Morgan Freeman Calls Black History Month Ridiculous

Black Folks We'd Like To Remove From Black History

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As happy as we are for the nation to get its yearly reminder that black people do exist in the context of American history, there’s a growing list of characters that has us harking back to Zora Neale Hurston’s famous words: “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” Indeed, while we love our own, we sure do dream of erasing a few of them from the history books. Some are politicos, others are pop culture figures, but they all share one common attribute: They’re embarrassing. CONTINUE....

Joe Biden On Black History: 'A Lot More To Do, but Damn, We've Come A Long Way'

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By Sophia A. Nelson

Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden welcomed over 120 elected African-American officials and their guests to their official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory this Tuesday in honor of Black History Month.

Biden, who had just returned from a trip to Ft. Campbell Kentucky, was in a very reflective mood, as his wife Dr. Jill Biden welcomed several distinguished members of the Congressional Black Caucus, mayors, state legislators, county officials and former elected leaders such as Wellington Webb who served three terms as Mayor of Denver Colorado.

The vice president talked about the importance of Black History Month as he recounted his recent meeting with young pre-teen African-American football players at Ft. Campbell (who are the offspring of deployed U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq), to his becoming an attorney in 1968 just after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and the subsequent riots), and finally to his train ride with then President-elect Obama in January 2009 as the newly elected vice president-elect to the nation's first ever black Commander-in-Chief. CONTINUE....

Crisis In Egypt: Their Problem Is Our Problem

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When protesters in Egypt called for a "Million Man March" to mark the one-week anniversary of their Jan. 25 uprising against Hosni Mubarak's 30-year autocratic rule, they did what many African-American public figures have yet to do: draw on the history and example of the black freedom movement to express support for the ongoing global struggle for democracy. With some exceptions (Cornel West being the most notable), members of the black intelligentsia have yet to provide significant commentary on the democratic aspirations being expressed so strongly and courageously in recent months in Arab countries in Africa and Asia. But even if some of us in America remain slow to take up the mantle of our own historical legacy, people around the world are taking note (just as Black History Month commences, no less). CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Dr. John A. Kenney

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Dr. John A. Kenney was a health care pioneer for African-Americans, with 46 years of dedication to the National Medical Association. A farm boy and son of former slaves, Dr. Kenney founded the first full-service hospital for African-Americans alongside Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. CONTINUE....

Revisionism Reminds Us Why We Need Black History Month

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By Deron Snyder

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was the 16-year-old valedictorian of his high school class in 1964 -- also known as "Freedom Summer" -- when the slaying of three civil rights workers punctuated escalating racial violence in his state. What does he remember about the time? "Not much," he told The Associated Press recently. What he does remember is revisionist, including claims that his generation attended integrated schools and the racist White Citizens' Councils were civil rights champions.

In October, it was discovered that a textbook in Virginia elementary and middle schools claimed that thousands of black soldiers fought for the South in the Civil War. According to "Our Virginia," among the hordes of African-Americans fighting for the Confederacy were "two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson." Though Confederate apologists make similar assertions, most historians reject the claims, the textbooks have been pulled and the publisher is replacing them at no cost to the schools. CONTINUE....

Obama Aside, We Still Need Black History Month

By: Yanick Rice Lamb

Too many all-nighters from newspaper reporting, term papers and other homework assignments had left me a little groggy. It was the late 70s back at Ohio State University. I was sitting in one of my favorite classes, which focused on black women’s history, and the professor was telling us about Sojourner Truth. “By the way,” she offered as an aside, “Sojourner Truth gave her ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ speech up the road in Akron, Ohio.”

I sat upright so quickly that my head, which had been comfortably propped in my palm, nearly snapped off. I was stunned. I thought about all those Ohio history classes I’d taken from elementary through high school. No one ever said anything about the abolitionist or her 1851 lecture at a national women’s rights convention in my hometown. I had to hear it years later as a young adult, 120 miles away. On my next trip home, I visited the main library downtown to do some research. Turns out that Truth had given her speech a few blocks away, roughly on the former site of the art museum, where I’d spent many Saturdays.

This incident was an early reminder of the vast omissions on the black diaspora in textbooks. It reinforced my commitment as a journalist to tell untold stories and to emphasize the need for all of us to learn more black history and pass on that knowledge. This includes commemorating Black History Month. Since 1994, I’ve worked full time for black companies and institutions. Essentially, I’m thinking about our past and present contributions 24/7. Even though every day is black history day in my world, I still see the importance of shining a spotlight on our heritage. We shouldn’t end Black History Month, as some have suggested, just because President Barack Obama is in the White House.

No achievement, regardless of its magnitude, is reason enough to wipe out Black History Month. People all over the world are still skittish about race. The persistence of hate crimes and stereotypes shows how far we haven’t come. Just think about those who deny any racial overtones in the N.Y. Post's “stimulus” cartoon of a bullet-ridden monkey.

Obama Aside, We Still Need Black History Month....

Don't Protest the New York Post

Obama can fend for himself. We've got better things to worry about during this Black History Month.

By: Lenny McAllister

Yes, I saw the cartoon published by the New York Post. Yes, it was insensitive, and yes, it was racist. Everyone knows that the imagery of a monkey serves as a powerful slur against African Americans, especially black men. The New York Post should be ashamed.

But, if we are going to organize a protest over the conditions black people face in America—especially during Black History Month—are we going to pick this as the cause we get behind?

Do we use our energy to take to the streets to defend the most powerful man in the United States, if not the world, from racism? Do you think Obama really needs us to defend him to the New York Post? Come on. He’s a grown man.

The president doesn’t need Roland Martin venting to the point of bursting his pipes. He doesn’t need the power of the black media to highlight this issue and protest its stench.

President Obama doesn’t need black civil rights leaders to hold press conferences to display our disgust with this thinly veiled and misguided gesture perpetrating as political satire.

If we are going to protest, let’s use the energy from our disgust from the New York Post’s cartoon to protest the conditions in our streets, in our communities and in our communities’ schools.

Don't Protest the New York Post....

Confessions of a Reluctant Flag-Waver

By: William Jelani Cobb

Presidents Day was once a rude interruption to Black History Month, a reminder of whose terms we were on. This Presidents Day I find myself celebrating.

There are cynical luxuries that come with being black in this country, like the ability to shrug off the dime-store rites of patriotism. We've seen America through a perpetually raised eyebrow, the yeah, whatever perspective that comes with the terrain on our side of American history. And here lies Presidents Day. Like July 4th, Thomas Jefferson and NASCAR— it comes awash in the crimson, white and navy trimming meant to remind us of our blessed status as Americans.

For most of my life, Presidents Day has been—aside from a day off—a crass interruption, a retaining wall built into Black History Month to ensure that we don't forget whose terms we're operating on. Even the name lacks purpose—there's no weighty adjective to highlight why a president warrants a holiday; no devotion to, say, those commanders in chief who were assassinated or who led the nation through particularly trying times. Years ago it was known as Washington's Birthday, which virtually guaranteed that some black people would give the notion the stiff-arm because honoring the first president means you are simultaneously celebrating a slaveholder.

But, as with all else concerning this country, it's not that simple. Black history and Presidents Day share an ancestral link in Abraham Lincoln. There was, in the receding tides of black history, a point when many of us admired him. Carter G. Woodson, who understood Lincoln's flaws better than most, nonetheless chose February for his inaugural "Negro History Week" because both Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born that month.

And like all else concerning black people in this country, the interconnectedness of black history and American history has become more complex with age. Since Nov. 4, 2008, it has seemed little more than an indecipherable riddle of identity. There are those who saw the election returns and divined from them a declarative statement, a reply to Frederick Douglass’ enduring question, “What to the slave is the 4th of July?” Or maybe a libation poured for those souls who died clearing the route to this moment.

Confessions of a Reluctant Flag-Waver....