America is a great nation, it is hard to argue against that. This country, in its short history, has done much to make its mark on the world and within the annals of history. However, even as the framers wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, social inequities continued to exist. Former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice once stated that slavery was America’s “Birth Defect.”
It is hard for most Americans to realize that two distinct U. S. histories have developed simultaneously.
There is the history taught in most elementary schools. A few lines in a book that state, in essence, that blacks were enslaved in America, then set free by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. However, this account often lacks key contributions from America’s unheard historians.
This is a partial reason why Black History Month is so significant to the overall historical record of American history.
Most of America’s citizens have no idea that Washington D.C. was actually built by members of the then enslaved society. America’s greatness will only survive once all members of this nation are given full recognition for their contributions.
Inventions such as the washing machine and dryer, cotton gin, thumbtacks, traffic lights, and a host of other things were designed by the enslaved to make their heavy workload easier. Because slaves couldn’t own anything, the slave master possessed the rights and patents to many inventions. These facts have been corrected in most historical records but certainly not all.
Africans that arrived in this country in the holds of slave ships also brought with them their own religious beliefs. Most of those caught and sold into slavery came from the West Coast of Africa. Those from the Sokoto region that covers what is now Ghana and southern Nigeria, were Muslims. Among these Muslims were doctors as well as scholars of literature, mathematics, and science. Some studied in the great University of Timbuktu. [This has been documented by several black historians, J. A. Rogers, Anthony Browder, Chancellor Williams, among them.]
There were also African Nestorian Christians caught and enslaved as well. With this in mind, it can inspire a new conversation within the religious community about people of all faiths and the history of slavery in America.
It’s important that we as Americans know and understand the full breadth of our history, not just segments of our history. While it’s fine for us as a nation to disagree about our interpretations of historical events, what we can’t have is separate sets of facts that we are interpreting.
In Texas, which incidentally was the last state to tell its slave population about the Emancipation Proclamation, (They heard about it June 19, 1865, hence the Juneteenth holiday.) the state Education Board has actually changed accounts in history books. According to the television news program, “60 Minutes,” Texas has rewritten history to say that the members of the Confederate Army actually wanted to free the slaves in the south, and that the Klu Klux Klan is a Christian organization that fights for equality.
Such examples emphasize the importance of having Black History Month. We have to support what we do have or else the history will be lost.
We are Americans. We can overcome any obstacle as long as we work as one.
