Figure 1.--Gilbert Moseley and Harold Oliver looking at the busts of Jean Baptist DuSable and Booker T. Washington are learning about these two great African-American men at the Ebony Museum of Negro Historty and Art in Chicago on February 13, 1962. |
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The black experience and contribution to Americam life is an important topic. There is no douby that for many that the black contribution to America was in virtual Soviet style, air brushed from history. There are counless examples. One of the men shot by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre massacre was a black man--Cyprus Attucks (1770). Few illustrations depicted this until the 1970s. And as a result of the Lost Cause historical movement, the role of black soldiers in saving the Union during the Civil War was downplayed as well as the key role that slavery played in brining about the War. And until the 1970s, the role of Black Buffalo soldiers on the Western Frontier was generally passed over. Try to find a black calavalry trooper in the countless Western made before the 1970s. Thus there is undeniably a need to restore this miscarriage of history. Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Rev. Jesse E. Moorland in the midst of the 1910s resurgence of the Ku-Klux-Klan co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) (1915). Their goal was to research and publicize the important role blacks have played in American and world history. Woodson published and distributed his research in The Journal of Negro History. His goal was to counter the rascist notion that unbiased historical reserarch would dispel the wudely held view that blacks had not played an important role in American culture. This attitude also affected how blacks looked at themselves. The goal was to inspire the sane pride that other American groups like the Irish and Italians have in their heritage. Woodson helped convince thed Omega Psi Phi fraternity to sponsor Negro History and Literature Week (1920). Woodson changed the name to Negro History Week (1926). He selected February for the event because two key individuals were born in thst month: Abraham Lincoln (Februry 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). Woodson and the ANSLH began preparing teaching materials. The effort gained ground when as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, school districts began sponsoring Black History Week. The event is now wideky adopted in American schools. ASNLH is now the the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and continues to promote black history. The focus most black history programs is to celebrate individuals who have made important contrinutions. That nay be best for younger children, but it strikes us that the black history programs often fail to present a more sophisticated assessment to older students. And some programs focus on the negative past rather than modern America. There is commonly a eagerness to condemn white racism and a reluctance to address aspects of black life that is perpetuating social failure.
The black experience and contribution to Americam life is an important topic. There is no douby that for many that the black contribution to America was in virtual Soviet style, air brushed from history. There are counless examples. One of the men shot by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre massacre was a black man--Cyprus Attucks (1770). Few illustrations depicted this until the 1970s. And as a result of the Lost Cause historical movement, the role of black soldiers in saving the Union during the Civil War was downplayed as well as the key role that slavery played in brining about the War. And until the 1970s, the role of Black Buffalo soldiers on the Western Frontier was generally passed over. Try to find a black calavalry tooper in the countless Western made before the 1970s. Thus there is undeniably a need to restore this miscarriage of history.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Rev. Jesse E. Moorland in the midst of the 1910s resurgence of the Ku-Klux-Klan co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) (1915). Their goal was to research and publicize the important role blacks have played in American and world history. Woodson published and distributed his research in The Journal of Negro History. His goal was to counter the rascist notion that unbiased historical reserarch would dispel the wudely held view that blacks had not played an important role in American culture. This attitude also affected how blacks looked at themselves. The goal was to inspire the sane pride that other American groups like the Irish and Italians have in their heritage. Woodson helped convince thed Omega Psi Phi fraternity to sponsor Negro History and Literature Week (1920). Woodson changed the name to Negro History Week (1926). He selected February for the event because two key individuals were born in thst month: Abraham Lincoln (Februry 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). Woodson and the ANSLH began preparing teaching materials. The effort gained ground when as a result of the Civil RFights Movement, school districts began sponsoring Black History Week. The event is now wideky adopted in American schools. ASNLH is now the the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and continues to promote black history.
We do not see much discussion of how blsck history should be approsched. The focus most black history programs is to celebrate individuals who have made important contrinutions. If you search the internet you see a lot of Blasck History sites that are essentially lists. Lists are fine, but you would hope to find internet sites and scghool programs that are more probing. Focus on important individuals may be best for younger children, but it strikes us that the black history programs often fail to present a more sophisticated assessment to older students.
And this is important because youths by the time they reach high school are capable of critical thought. And no matter how long a list of important blacks one can produce, threy are going to be longer lists of whites. Here there is no only the population numbers to consider, but the fact that not only were blacks denined education, but southern states passed law prohibiting the education of blacks. There appears to be a general reluctance to present the more obvious and critical riole thst blacks have plzyed in American life. The industrialization of the United States began in anhte-bedllusm America, And that industrialization was largely financed by exports from the South. Cotton in particular was the major export commodity in the critical period of the 1820s-50s. Thus it was unpaid blasck labor that fimanced the ctitical early stage of industrialization. One can see that in American export data and it is menorialized in the U.S. capitol. Throughout the Capitol, the cotton and tobacco flower is used in the ceiling motifs. Or in world history, we note efforts to deny the obvious, that Africa not produced the great civilizations found in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Efforts to present Great Zimbabwe or a few Egyptian pharoes only confirm the idea in critical thinking stidents that blacls are not capable of high culture. Historian Jared Diamond has presented some useful ideas addressing this subject. But Black History Week programs seem more interested in denying the obvious.
And some programs focus on the negative past rather than modern America. There is commonly a eagerness to condemn white racism and a reluctance to address aspects of black life that is perpetuating social failure. White racism is a matter of historical fact. And including it in a black history program is entirely justified. But often black history programs do not adequately explain how chaning thought among whites after World War II was a continuation of the American historical process. The role of Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders was critical was of copurse critical, but it would have not suceeded unless large numbers of whites had begun to question the rascist ideas of previous generations. Few blsck history programs explain how the American political and social process made thuis possible. To often the Civil Rights Movement is portrayed as evuidenbce of white racusm rather than one of a series of lsrgely non-violent liberating movemednts through which America has made possible. Another major problen with black history weeks is a tendency to assoiciate racism with blacks and go ignore racism in other countries and among other peoples. Modern black leaders have also perpetrated the absurd idea that only whites can be racists and that black ethnic prejudice is not racism. A further problem withn black history programs is to equate especially vocal individuals sych as Malcomv X or Al Sharpton as positive leaders. And perhaps the most damaging aspect is the tendency to simply site racism when discussing problems blacks face in America rather than facing up to behavioral problems prevalent in the black community.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel
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