Harlem, New York" and was obviously published in commemoration of Black History Month.

The illustration is a collage consisting of images of such black icons as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Malcolm X, and Duke Ellington (sitting at a white piano). In the lower right hand corner are the ivy-covered building that formerly housed the Schomburg Center and the library's newest building that faces Lenox Avenue and abuts the old location.

I can't think of a better tribute to Black History Month and the role Harlem has played ( and continues to play) in the cultural life of America and the world.

A heartfelt thanks to The New Yorker  for publishing and Kadir Nelson for creating such an awesome and memorable cover.

Barack Obama Is NOT From Kenya

For Black History Month in 1991, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser beer, published Black Facts Booklet which was small enough to fit into a shirt pocket or purse.

Among a handful of glaring errors was a factual one that would have delighted today's conservative pundits: "Barack Obama," noted the booklet, "the twenty-eight-year-old law student from Kenya [emphasis mine] became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review." (And later the first black president of the United States.) First of all, Obama would have been closer to thirty years old in 1991 and secondly, he was born in the state of Hawaii, not Kenya, which would make him an American citizen and eligible to run for president. His father, on the other hand, was the one born in Kenya. He met Obama's mother when he was an exchange student in Hawaii.

So the Black Facts Booklet was not as factual as the title would have readers believe.