When longevity has been placed upon you through the mind’s eye, by the Grace of God, it is a Blessing. This Blessing, coupled with the love of reading makes it very difficult not to share my thoughts before this month’s ending. It’s Black History month, and unfortunately, many Blacks have no idea when the celebration of this month began. In 1964, the author James Baldwin reflected on the shortcomings of his education, he wrote: “When I was going to school,” he said, “I began to be bugged by the teaching of American history because it seemed that that history had been taught without cognizance of my presence.” (http://time.com/4197928/history-black-history-month/) Reflecting on his words, for me, it was not until after I was on my second enlistment in the Navy, thru rubbing elbows with white folks when it became apparent I was ignorant of my own existence. Black History Month was first proposed by black educators and the Black United Students at Kent State University in February 1969. However Black History month was not decreed until 1976, twelve years after the Civil Rights Act of1964,. Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) dedicated his life to educating African Americans about the achievements and contributions of their ancestors. Like W.E.B. DuBois, Woodson believed that young African Americans in the early 20th century were not being taught enough of their own heritage. Wilson’s fraternity Omega Psi Phi thereby created Negro History and Literature Week in 1924.

I left school in 1961, and in the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for the eighth-grade U.S. history classes still only mentioned two black people in the entire century of history that had transpired since the Civil War; of which Mr. Booker T. Washington was one. Thousands of Blacks have never been placed in the pages of history, depriving us of the equilibrium in the greatness of our actuality. There is one fact that cannot be ignored, what has been robbed and lost as a people thru oppression can only be retrieved by us as a people. Unfortunately, we as a people in general, don’t read as individuals for knowledge, just to satisfy an immediate need or desire, an attribute of slavery. The proof is in the pudding; for this document alone will most likely be read by less than a dozen and shared maybe once, although I pray it to be wrong. Nonetheless, the truth hurts, for we as a people have evolved with pride, but not with deep-seated knowledge pride.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The following was written by W.E.B. Dubois February 1st, 1903 in his book: “The Souls of Black Folk.” in his Forethought he wrote: “Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line. I pray you, then, receive my little book in all charity, studying my words with me, forgiving mistake and foible for sake of the faith and passion that is in me, and seeking the grain of truth hidden there.”

In Chapter III, of his book, he wrote: (Mind you, this was over 100 years ago.)

“Easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington. It began at the time when war memories and ideals were rapidly passing; a day of astonishing commercial development was dawning; a sense of doubt and hesitation overtook the freedmen’s sons,—then it was that his leading began. Mr. Washington came, with a simple definite program, at the psychological moment when the nation was a little ashamed of having bestowed so much sentiment on Negroes and was concentrating its energies on Dollars. His program of industrial education, conciliation of the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights, was not wholly original. The Free Negroes from 1830 up to war-time had striven to build industrial schools, and the American Missionary Association had from the first taught various trades, and Price and others had sought a way of honorable alliance with the best of the Southerners. But Mr. Washington first indissolubly linked these things; he put enthusiasm, unlimited energy, and perfect faith into his program, and changed it from a by-path into a veritable Way of Life. And the tale of the methods by which he did this is a fascinating study of human life.”

It startled the nation to hear a Negro advocating such a program after many decades of bitter complaint; it startled and won the applause of the South, it interested and won the admiration of the North; and after a confused murmur of protest, it silenced ….. If ….. it did not convert the Negroes themselves.”

If we as a people (not just a few of us) don’t partake in the Glory through the knowledge of who we are, how in the world will anyone else? The more things change, the more they will always stay the same. Each One must teach One with an open mind. Each one Teach One is an African-American proverb. The phrase originated in the United States during slavery, when Africans were denied education, including learning to read.

Happy Black History Month!