In other words, there is no shortage of opportunity to talk about the contributions of whites to America. There has never been a systematic exclusion of whites from the story of America. Black History Month is a response to a world that remains willfully ignorant of the fact that America was built and sustained by the physical and intellectual labor of black bodies.
As a former Philadelphia high-school teacher and current college professor, I am constantly reminded of how little my students of all races know about the history of black people. Sure, they can rattle off the biggies like Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass. But few have heard of C.B. Brooks, who invented the street sweeper; Garrett Morgan, who invented a mechanical sign that was a precursor to the modern traffic light; George Franklin Grant, who invented the golf tee; or Bayard Rustin, a principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington. Black History Month serves as an opportunity to remind the world that every aspect of everyday life has been positively affected by the contributions of black Americans.
Black History Month also serves as a space to remind the world that black life existed before slavery. After all, contrary to popular belief, slaves were not brought to America. People were. This distinction allows us to remember the long and deep history of African people prior to their arrival on American shores in 1619. Black History Month creates a space to recognize the contributions of ancient Egypt, which created everything from glass to geometry to civilized government; or the Dogon tribe of Mali, which possessed advanced astronomical knowledge centuries before the invention of Europe or the telescope.
