Thank God February is the shortest month of the year. I don’t think I could tolerate many more days of the way in which we currently celebrate Black History Month. Certainly I believe the obscure and underappreciated achievement of Black Americans deserves its spot on center stage; we are as much a part of this country’s glorious and tragic past as any other group, religious, ethnic, or otherwise. It is the impotence and irrelevancy of the activities that surround Black History Month that reduce the event to nothing more than a knee-jerk exercise. At Raymond Walters College, the faculty responsible for the coordination and planning of events that surround the observance of Blacks in the American past need to transform and restructure these affairs to make them more relevant to or emblematic of the entire student body in order to have a lasting impact and increase advocacy. Events constructed to solicit interaction and interest must be appropriate and pertain to the identity and circumstances of the students. Bussing in thirty grade school children and perform for them a two-person play depicting Harriet Tubman in spiritual conversation with God is hardly relevant to RWC students. The same could be said for participating in a national Read-In activity. The idea behind the Read -In is to promote literacy. Passages and poems by Black authors were read by Black students for about an hour during lunch time. I fail to see the productiveness of such an activity. Promoting literacy on our college campus is “preaching to the choir.” It is pretty safe to assume that the literacy rate at RWC is well above what is common in other areas of our society. So to ask students to engage with you as you promote literacy to the literate is fruitless and again, irrelevant.
Around campus, while observing the scarce few who actually stop to take notice of the posted displays, I identify more with the hurried masses of students who have more immediately important items on their agendas. After continually noting the same individuals and the same accomplishments in the same way since grade school, anyone would be justified in feeling a little numbness toward even the greatest of achievements. Ever since I can remember, Black History Month has been about Dr. King, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois and a handful of other amazing individuals, without whom my life would most certainly be void of many of the personal freedoms and opportunities that I often take for granted. Year after year for roughly 28 days, it is the same displays ignored, the same parts of the same speech tuned out, as I have seen and heard them many times before.
I understand the dire conditions realized by people like Dr. Cater Wilson, which led him in 1926 to envision National Negro Week, which became Black History Month. Due to our lack of visibility from a historical perspective, we need to point out and honor those of us who, despite incredible odds, were still able to make an astounding impact on society, write great literature, display bravery, exhibit blind patriotism, invent useful commodities and so on. The accounts of these individuals should not be confined only to the study of Black Achievement. On a larger scale they advanced the American condition and characterize in every way the publicized American spirit. Therefore, they belong in the daily studies of their respective vocation. For example, when textbooks in grade schools are discussing American inventors, how can you overlook Granville Woods, from Columbus, Ohio? He was referred to during his time as “The Black Edison.” To marginalize Mr. Wood’s contributions to his field as being relevant only during the month of February is an injustice hardly better than no recognition at all. Pressuring the managers and producers of grade school curriculum to include them in their lessons, I realize, may be outside of the duties of RWC faculty, but little snippets of info posted around campus do little to overcome what is lacking. A simple picture of Granville Woods and a short narrative of his achievements is an insult.
Instead of entertaining 3rd graders, reading to the literate and propping up another ignored display, why not recognize students at RWC (regardless of race) who demonstrate the admired qualities of the people we want to draw attention to. No longer could Maya Angelou be ignored by a student whose assignment in creative writing gained him or her the RWC Maya Angelou Literary Award. The name Percy L. Julian would mean something to the Chemistry student who was recognized by winning the award with this great scientist’s name on it. In this way, the history of Blacks Americans is now immediately relevant to students at RWC and will definitely have an impact on not just the award winners, but also their friends and family.
Clamoring for time and space and insisting upon resources, only to routinely adhere to the same stale celebration template, demonstrates lethargy. Taking seriously our solo in the limelight, it is not enough for you to display photos as means of gaining recognition; you must demonstrate that you can be effective in producing the desired outcomes of recognition, education, impact, and change. This will send a message alluding to the importance of this portion of American History and the vitality of Black America today.