What's up with Black History?

Growing up, I’ve noticed more and more people become disinterested in black history. It’s mind-boggling for me actually because it is American History. In elementary school, all of the grades went to an assembly during school, that the school put together. When I arrived in middle school, they just put up aluminated posters in the hall with no assembly. In high school, they move the “assembly” right after school. This is BS, because 90% of the school were involved in clubs and sports right after school. So of course it didn’t occur to the people in charge that there would be conflict with other things going on. Which means they just didn’t care enough to make it important. With all of this said, I had a horrible upbringing in the public school who barely acknowledged Black History, let alone the type of narrowed information they taught us. If I asked a fellow Westminster student, “If you could think of someone for Black History Month, who would it be?” I bet you $1,000 that they would say, “Martin Luther King”, “Rosa Parks”, or “Malcolm X.” I might be surprised if they added “Barack Obama” to the list. But honestly where I’m getting at, is that we aren’t even taught a great variety of Black History these days in school. They think that if they teach the key figures within history we should be cool, but that isn’t cool at all. (Because this is a literary journal, Duh!) I think we should take some time to appreciate some wonderful writers within Black History. We have to understand how we got here, we have to understand where we came from. People like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde all have paved a way for us to be liberal and speak our voices in the most truest form know to man.

Langston Hughes helped with the Harlem Renaissance. (The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of African-American arts in the 1920’s in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City.) He became an early innovator of the literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes addressed people using language, themes, attitudes and ideas. His works are Mother to Son, I too, Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994) and much more. Zora Neale Hurston also helped with the Harlem Renaissance. She was a preeminent Black female writer in the 1930’s and helped with the publication FIRE! that created great controversy. Her work is Mules and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God and more. James Baldwin lived abroad because of the injustice he faced in America for being a black open gay man during his time. He wrote Go Tell it on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and much more that dealt with insights on race, spirituality, and humanity. Maya Angelou was poet, author, and activist born in St. Louis. Her work connected to all people especially women of color. Her works are I Know Why Caged Birds Sing, And Still I Rise, and much more. Alice Walker who is famously known for writing The Color Purple and now award-winning movie She is an activist, writer and creator of the term “Womanist.” She sought for change in the world. Audre Lorde who is a writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist. She confronted and addressed I justices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. All of these writers were just more than plain writers, they chose to use their platform to express how they felt about the injustices towards other people of color. This list doesn’t just complete it, there are much more writers who helped us get to where we are now. Along with Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X, there should be other black history figures that should be taught. Our work hasn’t just influenced other black people but non-colored people as well because again, as I repeat this is American history and it should be taught regularly in class and not just in Black History Month.