Black history is not something that is simply marked by a couple of days or a single day in a year—black history is a long list of achievements, cultural intricacies, and global impacts that have been established by the Black community for millennia.
People often say that black history began with slavery but black history began way before white European settlers brought Africans to America as slaves intolerance labor—which is a story we all know well.
But while we’ve heard of the story of slavery a thousand times, what many history books neglect is the reality that African-Americans faced when it came to perserving their idenity.
The cultural history of African Americans is simply one of resilience.
During slavery, slaves taken from Africa—which were often times free black individuals who were kidnapped in the streets—would get new names from their slave masters to remove all tribal ties that they had previously held. The presence of this institution generated the mass division of Native Africans and loss of African culture during the Atlantic Slave Trade—and it is exactly because of this as to why many people can’t trace their family lineage or ethnicity.
But the resilience of African-Americans trying to preserve their culture is undeniable. There were many movements of resistance orchestrated by Blacks and allies in America, including the Underground Railroad, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma to Montgomery March. Through it all, Black leaders, artists, writers, and musicians emerged, shaped, and fought for the character and identity of the “free Black individual”.
This we would see in a gigantic climax during the late months of the year 1960, where the civil rights movement and a growing awareness of black identity began.
Today, many people believe we have progressed into an equal society, with some individuals going as far as demanding to cancel Black History Month or institute a “White History Month.” Because of this, a main question has emerged surrounding the Month: is Black History Month still relevant? Or has it simply become no more than a month that passes by with limited meaning in today’s society?
The truth is—yes, Black History Month is still very much relevant to our society.
Just because we don’t see white and colored signs on drinking fountains doesn’t mean Black History Month has lost its importance.
The presence and importance of African Americans in society cannot be denied: from major influences in the music industry such as Michael Jackson and Tupac Shukar, to huge literary figures such as Maya Angelou, black people have built a culture up from the remains of what was once lost.
Black History month is still a beacon of change and hope that is still needed in this world. Slavery is no longer legal in America and the chains that shackled millions of individuals on the basis of their skin color are now gone—but the effects still linger today.
Black History Month is here to remind us of not just how far we have come, but also to show us how far there is still left to go.
After enduring years of torture and erasure, what was once known as “Negro History Week” has expanded to the annual celebration of Black History Month as a way to ensure that the perseverance and strength shown during centuries of slavery and Jim Crow Laws are never forgotten.
