Black History Month, Do We Need It?

As we all know the month of February, since 1976 has been designated to be Black History Month. Originally Black History Month used to be Black History Week and was created in 1926 when Carter G. Woodson and his organization, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History or ASALH announced that the second week of February would become known as Black History Week. At the time since its creation it was met with positive responses which lead to its growth in popularity over the decades leading to its expansion to a month and its adoption by the United Kingdom and Canada. However over the years there has been an increasing concern over whether or not the month truly still serves any purpose and whether or not it was fair to dedicate a single month to the history of one race. One notably critic of the month would be actor, Morgan Freeman. In 2006, in a CBS interview with Mike Wallace, Freeman stated that he found the concept of Black History month to be “ridiculous” and that "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history." During my time in Elementary School and High School the faculties would be encourage us to celebrate the month and sometimes even incorporated within their daily programs during that month. In my High School years specifically I, myself began to wonder whether or not Black History Month was something we truly needed at this point in time in which African Americans are largely represented in things such as politics and literature.

Recently I’ve read an article that has discussed that matter of Black History Month. The article was written by writer, Nadra Kareem Nittle, who has written for a number of publications on race and politics. In the article, Nittle discusses whether or not Black History Month has outlived its usefulness and brings up arguments for and against Black History Month. I believe her article to be well written and that she does a good job in going in depth of those for and those against the Black History Month. As mentioned in her article, before the time Carter G. Woodson and his organization started Black History Month, the history of African Americans had been largely distorted, ignored, and left out. This led Woodson to create what was originally known as Negro History Week as a way for to explore Black history and instill pride within the race. Thanks to its creation and popularity there was a large increase in the curriculum of African American studies that helped to fill in certain missing parts of American history involving Black America.

In Nittle’s article, the argument for the side for Black History Month is that the annual observance still has uses to teach those still unaware of our history in this nation by connecting to our ancestors, addressing current issues that we face today, and helping the black community to progress. Nittle mentions that if the observance can be used as platform to outline strategies to improve the community then it is possible for the observance to remain important for the community. In the argument against, it is believed that the month is “shallow” as students receive little background on the historical context in which the historical figures lived and fail to grasp the importance of certain inventions or actions of certain African American figures. Thinking back to my time in High School, I can attest to this as I was mostly taught on whom certain figures were and what were their inventions, but the teachers had never gone in full depth of these figures and what the importance was of them and their inventions. Another argument for those against is that they find the month to be racist because it relegates the celebration of African American history to a single month. Nittle also brings up that while Woodson had created the month to celebrate our history and bring awareness he had also hoped that African American would be so integrated that there wouldn’t be a need for singling it out in one week, which is now a month.

The side I am on is the side against Black History Month, as I do not see the need for it anymore. It has been mention, and not just by Nittle that Carter G. Woodson had expressed hope that there would be no more need to singling out a week to celebrate history and that it would eventually lead to it outliving its usefulness because he felt that African Americans would be so integrated in society there be no point of it anymore. I believe that the Black History Month has accomplished what Woodson had wanted it to because African Americans are so integrated in everything nowadays. I believe it we are at point in time where we need to simply accept that our history is one and the same. Black History Month was a good starting point and Woodson was able to lay out great groundwork for the road ahead, but I believe it’s time that we move on from this. Rather than reduce the history of our group to one month we should speak more of our history through a larger portion of the year. We are integrated in this society, that I simply just don’t see a point anymore.

 http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/IsBlackHistoryMonthRelevant_2.htm