A catalyst for uplifting all black people

Every February Black History Month comes along and some people take the time to learn more about the history of the people of African descent. However, there are a growing number of people who see no need for Black History Month. Many blacks themselves even say that they don't want to celebrate Black History Month because it's in February and that's the shortest month of the year. However, they should not be so quick to believe the negative hype.

Black History originated in 1926 as "Negro History Week" because it was supposed to fall between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, who is considered the father of African studies, created the holiday.

Black History Month can be used as a catalyst for uplifting all black people. It is important to look at the history of black people before the Atlantic slave trade. The history of the great peoples of Egypt (Upper, Lower Nubia), Cush (Ancient Ethiopia), Timbuktu, the Babylonians, and the Phoenicians is a history of many remarkable cultures. According to the book "Young, Gifted and Black," few educators know that before Europeans penetrated the continent, Ancient Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia were major centers of education.

There is also a great history of African Americans that has not always been realized. Many people rightly acknowledge the greatness of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X, but rarely seem to delve deeper into the history of the many great people before them and after them. Even before the fiery street preacher and activist Malcolm X proclaimed that Jesus was black, there was Henry McNeil Turner. Bishop Henry McNeil Turner said, "we have as much right biblically and otherwise to believe that God is a Negro, as you buckra or white people have to believe that God is a fine looking, symmetrical and ornamented white man."

I may be so bold as to say that a National History Month for all cultures is not such a bad idea. Yet, I believe Dr. Woodson may be rolling over in his grave because today it seems that the greatest gain from Black history has been a myth.

Negro History Week and now Black History Month should be used to educate Americans of the greatness of black people.