Beyond the Month: What are the True Stories of Black History?

When thinking about “Black History Month” as a celebration, many of us have a small recollection or memory of a small project or church program, but how many of us can say that we were actually submerged in our history before we had the autonomy to research and teach ourselves? How many of us were made to know how important the history of our ancestors and those who made a difference in our world now are? How many of us saw a true intention from our educators to tell us stories of empowerment and of variety? Beyond the month of Black history, is there a place of important on who we have been and who we are as a people?

When exploring the stories of “Black History Month”, I expected to see a multitude of stories of empowerment, of pride in how far we’ve come as a people and our development as a race, but what I saw in turn was disheartening, to say the least. When thinking about the older generation, there is a constant dialogue between the older and younger about what we should be more appreciative of as a race and given advice to always put into perspective what our ancestors endured for us. Instead, I saw the older generation talking about the past and current lacking on an expansion of the importance of not only Black History Month but Black history as a whole.

The 107th US Colored Infantry stand guard during the Civil War, circa 1865.

Stories unknown, stories unheard, stories that don’t support the “slave narrative” or the belief that Black people as a race are inferior.

From educators to entertainers, there is a concern amongst African Americans about the fate of our history—

“Talk about yourself. What about your own value? Who are you? Uhh, uhh--like that. That's very--especially in the '60s [1960s] and '70s [1970s]. I mean, the, the problems I had with just telling people that our ancestors put us on the boat. That was horrifying to people. What does that do to history books? Those stories are--how are you going to have any dignity in those stories? And every year, once a year, you get a week, then it turns to be a month [Black History Month] to, to, to immerse yourself in stories that only keep you down-”

-Barbara Ann Teer ((June 18, 1937 – July 21, 2008) was an American writer, producer, teacher, actress and social visionary. In 1968, she founded Harlem’s National Black Theatre) the first revenue-generating black theater arts complex in the U.S)

“Oh, okay. But yet, this system failed and because it failed, we're living in the condition that we are today because if those kids, kids like myself, had learned history and like white kids say, European kids say, "Well, we had King of England and King of Austria." We got King of Nigeria, King of Ghana. We came from noble birth too. Then we were equal. And then they would have understood us better. Then there would have been a mutual respect, but Africa was always shrouded in mystery, and when you find mystery and ignorance about the fact--ignorance breeds fear and fear breeds hatred, and that's why you have all this stuff in this country now.”

 “Said, you need to know where you came from because we didn't have black history when I was in school. We had Negro History Week, and now we have Black History Month. The shortest month of the year, but still. We need to have those studies in schools along with English lit and world history. Okay.”

Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. ( August 20, 2942- August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer.

“But we don't hear about them. We are the inheritors of the slave narrative which was used as a propaganda tool by the abolitionists. They couldn't deal with the fact that Black people had been resisting in a non-violent way, as well as a violent way. They had to project 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' as if the entirety of slavery were black people being beaten down.”

“We've got a whole group of people out there who think that they've invented the wheel, who aren't aware of our history and the kind of tradition of which I and others spring. Black history is not taught. It's not taught. What they call "Black History" is putting up the 'Ebony Honor Roll of Black Heroes'. Just dealing with prominent blacks is not about history. You know. What were we doing as a people? Who were we? What happened after so called Emancipation when certain--suddenly we were a people without capital, without land, without resource?”

“What you described, I just want to say this for anybody watching this. People don't understand that when [Carter G.] Woodson founded Black History Month, or Negro History Week, rather, he founded it as a time to show off projects you worked on the entire year. A lot of people think that's the only time we're supposed to celebrate, because that week's the time to celebrate it, I mean the time to do the research, but he encouraged the research to be done ahead of time, so it would be like a science fair. Negro History Week would be the time when you would show your projects off.”

Television anchor, newspaper columnist, and book publisher Carol Randolph-Jasmine (1941 - ) , co-founder of Akin & Randolph Agency, LLC, is the former co-host of the morning talk show, “Harambee,” which aired on WUSA-TV, a CBS affiliate in Washington D.C. She received an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award for “Outstanding Local Programming."

Samuel Eldred Greenlee, Jr. (July 13, 1930 – May 19, 2014) was an American writer of fiction and poetry. He is best known for his novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“Even today for instance if you are with, with the given of Black History Month which we obviously know is is not only a short month, but it, it, it glorifies you know like Booker T. [Booker T. Washington] or W.B. Du Bois [W.E.B Du Bois]. Now occasionally a Malcolm [Malcolm X] or, or some other characters are put in there but the, the real truth of what happened in the whole black and African struggle and the whole African heritage, that story still isn't told.”

Jack Arnett Kirkland was born on October 28, 1931 in Blythedale, Pennsylvania. He attended Syracuse University, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Honor Society, and received his B.A. degree in international relations in 1959, and his M.S. degree in social services. He co-founded the Black Studies Department (now African American Studies) at Washington University in 1974, and served as department chair.

There was and still is room to grow in the pursuit of wider awareness of Black History, not only as Black people but also as a country. We as Black Americans, and the African diaspora in general, are a part of the fabric of world and U.S. history no matter where we reside. Emphasizing more in-depth and various Black history, not just during Black History Month, but also continuously throughout the yearly curriculum, will change the narrative about the perceived “nuisance” of Black history.

THROUGH THE EDUCATION OF BLACK HISTORY, THIS IS HOW WE DISCOVER THESE UNIQUE AND UNDERRATED STORIES OF THE BLACK AMERICAN HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE.