Highlighting the contributions of African Americans
Black History Month is to me more than a time of celebration of the achievements that African Americans have made to American society. It is a time of learning, reflection, discovery, and pride in the accomplishments African Americans have made in spite of hardships and limitations.
As we celebrate, we should remember that one of the main purposes of Black History Month is to educate – not just Black people, but all people.
Dr. Carter Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, to celebrate the contributions of African Americans to America’s life and history. He realized that there were many untold stories about Black history; consequently, there was a perception that Black people did not contribute much.
Most of our history was left out of our educational system. Many years ago, there was a film produced and shown to the American public titled “Black History: Lost, Stole, or Strayed.” This film revealed some history that had not been made known to the general public. As a result, I enrolled in a Black History class at Columbia University as a Ford Foundation Fellow, under their Leadership Development Program.
Black history became to me like an onion with many layers. As I peeled one layer, it became evident to me that Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was the first person to die in the American Revolution, and that Black people fought in the Revolutionary War for America’s freedom. This knowledge encouraged me to peel back another layer. That’s when I discovered that African Americans were responsible for discovering peanut butter, the potato chip, blood plasma, and the refrigeration that kept trucks cold as they transported perishable items across the country.
I needed to know more, so I peeled another layer. I continued to be amazed because I discovered that African Americans had invented the street sweeper, the fountain pen, automatic elevator doors, the pencil sharpener, the traffic light, gas masks, and the ironing board.
There are still layers to the onion. The final layers that I peeled back for this article were that Matthew Henson, the first man to reach the North Pole, was an African American and, along the way, I discovered that Black cowboys existed.
On another note, imagine the pride I felt when a few years ago I gave a lecture at Iowa State University and I passed by a building named after George Washington Carver, an African American agricultural scientist and inventor.
We have only begun to scratch the surface about the contributions of African Americans to America’s history. Let us peel the onion together and make new discoveries that will lead us to a greater appreciation of one another.
In 1969, it was proposed that Negro History Week be changed to Black History Month. In 1970, the first celebration of Black History Month was celebrated at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.