There are people, many of whom are young adults, who would like to eliminate Black History Month because all human history should be included when teaching any history course.
I agree, but I really had to mull this idea over. What should be and what is are two very different pictures.
I understand that in my lifetime I have witnessed great changes.
For now, I lean toward hanging onto the designation of Black History Month in February.
We have a long way to go still. There are so many people who were never acknowledged before and so positively contributed to the world.
There are also so many people who have not wrapped their heads around equality. Many of those people are in powerful positions and will likely continue to be for some time.
The following are just a few of the trailblazers in black history on this last day of Black History Month:
Right up my alley is Thomas Morris Chester, a reporter for the Philadelphia Press who was the only black man to cover the Civil War for a major daily newspaper. He was right there when Union troops seized the Confederate capital.
Daisy Bates and her husband started a newspaper in 1941 -- the Arkansas State Press. The paper was a voice for civil rights before the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1940, Dr. Charles Drew invented the blood bank.
In 1893, Daniel Hale Williams became a heart surgery pioneer.
Bessie Coleman became a licensed pilot in 1921.
In 1917, Eugene Jacques Bullard was denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps because he was black, which was obviously a great loss to the U.S. He went ahead and joined the French Flying Corps during World War I and received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black aviators in the U.S. armed forces. In World War II they flew 1,578 combat missions. During one six-month stretch they didn't lose a single P-51 bomber that they escorted into enemy territory.
In 1870, Hiram Revels from Mississippi became Senator.
Joseph Rainey from South Carolina became a Congressman in 1870 and was re-elected four more times.
In 1848, Macon Bolling Allen became the first U.S. black Justice of the Peace.
In 1932, Jane Bolin was the first black woman to become a judge in the United States.
Fighting for Rights
1930s -- Ella Baker was known for fighting for civil rights for 50 years. She was a mentor to Rosa Parks.
"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in." -- Rosa Parks
Septima Poinsette Clark is known as the "Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement." Clark played a major role for implementing the voting rights for black people. She was a teacher in 1920 who tutored black adults and promoted literacy. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented her a Living Legacy Award.
Abraham Lincoln said it way back when, "Achievement has no color."
Acknowledge and remember history. Don't treat it as a disconnected and distant memory.
It doesn't have to be spelled out at a water fountain -- racism and segregation remains.
We have a responsibility to continue the work of all the people from our past, for all the people of our present and our future.
It is only right. It is only fair.
"We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor of Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 32 or by email at email@example.com.