What I think of Black History Month

When you ask me about Black History Month I think about a lot of things. One of the things I think about is what it would have been like when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of baseball, or to have actually been on the same bus as Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat to a white man. I think of Black History Month as a reminder of the many great things that African Americans have done to prove that we could do anything.
Unfortunately, that’s not how other people have seen it. In fact, there are a lot of people who don’t know that much about this part of history. The main reason for this is because the school system doesn’t adequately teach much of the black side of history. Black History was included in my high school’s history curriculum, but oftentimes sugarcoated and watered-down. For instance, when we were learning about the Civil War, my teacher stated that slavery was not the main reason for the war.
One reason why more people don’t like to celebrate Black History Month is because people often don’t want to be reminded of the negative side of this history; the part when African Americans were bought and sold like property.
The part when even though African Americans were considered American citizens and given the right to vote, Jim Crow laws would prevent them from exercising that right.
The point being that people do not like being reminded of the bad things from the past. But that is exactly why we have to remember our history, to learn from it and make sure we don’t make the same mistake as the people in the past.
Another reason why people don’t like to celebrate Black History Month is the same as to why people don’t like history in general. Because they think that it is just a bunch of useless facts and dates that they’re never going to need to know, however, that is simply not true.
African American history is also important to know in order to evaluate how far our people have come and even see sometimes how close we got. There were more than just MLK and Rosa Parks.
There was also a man named Caesar Baron, a colored man who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Yes, a colored man who fought in the most famous war in American History. Not many people know about this because it is not explored enough.
The point that I’m trying to make is this; I love Black History Month, and to me it serves as a reminder. Yes, some bad things happened, but so did some very incredible things that people thought would be impossible for us to accomplish. However, there were people brave enough to prove them wrong, and this is the month when we get to show everyone just how far we’ve come. So, this year instead of being ashamed of the past or thinking that it’s useless to learn about our history, let’s embrace it. Let’s show the people of America that we can do anything because we did it before.
Let’s learn from the people of our past, so that we can be as great as them in the future.