NAN Youth Move

Is Black History still needed? by Mary Pat Hector

The month of February goes hand in hand with Black History. During this month we will see so many commercials with Martin Luther King Jr. quotes and pictures of legendary African-American athletes and African-American “firsts” such as Tiger Woods,  breaking the color barrier in Golf. While it is always great to see the images of  strong black Americans, my peers have asked me if Black History still needed.

I did not have to think hard about this one “YES; the answer is yes now more than ever. Even if  our population continues to become more diverse, African Americans seem not to be able to get their piece of the pie. Why is this?

I am glad my friends had this discussion. It helped me to do what I think was my part for Black History. As I asked my friends did they Know Henry “Box” Brown: a slave that was delivered to freedom by mailing himself to freedom. Or the first black female U.S. Representative was Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983 or heart surgery pioneer: Daniel Hale Williams, 1893. Member of the New York City Opera:Todd Duncan, 1945. Sad to say they did not. Now I was not taught about these people in school, but by research and my parents.

If we are honest with ourselves the black history that we are taught about a few African Americans and let me tell you there are thousands of African Americans that have made great contributions to the world. Such as Bertram F Baker, 4/27/1926, Automatic Cashier orEdmond Berger, 2/2/1839, Spark plug, Bessie Blount 1951, Device to help the disabled eat and so many more.

I ask myself is this done on purpose?  Other Cultures have gotten rich from our lack of knowledge . We have enslaved ourselves without any physical slavery: IGNORANCE, MONEY, and EGOMANIAC.

IGNORANCE: If we continue not to teach each other then we will believe that only a few African American did great things. With all the technology we can no longer use the excuse they did not teach us in school. We need to take the time to read the many books on the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet we refuse to read the many books that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality. One such book “Where Do We Go From Here”. By Dr. King

Material things: Our community has a large amount of money yet we spend our money on things that really does not matter instead of spending it on our schools and in our own communities. Just think about the money spent on spinners and flashy purses.  We need to stop being consumers and start being investors.

EGOMANIAC: One of the ways to keep us from knowing who we are is by division, we work hard and gain success we need to remember where we came from and give back so that collectively we can do better as a people. We will never achieve the what we want unless more of us do the same we must understand that your success is our success. We must learn to simply love our neighbor and our history. Until then we will need Black history.