Is it Time to End Black History Month? Has It Lost Its Relevance?

Has Black History Month ran its course? Some claim it is outdated because President Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States.

Is it time to end Black History Month? As you know, February is Black History Month and the debate still rages on whether it's time to end the celebration and incorporate it into a year-round education. Claims that Black History Month is outdated has gained new potency since Barack Obama ascended the presidency, which many feel signals a new chapter in the racial journey of America. Some people believe ending "paternalistic" observances such as Black History Month would lead not only to a reduction in racism, but would encourage whites and other ethnic backgrounds to embrace our differences, enjoy our traditions, without feeling that sense of guilt that inhibits frank and open dialogue, as well as acceptance across different cultures. The reality is that Black History Month, and Hispanic Month for that matter, feels to some like it's only for blacks and Latinos, therefore fail to educate the masses of non-blacks. I can honestly say I haven't paid attention to Hispanic Month activities and history any more than I have in the past. The history of blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, etc., should be year-round.

So, what is the history behind Black History Month? Black historian Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926 (there goes that politically incorrect "negro" word again!), seeking to build self-worth in an oppressed people, to preserve a marginalized subject and to prove to a nation mired in racism, that children of African descent played an integral role in modern civilization. Woodson, only the second African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard (W.E.B. Du Bois being the first), chose February because it was the month Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass celebrated their birthdays. Woodson’s organization, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), expanded the observance to a full month in 1976. Black History Month has now become a fixture in American education and culture, not to mention the commercial aspect. President Barack Obama released an official proclamation on February 2, 2009, in which he lauded “National African American History Month” and called upon “public officials, educators, librarians and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African American history.”

The reality is that racial attitudes can vary greatly from person to person and from place to place, therefore, the feelings on whether Black History Month has run its course will differ vastly. We are tottering on the brink of a post-racial America, but that is still afar way off. My position is that black history should not be relegated to one month and then swept under a rug until the next year. It is American history. Which month is White History month? All hell would break loose if we had one. The reality is that the divisions between white and blacks are not as cavernous or horrific as they were once were. The contributions of famous black Americans, such as Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Elijah McCoy, among others, are well known. We have a black president, for whom millions of whites voted. We should strive to move away from the over-reliance on stereotypes and explore the complex racialized issues that continue to dog us.

Woodson's reasons for creating Black History Month, to rebut the inaccurate, hateful and insulting stereotyping of blacks that have been passed off as knowledge about blacks -- such as canards that blacks are not as intelligent as other races, more prone to criminal behavior, love dancing, love fried chicken and so on -- are still with us to this very day and many people still hold true to those beliefs. That's after nearly one hundred years and a strong civil rights movement. If we are going to have a Black History Month, it should be measured against how accurately it tells our story and serve as a stark reminder of the work yet to be done. While I can fully understand the need to do away with Black History Month that is often portrayed as a catalog of our complaints, rather than as a reminder of our place in American history, it should be embraced. "Absent, too, would be the need for that tragic knowledge which we try ceaselessly to evade: that the true subject of democracy is not simply material well-being but the extension of the democratic process in the direction of perfecting itself," as Ralph Ellison writes in "What America Would Be Like Without Blacks."

We need to be included, not assimilated in American history. When Black History Month returns to that mindset, toward that noble, heartfelt and patriotic goal Carter Woodson intended, then it will no longer be as irrelevant as it is fast becoming today. The wounds of Jim Crow, slavery, overt racism, lynchings and denigration will never heal if we keep picking at the scars. American history has to acknowledge the contributions of blacks and other ethnic backgrounds in a truthful manner and not deliberately excluding the contributions we have made, starting in our classrooms. Only then will we have truly outgrown the need to have Black History month each year.